LAS News Archive

2007-02-01 - The Art Institute of Chicago and a University of Illinois historian have teamed up to create an unusual exhibition focusing on the idea of "otherness."The exhibition, titled "Foreign Faces in Japanese Prints," is guest-curated by Ronald Toby, a historian...

2007-02-01 - Fifty years after graduating from U of I, and 50 years since marrying his wife, Carole, who also attended U of I, Richard Cline will receive a Chicago Illini of the Year Award. Cline graduated with highest honors from Illinois, majoring in political science in LAS and minoring in history and...

2007-02-01 - A young professor of Germanic languages and literatures in LAS, who grew up reading Strindberg in her native Sweden, has taken on the alternately venerated and vilified Swedish playwright (1849-1912) as her intellectual challenge.In fact, Anna Stenport...

2007-01-01 - In the past, the typical hangout spots for kids were playgrounds and street corners. But today, they're just as likely to be hanging out at castles or on battlegrounds. In this case, the castles and battlegrounds are virtual environments in what are known as "massively multiplayer" online video...

2007-01-01 - Chemists John Hartwig and Wilfred van der Donk have been named as the recipients of the 2007 Tetrahedron Young Investigator Awards. Hartwig won the award in Organic Synthesis and Wilfred in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry-only two young investigator awards, and both to Illinois!This...

2007-01-01 - Put food in front of men and women who are insecure about their body image, and how do they respond? The women eat less, while the men eat more, says lead researcher Kristen Harrison, a speech communication professor in LAS. For this experiment,...

2007-01-01 - If you can fight fire with fire, it should come as no surprise that you can also fight bacteria with bacteria. University of Illinois researchers in the College of LAS recently used a unique cloning method to successfully synthesize a promising natural antibiotic within a bacteria host. This means...

2007-01-01 - Six students in LAS are wearing white gloves in class this semester. They're learning to handle issues of age and fragility with aplomb and to make excellent first impressions. No, this isn't a course in business etiquette, but rather, ...

2006-12-01 -   Talbot Honored for Québec Studies Emile Talbot, an emeritus professor of French in the University of Illinois College of LAS, was recently honored with the prestigious Prix du Quebec, awarded jointly by the American Council for Québec Studies and Québec's Ministére des Relations...

2006-12-01 - Two internationally known professors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences were recently named University Scholars, which recognizes excellence in teaching and research. Feng Sheng Hu in plant biology and Nikolaos Sahinidis in chemical and bimolecular engineering will both receive $10,000 to...

2006-11-01 - A young poet and professor of poetry at the University of Illinois has won a prestigious literary award.Tyehimba Jess was one of 10 U.S. writers to win the 2006 Whiting Writers' Award. The award, given annually to "emerging writers of exceptional talent and promise," includes a cash prize of $40,...

2006-11-01 - What is the only U.S. state that legally allows its residents to cast absentee ballots from outer space?If you had been at the sixth annual Globe-O-Mania, sponsored by the geography department in LAS, you would have discovered that the right answer to this question was Texas, home of the U.S. space...

2006-11-01 - Seven faculty members of U. or I.'s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences have been awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science: Stewart H. Berlocher, Sydney A. Cameron, Akira Chiba, James M. Lisy, Todd J. Martinez, Mark E. Nelson, and Olga...

2006-11-01 - Researchers in LAS have developed a simple "dipstick" test for detecting cocaine and other drugs in saliva, urine, or blood serum. The test is based upon DNA-gold nanoparticle technology, and can be packaged in user-friendly kits similar to those used for home pregnancy tests. "Building upon our...

2006-11-01 - A novelist and writer-in-residence in LAS has won the 2006 National Book Award for fiction.Richard Powers, the author of eight previous novels and a MacArthur Fellowship recipient, has won the literary award for his new novel, The Echo Maker. The award was announced November 15 in New York...

2006-11-01 - A history professor in LAS will receive Morocco's oldest and most prestigious decoration.John A. Lynn, who specializes in French and military history, will receive the Moroccan Order, the Ouissam Al Alaoui, the highest order granted by the Moroccan...

2006-11-01 - Wall Street reacted to the 2006 mid-term election with a collective yawn because the outcome-governmental gridlock-was fairly predictable, says William Bernhard, a University of Illinois political science professor in LAS. The election itself was anything but predictable, with the Senate switching...

2006-10-01 - Two scientists in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences recently were commended by national organizations for their research in their respective fields.Donald R. Ort, professor of plant biology, was honored with the Charles F....

2006-10-01 - Four LAS faculty members from the Department of Chemistry recently received prestigious awards for their research. John A. Katzenellenbogen, Swanlund Professor of Chemistry, won the 2007 American...

2006-10-01 - Two scientists in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences recently were commended by national organizations for their research in their respective fields.Donald R. Ort, professor of plant biology, was honored with the Charles F....

2006-10-01 - With a name like "Houston," it almost seems like destiny that Dennis Houston (BS, '74, chemical engineering) would wind up in the oil business. However, a more likely reason for Houston's career choice was growing up in the shadow of three oil refineries in Wood River, Ill. It also didn't hurt...

2006-10-01 - With nearly 50 patents to his name and almost 50 years in the pharmaceutical industry, it might appear that William Wechter's (BS, '53; MS, '54, chemistry) major accomplishments are behind him. Not so. Wechter and a close-knit group of fellow scientists have quite literally made an encore...

2006-10-01 - When William Clark (PhD, '64, geography) arrived in Florida in 1961, en route to the University of Illinois, he struck up a conversation with an African American woman at the train station. Clark, a New Zealand native, asked the woman to join him in a restaurant, but she politely declined. She...

2006-10-01 - James Benson (BA, '68, finance) will never forget the young man with cerebral palsy who completed the final link in an around-the-world bike ride—a daunting stretch from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. This man, Kevin Deegen, pedaled his oversized tricycle 3,000 miles using only his right hand...

2006-09-01 - The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been named the recipient of a $5 million grant to establish and support a program to improve achievement in chemical sciences and computational literacy among students in rural Illinois high schools.The National Science Foundation grant will be...