2008-05-01
- Yes, the University of Illinois does get you places—sometimes at speeds exceeding 160 mph. Thanks to a sponsorship by Beverage Plus Inc., the University saw its name prominently displayed on a Dodge driven by D.J. Kennington during the recent Diamond Hill Plywood 200 NASCAR race in South Carolina. Beverage Plus Inc. is headed by Ron Serota, an LAS alumnus who received his bachelor's degree in...
2008-05-01 - In the human body, nerve cells communicate with other cells at blazing speeds using a sophisticated system that is still not fully understood. However, LAS researchers have shed new light on how the flow of information is regulated between these neurons and skeletal muscle cells.Information is carried in the form of charged particles, or ions, which flow from the neuron through the membrane of...
2008-05-01 - Anyone who's ever wasted time looking for something, only to later find it in plain view—think of how many times your eyes passed over Waldo before you actually saw him—might be interested in the work of Alejandro Lleras. The assistant professor in psychology is studying how past experience affects what people pay attention to, and what they disregard...
2008-05-01 - Though Cristie Labus sometimes needs a moment to explain what she wants to do with her life, it's a mistake to call her indecisive. Unlike many college students, she picked her career even before enrolling at the University of Illinois.Her choice, however, defies easy summation. The graduating senior from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences laughs as she describes the looks she gets when she...
2008-05-01 - When Sara Gibbs was deciding which university to attend for her undergraduate degree, she compared community service opportunities at the University of Illinois against those offered by another leading candidate, Washington University. The winner? Illinois, by far.Now that she's graduating from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Gibbs can say she's made the most of the myriad volunteer...
2008-05-01 - Health-insurance costs could ultimately balloon if President Bush signs a bill forbidding insurers from using genetic tests that gauge disease risks when setting premiums or deciding eligibility for coverage, a University of Illinois insurance expert says. Hailed by advocates as the first major civil rights bill of the 21st century, the effort to bar health-related discrimination could also...
2008-05-01 - Many scientists have theorized that there is a second, deeper core buried within Earth's solid inner core. But now, for the first time, LAS scientists have confirmed it, creating a three-dimensional model that shows the Earth's "inner inner core.""For many years, we have been like blind men touching different parts of the elephant," says U of I geologist...
2008-05-01 - Two undergraduate students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences have won prestigious Barry M. Goldwater scholarships for their senior year. Trent Michael Graham, a junior majoring in LAS physics, and Tim Kevin O'Connor, a junior in ecology, evolution, and conservation biology, were chosen from a pool of applicants across the nation to receive the...
2008-05-01 - If you've got a problem at work, a good option is to talk it out. Or, to take it a few steps further, there's Rachael Levine's approach: An anthropological study.Levine is a people-watcher, which is one reason she joined the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to major in anthropology and psychology. But she's also an active observer, and after seeing some discontent faces at a previous...
2008-05-01 - The son of an ambitious business executive, Justin Doran spent his childhood on the move. He bounced around places such as southeast Asia and California, never living more than three years in one spot until he enrolled at the University of Illinois. Doran was still unsettled, however, as he realized that his major, computer science, was a wrong choice for him. Looking for more interaction in his...
2008-05-01 - College graduates typically wait about six weeks after commencement before receiving their bachelor degree certificate. The delay seemed endless to one Chicago-area doctor, however, who waited almost half a century.This month, Thomas Victor will at last be an official alumnus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, closing a chapter that began when he left the University of Illinois's former...
2008-05-01 - What's in a name? Members of the Department of Speech Communication would know, as their long quest to change their title has ended with a new, more appropriate identifier: Department of Communication.The old name, assumed in 1973, became outdated as the field grew to the broader study of messages—many of them nonverbal—and how they're produced, disseminated, and received in a variety of settings...
2008-04-01 - The road to discovering new pharmaceuticals and other vital biotechnological products just got a little smoother. LAS scientists have found a way to prevent the pH of laboratory samples from changing as the samples are cooled—a long-standing problem that has been known to throw off test results.Even tiny changes in the pH—the acidity or alkalinity—of a lab sample can influence its properties,...
2008-04-01 - Here's a pop quiz: Name one link between sedimentary rock, oil exploration, and potential indicators of extraterrestrial life. You guessed it—microbes.If that one slipped past you, don't worry. It eluded scientists for years until researchers from the University of Illinois determined that microbes increase the growth rate of calcium carbonate, a widely used, ever-forming chemical compound that...
2008-04-01 - Perhaps the most curious thing about Charles Biro's jump from studying religion to practicing commercial law is that people find the conversion surprising. Consider the fact that until recently, another College of Liberal Arts and Sciences graduate worked just a couple doors down from him at the same law firm. His major? Religious studies. Nonetheless, it's true that Biro's decision to enter law...
2008-04-01 - The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences gratefully acknowledges the following individuals for their excellence in teaching and advising in 2008. Their contributions are vital to maintaining LAS as a great college.Academic Advising Award Carl Niekerk, Professor, Germanic Languages and Literatures Gary Spezia, Academic Advisor, School of Integrative Biology Award for Excellence in Undergraduate...
2008-04-01 - When the poet T.S. Eliot wrote that "April is the cruelest month," he was referring to the weather. But for those with a love for language, the last gasp of winter is becoming a time to celebrate one of literature's liveliest forms—poetry. April is National Poetry Month, and in the College of LAS, that means a time for recognizing an art that has inspired revolutions and warmed the soul. U of I...
2008-04-01 - The time has come for university rankings, cheers, and controversy—and college football is still months away. U.S. News & World Report, however, has released its latest list of best graduate schools. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences fares well. Among graduate programs with new rankings this year (the magazine does not update all program rankings every year), the Department...
2008-04-01 - After 30-plus years of teaching, committees, and tenure reviews, professors have earned the break offered by retirement. It's just that a growing number of them don't want to stop. On a typical weekday, for example, you'll find 76-year-old Tom Phillips in heavy gloves and a lab apron, still examining some of the roughly 50,000 chunks of coal that he's collected during his career. He's a time...
2008-04-01 - When it comes to protecting teenagers from dangers on the Internet, there's such thing as being too vigilant, according to a researcher at the University of Illinois. Brendesha Tynes, an assistant professor of educational psychology and African American studies, acknowledges the risk of online predators, cyber bullies, hate groups, and other harmful...
2008-03-01 - It's possible that the famed Mayan temples didn't always get the royal treatment. In other words, kings may not have been the only ones who built or sponsored the temples, says an LAS anthropologist, overturning long-standing assumptions about the distinctive, stepped pyramids of Latin America.Based on grueling work in the jungles of central Belize, any number of groups—nobles, priests, and even...
2008-03-01 - Who says you need oceans to be one of the most internationally influential academic institutions in the nation? Not NAFSA: Association of International Educators, which recently named the University of Illinois one of the best at enacting policies and practices that prepare students for an increasingly interconnected world.The U of I has emphasized international studies for years—for decades, in...
2008-03-01 - God may not be a Democrat or a Republican, but he's still highly visible on this year's campaign trail. References to God and faith have been widespread among all of the candidates in both parties—a trend that took off with Ronald Reagan and continues to grow, says Kevin Coe, an LAS doctoral student in speech communication and co-author of ...
2008-03-01 - Sometimes it takes a little 18th-century inspiration to carry a Fortune 500 company into the 21st century. Taking his cue from the revolutionary spirit of 1776, Steven Miller helped to foster an entrepreneurial revolution in one of the oldest and largest companies in America. Miller, a retired CEO of the Shell Oil Company and a 1967 chemical engineering graduate in LAS, has a deep fascination...
2008-03-01 - Catherine Kenney doesn't claim to have the answers to the age-old question of how couples should manage and control their money. But this sociologist's research into how various systems of money management affect family life shows that the outcomes can be serious.Kenney's research is somewhat novel, since data has been scarce. While a graduate student at...