Illinois Featured Content

Illinois fell to Washington, 42-25, on Saturday afternoon at Husky Stadium. They return home next Saturday to take on Rutgers. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. on NBC. Ticktes are sold out. 

Worth Magazine (Oct. 24) — Agriculture faces one of the planet’s most urgent climate challenges. At the U. of I., researchers are engineering crops that could boost yields by 50% over the next two decades.

A new study funded by the National Institutes of Health will collect the direct perspectives of young adults with Down syndrome and develop community resources to support their social, mental and physical well-being. 

The foundation cites Professor Benjamin Snyder’s work 'developing new methods to define and precisely control catalyst structure, and therefore function, at the atomic scale.' He will receive $875,000 over five years to pursue his research. 

"The look on their faces when I asked that really stuck with me. ‘How can you even be asking about leisure when everything else is going on, when my family lives on the front lines, when I’m separated from my children?’” 

'What better time to be talking about the successes that are actually taking place in classrooms than right now? This is a great case of what promise we hold as educators.' 

Style Rave (Baldwin, N.Y., Oct. 20) Most people don’t need protein powders to meet daily protein goals. Professor Nicholas Burd says Americans are often 'over-proteined,' consuming far beyond what’s necessary for maintaining muscle and health. 

'These living laboratories will help us investigate how floating wetlands may affect nutrient levels and sediment dynamics in lake systems nationwide.'

Professor Benedek Kurdi speaks about the problems associated with efforts to 'train' the bias out of people and offers practical guidelines for those hoping to establish a more inclusive, welcoming atmosphere in their organizations.

Following its first off week of the season, #23 Illinois is back on the road to face Washington. The Fighting Illini and Huskies are scheduled to kick at 2:30 p.m. CT on Big Ten Network. 

Scientists are looking for more effective ways to remove PFAS from our water. For instance, a team at Illinois found a way to extract the full spectrum of PFAS from water in a single process.
 

The Chicago Sukkah Design Festival is an architectural design festival in Chicago that brings together architects and community organizations to create gathering spaces to connect residents. 

Mortality from COVID-19 from 2020 to 2023 boosted the U.S. Social Security fund by about $156 billion. But Black, Hispanic families received fewer survivors' benefits despite greater losses of young parents, highlighting underlying inequities.

Illini Volleyball closed its four-match road swing with a sweep against Northwestern at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Sunday afternoon. Illinois extended its winning streak to five matches (7-1 in conference play, 12-5 overall).

Bloomberg Law (Oct. 14) 'The dilemma that U.S. Attorney Boutros has is, where does his loyalty lie?' says U. of I. law professor Anthony Ghiotto, 'I would anticipate he’s going to try to placate the administration as much as he can without crossing the line.'

The 'patchy nanoparticles' can be made in large batches, used for a variety of electronic, optical or biomedical applications, or used as building blocks for new complex materials and metamaterials. 

Farms.com (Oct. 14) Another multi-billion dollar bailout won’t do anything to help farmers renew international markets, says Illinois ag economist Jonathan Coppess. 'It’s not going to fix the lost market problems that we’re talking about.' 

Currently on a three-match winning streak, Illinois closes its road trip with contests at Ohio State and Northwestern. The Fighting Illini will battle the Buckeyes on Friday at 5 p.m., then the Wildcats in an in-state battle on Sunday at 2 p.m.  

ABC News (Oct. 10) The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act guarantees back pay for employees furloughed or required to work without pay during a shutdown. 'That law clearly applies to this situation,' says labor expert Michael LeRoy.

'This experiment is meant to help us understand how stress affects the body and mind, and to develop devices that will aid in diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of mental health symptoms, such as anxiety.'

Yaghi is one of 12 alumni and 14 faculty at the U. of I. to receive a Nobel Prize. Illinois chemistry professor Walter G. Klemperer was his Ph.D. advisor, and Yaghi won the best thesis award from the university in 1990. 

'In essence, instead of relying solely on neural signals, our system blends inferring human intent with environmental context and decoded neural signals to complete the action with the human, known as shared autonomy,' student Sangjoon Lee said. 

Professor of microbiology Brenda Wilson discusses what causes antimicrobial resistance, NDM-CRE and what steps can be taken to try to slow the spread of antimicrobial resistance. 

Illinois will open the 2025-26 season at No. 17 in the Associated Press Top 25 - one of six ranked Big Ten teams, joining No. 1 Purdue, No. 7 Michigan, No. 12 UCLA, No. 22 Michigan State, and No. 24 Wisconsin. 

BBC (Oct. 9)  'A three-day weekend in nature has a huge impact on our virus fighting apparatus and even a month later it can be 24% above baseline,'  says U. of I. environmental sciences professor Ming Kuo.

Tariffs could stimulate increased domestic beer production, but gains in domestic market share would most likely be concentrated among multinational firms rather than independently owned craft breweries, said Professor Aaron Staples.

A new study from U. of I.'s Gies College of Business reveals that when companies divest polluting assets, the pollution doesn’t go away—it just gets transferred to less-scrutinized buyers, creating the illusion of environmental progress. 

Illinois Chat, U. of I.'s award-winning artificial intelligence software tool, has launched for the Fall 2025 semester and is available for anyone on campus, offering large language model abilities to the entire campus community. 

Illinois closed its time on the East Coast with a road sweep over Rutgers on Saturday night at Jersey Mike's Arena. The Fighting Illini are now 5-1 in conference play, their best start since 2011. 

The dance department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is celebrating the work of its Black faculty members and guest artists this season through the theme “Black on Black: A Celebration of Black Dance.”

Reuters (Oct. 9) Air traffic control staffing issues emerged sooner in this shutdown than the last major one. If it continues, travelers will see "erosion of service," says Illinois computer science professor Sheldon Jacobson, who helped design TSA Pre-Check.

The New York Times (Oct. 8) Illinois alumnus Omar Yaghi is one of the three scientists who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Reuters (Oct. 6) Direct payments to farmers are statutorily capped at $350 million, a fraction of the sum being discussed. Another funding source that could be used, but it hasn't been refilled because of the shutdown, says Prof. Jonathan Coppess.

Although TSA officers and air traffic controllers are considered essential workers, strain on staff could result in long security lines and flight delays or cancellations, says U. of I. aviation security expert Sheldon H. Jacobson. 

A Carle Illinois College of Medicine student who is creating a tool to make difficult births safer for mothers and babies has earned the title of 2025 Illinois Young Innovator of the Year. 

Illinois welcomes the top-ranked team in the nation, Ohio State, to sold out Gies Memorial Stadium on Saturday for the annual 'Hail to the Orange Out.' The Fighting Illini and Buckeyes are scheduled to kick at 11 a.m. on FOX.  

Going 5-for-5 on field goals and 4-for-4 on extra points in Illinois' 47-23 road win at Purdue, Olano tied the school record for field goals made in a game, while hitting the most field goals in a single game by a Big Ten player this season. 

Psychology Today (Oct. 1) U. of I. professor Rachel Hoopsick and a colleague from the University of Mississippi conducted a study that found that nitrous oxide–related deaths in the U.S. rose nearly 600% between 2010-2023.

Illinois used a 27-point second quarter to race past Purdue. Illini quarterback Luke Altmyer threw for 217 yards and one touchdown in the second quarter on his way to a career-best 390 yards passing on the game.  

'So many people in prison hear what’s going on in their neighborhoods back home and wish they could be a source for peaceful resolutions, reconciliation and neighborhood upliftment. This program seeks to provide them with those skills.'

The Illini, playing their second consecutive top-10 opponent on the road, moved to 2-1 in conference play and 7-5 on the season. 

Science News Explores (Oct. 1) Yeast can turn ingredients from urine into hydroxyapatite, which may help make sturdy building materials. 'We’re taking a waste product and turning it into something high value,' says Professor Jeremy Guest.

The Morrow Plots Revitalization project honors the sesquicentennial of the nation’s oldest agricultural research field. A new landscape design will replace the overgrown shrubs that had surrounded and obscured views of the plots. 

World War II became a global war in 1942, with all the world powers involved, and with conflicts on the home front over struggles for independence and racial justice. U. of I. history professor Peter Fritzsche writes about the year of 'war without end.' 

L.A. Times (Sept. 30) 'Wokeness' began as African American slang for having awareness around racism, injustice, privilege, etc. U. of I.'s Gerald McWorter says it was about having a voice after centuries of Black suffering going back to the slave trade.

Illinois junior Kenna Phelan was named the Big Ten Setter of the Week after leading the Fighting Illini to a 2-0 week with wins against [RV] Oregon and at Purdue. 

Marketplace (Sept. 29) Professor Julia Fonseca says roughly 80% of borrowers are in the same boat she is: If they bought the same house today, they’d pay way more. 'These higher rates have really meaningfully deterred borrowers from moving.'

A new study has found that online misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theory groups and their former partners’ rabbit-holing behaviors caused insurmountable rifts in their relationships, ultimately causing divorces or breakups.