News Bureau

Betty Jo Brown ... Richard A. Collier ... Elaine Burris “Granny” Cornwell ... Leland “Lee” E. Eversole ... Richard A. Garves ... Mary Margaret Graham ... George E. Gravely ... Beverly Ann Greger ... Cheryl O. Hedrick ... George “Bullet” Russell ... Ronald Eugene Schaede ... Russell E. Winterbottom

The online master’s degree in strategic brand communication, a unique joint program between the College of Business and College of Media, aims to prepare the strategic leaders of tomorrow in an ever-changing global digital-media environment.

The statewide average temperature for December was 28.6, 1.3 degrees below normal, according to Jim Angel, Illinois state climatologist at the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois. 

Nathan Stephens will become the director of the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center effective Jan. 9. The center is named for Bruce D. Nesbitt, who led the U. of I.'s Afro-American Cultural Program for 22 years.

Ned Goldwasser ... James Edward Huffman ... Robert “Bob” Mooney ... Daniel Ivan Padberg

Feng Sheng Hu, the associate dean for biological, chemical, physical and mathematical sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will become the LAS dean Jan. 1 pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

The role of White House photography changed significantly under President Obama, with the pictures no longer just for history.

The Animals and Society Institute and Illinois seek applications for the first Human-Animal Studies Summer Institute program for advanced graduate students and early career scholars pursuing research in human-animal studies.

The University of Illinois’ Allerton Park will be holding illuminated Winter Wellness Walks Tuesdays-Saturdays from 5-8 p.m. until Jan. 16. The free walk runs from the mansion parking lot through the Avenue of the Formal Gardens and the Brick Wall Garden to the Visitor Center.

In its first year of commercial operation, the university’s solar farm generated 7,284 megawatt-hours of clean, renewable energy for the campus, successfully meeting expectations. Located at the southwest corner of Windsor Road and First Street, Champaign, the solar farm reduced the campus carbon footprint by more than 6,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Illinois professors Erik McDuffie and Carol Symes have been awarded National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships for 2017.

Howard D. Eskridge ... Kathryn "Katie" Matilda Gravlin

Children’s reggae artist Aaron Nigel Smith and his band will perform a free family concert at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 4 in the lobby of  Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana.

It remains uncertain that plans being floated to privatize Medicare by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan will have the support of President-elect Donald Trump, says Richard L. Kaplan, the Peer and Sarah Pedersen Professor of Law at Illinois.

Darrel F. “Bump” DeDecker ... Jean M. Due 

The Standing Rock protest has been a significant event in the 200-year history of American Indian activism, says recently retired Illinois professor Frederick Hoxie.

A Chicago-based architecture firm led by an Illinois alumna has been selected to design the rebuilt Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus.

The YWCA at Illinois is seeking nominations for the 31st annual Women’s Leadership Awards.

Prospective nominees are exceptional women who display leadership, initiative, creativity and dedication, and go the extra mile to get involved in programs and activities that benefit the communities in which they live and work. The awards recognize the achievements and contributions of exceptional individuals, organizations and businesses in the greater Champaign-Urbana community who work to advance the mission of the YWCA.

Dial-A-Carol is a student-run holiday program at Illinois. Each year, the students of Snyder Hall, a University Housing residence hall, host the event. Anyone from anywhere may call 217-332-1882 and request any holiday tune, which will be sung live by students over the telephone.

A new program for worldwide agricultural development kicked off Nov. 30 at Illinois. AgReach was welcomed by a West African drum performance and introduced by professor Alex Winter-Nelson, representing the agricultural and consumer economics department in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.

A worldwide smallholder farming initiative, AgReach closes gaps in agrisystems so that smallholder farmers thrive. Paul McNamara, an economist and a professor at Illinois, leads the initiative and the team of 18 professionals based at Illinois and in some of the poorest countries in the world, including Sierra Leone, Malawi and Bangladesh.

With more than 20 years of experience in agricultural economics and development, McNamara founded AgReach to continue building the $22 million development portfolio composed of projects that have improved the quality of farming in more than 50 countries.

“One thing notable about the AgReach program is the mix of disciplines and the breadth of experience among the team,” said Kim Kidwell, the College of ACES dean. “People are a key ingredient in any well-functioning and impactful extension program, and in a relatively short amount of time, the AgReach team has assembled a world-class group of development professionals and scholars to implement its program of capacity development and action-oriented research.”

Initiated by the Modernizing Agriculture and Extension Services in 2012, AgReach builds upon other programs including the Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services and the Malawi Strengthening Agriculture and Nutrition Extension Services Project, both housed at Illinois.

More information may be found online.

Sarah Lubienski, a professor of curriculum and instruction at Illinois, spoke recently about the possible future of public schools under the Trump administration.

For the third consecutive year, a U. of I. student has been named a Marshall Scholar. Devin Weiss, of Northbrook, Illinois, is a senior majoring in sociology. 

Paul Fischer, a professor of computer science and of mechanical science and engineering, and research colleague Misun Min at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory recently earned an R&D 100 Award, which recognizes top technologies of the year. Known as the “Oscars of Invention,” the awards are organized by R&D Magazine.
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A new documentary film, “Starving the Beast,” will be shown in a free screening Thursday, Dec. 1, at 7:30 p.m. at the Art Theater Co-op, 126 W. Church St., Champaign.

Harold Stever Bryan ... Daral Gene Carr ... Frank Crossman Hinds ... Randall Musselman ... Paul Newbold ... Robert M. Richey ... Joe Louis Smith

Illinois atmospheric scientist Atul Jain was among the many scientists worldwide who contributed data to the Global Carbon Budget 2016, providing new data on atmospheric carbon concentrations, emissions and trends.

The Urbana campus will host two sessions Nov. 29-30 to brief the campus community and the general public on the design update of the campus master plan.

Six University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign faculty members have been elected 2016 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science: Jianjun Cheng, Brian T. Cunningham, Kevin T. Pitts, Bruce L. Rhoads, Chad M. Rienstra and Josep Torrellas.

Eight University of Illinois researchers have been named to the Thomson Reuters / Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list for 2016. The list identifies scientists “whose research has had significant global impact within their respective fields of study."

Richard Gene "Dick" Horn ... Marianne Mosey ... Elizabeth Ann Wells ... Samuel H. Williams

Donald Trump may not get everything he wants from Congress, despite its Republican majorities, says Illinois political science professor Tracy Sulkin.

Illinois political scientist Brian Gaines, an expert on polling and public opinion, spoke about what might have happened and the challenges of getting it right.

This weekend, Illinois alumni, students and staff will gather to celebrate 20 years of the First Year Campus Acquaintance Rape Education (FYCARE) Program, a nationally renowned mandatory sexual assault prevention workshop for first-year students.

Krannert Art Museum is hosting a solo exhibition of artist Zina Saro-Wiwa’s work, primarily photography and video, showing images of the Niger Delta and its culture.

Paul Eugene Strader ... Samuel H. Williams

University of Illinois art professor Emmy Lingscheit created a pack of coyotes, made of vitreous china, during a Kohler Arts/Industry residency. The coyote sculptures are on display through Nov. 20 at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. One piece will be included in the School of Art and Design Faculty Exhibition at Krannert Art Museum, opening Nov. 17.

The Secretariat honored Marlah Bonner McDuffie, an associate dean for advancement at the College of Media at Illinois, with the 2016 Boss of the Year Award. The Secretariat is comprised of Illinois employees in certain civil service classifications.  

Bonner McDuffie was honored at the Oct. 19 awards luncheon and was nominated by Colleen Hammel.  Kathleen Harleman, the acting dean in the College of Fine and Applied Arts, was nominated by Rebecca Nash. 

More information about The Secretariat may be found online.

The Illinois Art Education Association has named Anne Sautman of the Krannert Art Museum at Illinois the 2016 Museum Art Educator of the Year.  The award annually recognizes exemplary contributions, service and achievements of one outstanding IAEA member.  The award was presented at the IAEA conference in Normal, Illinois, on Nov. 4.  

Dinah Faye Derby ... Roy Lloyd Nugent ... Klaus Schulten ... Dorothy I. Tipton

University of Illinois physics professor Klaus Schulten, an innovator in the use of computational methods to study the chemical and biological processes driving living cells, died Monday, Oct. 31, at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana. He was 69.

Money in U.S. politics will be the theme of a U. of I. symposium starting Friday, Nov. 11, with the director of the watchdog website OpenSecrets.org giving the keynote.

Medieval manuscripts will be displayed at Krannert Art Museum in an exhibition that will show how books were used and valued in the Middle Ages and since.

David Rosch, a professor of agriculture education and an expert on leadership, spoke recently about popular perceptions of good leadership and how those standards have changed.

Dipanjan Pan, a professor of bioengineering, has been named a Fellow of the American Heart Association in the organization’s Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences.

Passes for the 19th annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, or "Ebertfest," coming April 19-23, 2017, will go on sale Nov. 1. The passes cover all 12 or more screenings during the five-day event at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign.

Martin Camargo, a professor of English and associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Illinois, has been appointed the college’s interim dean.

Four galleries at Krannert Art Museum that hadn’t changed in more than 50 years have been renovated.

The Illini Union Office of Volunteer Programs will sponsor the annual Thanksgiving Basket Drive starting Tuesday, Nov. 1. The drive provides families with a basket of nonperishable items and a $25 gift card, which can prepare a Thanksgiving meal. The entire Illinois campus is invited to participate.

Norman “Mac” MacGregor ... Patricia “Nanny” Pelmore ... Robert C. Reinhart

In honor of the 96th anniversary of the dedication of the chimes played in the Altgeld Hall Tower, performers will replay the concert first performed in 1920, at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30. The date is also Sue Wood’s 45th anniversary as chimesmaster.

Two special Halloween concerts will be performed on Monday, Oct. 31: a Halloween concert preview at 4:50 p.m. and an extended concert at 8 p.m.