News Bureau

They traveled to central Illinois from Manitoba, Mexico City, Nova Scotia and 18 U.S. states, bringing expertise in a variety of fields, including anthropology, biomedical engineering, ethics, health and environmental policy, law, neurobiology, and social and behavioral science.

Participants in the 2019 Summer internship for INdigenous peoples in Genomics spent a week together in the classroom and the lab, learning not only how to amplify and sequence a fragment of their own DNA, but also discussing the implications of genomics research involving their ancestors and communities.

Recognizing a gap in care for law enforcement K-9s injured on the job, a team of veterinarians, emergency medical services experts and canine handlers has developed protocols for emergency medical service personnel who may be called upon to help treat and transport the injured dogs.

In new product design, connecting with an end user’s heart, rather than their head, can lead to more original and creative outcomes, says published research co-written by Ravi Mehta, a professor of business administration at Illinois and an expert in product development and marketing.

Family members and campus officials will discuss Yingying’s Fund, an endowment to honor Illinois scholar Yingying Zhang, at a rescheduled news conference Aug. 19 on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus.The fund will assist international students in crisis and their families.

Krannert Art Museum has acquired the work of pioneering gay photographer and University of Illinois alumnus Hal Fischer.

Engineers at the University of Illinois have found a way to redirect misfit light waves to reduce energy loss during optical data transmission. In a study, researchers exploited an interaction between light and sound waves to suppress the scattering of light from material defects – which could lead to improved fiber optic communication. Their findings are published in the journal Optica.

Researchers have found a way to use polymer printing to stretch and flatten twisted molecules so that they conduct electricity better. A team led by chemical and biomolecular engineers from the University of Illinois report their findings in the journal Science Advances.

Coaches and educators should work together to help athletes achieve their full potential, U. of I. scholars and former collegiate athletes Joseph L. Cross and Bruce W. Fouke say in a new study.

People who are the most optimistic tend to be better sleepers, University of Illinois social work professor Rosalba Hernandez found in a new study of 3,500 young and middle-aged adults.

Correction: At the request of the family’s attorney, the public announcement of Yingying’s Fund scheduled for 10 a.m. Aug. 7 on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus has been postponed. A new date and time have not been yet been determined. 

While watching the production of porous membranes used for DNA sorting and sequencing, University of Illinois researchers wondered how tiny steplike defects formed during fabrication could be used to improve molecule transport. They found that the defects – formed by overlapping layers of membrane – make a big difference in how molecules move along a membrane surface. Instead of trying to fix these flaws, the team set out to use them to help direct molecules into the membrane pores.

Researchers are using artificial intelligence to help airlines price ancillary services such as checked bags and seat reservations in a way that is beneficial to customers’ budget and privacy, as well as to the airline industry’s bottom line.

It’s about 65 degrees Fahrenheit in the herbarium, and the archival paper on which the plant specimen is mounted feels soft between my cold fingers. My hands are instantly warmed as I place the sheet in the light box. I check the computer monitor; everything looks good. I hit the spacebar.

Infants 17 months of age expect leaders – but not others – to intervene when one member of their group transgresses against another, a new study reveals. The findings add to growing evidence that children in their second year of life have a well-developed understanding of social hierarchies and power dynamics, the researchers say. 

A new study of racial and ethnic disparities in school discipline found that black middle school students were significantly less likely than their white peers to receive warnings from teachers about misbehavior.

Liliane Windsor, a professor of social work at the University of Illinois, has been named a Health Policy Fellow by the National Academy of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Dolores Jane Byers ... Martin Joseph Knanishu ... Warren C. McCarty ... Kurtis Isaiah Pealer ... Patricia Eileen Price ... Selma Katharine Richardson ... Grace Christine (McCormick) Prestin Samford ... Winton U. Solberg

Caregivers Journey of Hope can help social service workers to mitigate the stress and trauma they may experience while helping others recover from disasters, U. of I. researchers found in a new study.

Just as humans are usually left- or right-handed, other species sometimes prefer one appendage, or eye, over the other. A new study reveals that American robins that preferentially use one eye significantly more than the other when looking at their own clutch of eggs are also more likely to detect, and reject, a foreign egg placed in their nest by another bird species – or by a devious scientist.

The anemonefish is a gender-bending marvel. It starts out as a male, but can switch to female when circumstances allow – for example, when the only female present dies or disappears. In a new study, researchers found that the male-to-female sex-change occurs first in the fish’s brain and only later involves the gonads – sometimes after a delay of months or years.

University of Illinois electrical engineers have cleared another hurdle in high-power semiconductor fabrication by adding the field’s hottest material – beta-gallium oxide – to their arsenal. Beta-gallium oxide is readily available and promises to convert power faster and more efficiently than today’s leading semiconductor materials – gallium nitride and silicon, the researchers said.

It’s 2 a.m. on a cold winter night. My timer beeps loudly, waking me up for yet another measurement. It’s been a long day; I’ve been tracking bacterial growth every two hours for the past 18 hours. I stumble off the couch that has served as a bed for countless graduate students before me. I go to my lab bench, pick up the test tubes that I need for my samples, and groggily set off to the incubation room.

While the U.S. traditionally ranks low on worldwide corruption indices, domestic political corruption still imposes substantial costs on U.S. shareholders, according to new research co-written by Gies College of Business accounting professor Nerissa Brown.

When I get to the archaeological site, I’m surprised to see that it’s in the middle of an active cornfield. Dusty furrows with tiny sprigs of corn come to within about 10 feet of the dig. The researchers are already here, gently peeling back their tarps, assembling their gear and getting ready for another day.

The tarps cover the excavation of one of about two dozen dwellings that stood on this site roughly 800 years ago. A short distance away, another team works on a second house.

Responding to terrorists requires reasoning rather than outrage, said an Illinois historian who has written a new book on terrorism and its history.

Perinatal depression screenings may overlook a significant proportion of women who are having suicidal thoughts, according to a new study led by University of Illinois social work professor Karen M. Tabb.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is holding Illini Fest, its first-ever downtown Chicago festival. The event will include more than 40 displays and interactive experiences from colleges and units, including robots, photo booth, virtual reality experience and a solar telescope.

The pending Supreme Court case Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org will test the legality of a state copyrighting its own laws, which could pose a challenge to legal research, scholarship and public access to the law, said U. of I. copyright law expert Sara R. Benson.

Eunice Santos will become the dean of the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign effective Aug. 16, pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. Andreas C. Cangellaris, the vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost, recommended the appointment to Chancellor Robert Jones after the conclusion of a yearlong national search.

Phyllis Gordon ... Richard H. “Dick” Howard ... Paul Dale Shaw

In an era of rising inequality and aging populations in the U.S., the effect of the minimum wage on the labor market for older workers is increasingly important, says new research from Mark Borgschulte, a professor of economics at Illinois.

I am in Govindjee’s office suite and I don’t know where to look. Govindjee, a professor emeritus of plant biology who goes by the one name only, is a collector. There are layers of history here: artifacts and papers, books and photographs. There also are homemade scientific instruments that look like plumbing elbows, tiny satellites or props from vintage sci-fi movies.

Human waste might be an unpleasant public health burden, but scientists at the University of Illinois see sanitation as a valuable facet of global ecosystems and an overlooked source of nutrients, organic material and water.

Six researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were named recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. 

Above-average rainfall continued in June, along with an elevated risk of flooding in some areas of Illinois, according to Brian Kerschner, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Climatologist Office at the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois.

Illini Fest, a downtown festival planned for July 18 in Chicago’s Park Grill Plaza of Millennium Park, brings the university experience to the more than 150,000 Fighting Illini alumni living in Chicagoland.

University of Illinois professor emeritus of community health Thomas W. O’Rourke, an expert on health policy analysis, the possible impact of establishing a single-payer health care system in the U.S.

An Illinois professor who studies how Latinos deal with the census responds to the Supreme Court’s decision on the citizenship question.

The Supreme Court this week said it can’t provide the cure to partisan gerrymandering, so the focus will have to be on prevention, says an Illinois political science professor who hopes her research can play a part.

Roy O. Walker Jr.

More than 40 capital improvement construction projects are in progress this summer on the Urbana campus. Substantial completion is expected by the start of the fall semester for the Henry Dale and Betty Smith Football Center, Foellinger Auditorium and the Education Building, along with multiple restroom renovations, roof replacements, elevator upgrades, and classroom and laboratory modernizations.

Krannert Art Museum has amassed the largest museum collection of Dutch political prints outside of Europe.

Before designing the next generation of soft materials, researchers must first understand how they behave during rapidly changing deformation. In a new study, researchers challenged previous assumptions regarding polymer behavior with newly developed laboratory techniques that measure polymer flow at the molecular level.

A new study by researchers at the University of Illinois suggests that the phenolic compounds in cocoa bean shells reverse the chronic inflammation and insulin resistance associated with obesity in mouse cells.

Annie “Anne” Laura Eckerty ... Peter G. Martens

In a new study of more than 480,800 families, psychologists at the University of Illinois found that the more involved parents were in their children’s schooling, the better the children’s adjustment.

By legalizing and taxing recreational marijuana, the state of Illinois could fund additional pension payments while making investments in public education, construction projects, and drug treatment and prevention programs, says Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at the Urbana campus of the University of Illinois and the director of the Labor Education Program in Chicago.

Two U. of I. students are among 244 students nationwide awarded David L. Boren Scholarships to study language in world regions critical to U.S. interests.

The MakerBot on my desk is making sounds like waves on a beach. Back and forth, back and forth, it gradually builds up my design in layers. My work focuses on the cosmogony and mythology of Zapotecan motifs. I am especially captivated by the fretwork designs of the archaeological site of Mitla, Oaxaca in Mexico.

Dominant, non-native plants reduce wetland biodiversity and abundance more than native plants do, researchers report in the journal Ecology Letters. Even native plants that dominate wetland landscapes play better with others, the team found.