News Bureau

Eric Minor, a University of Illinois alumnus with more than two decades of experience in corporate brand marketing, will become the university’s first-ever chief marketing officer effective Jan. 31 pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

An Illinois professor looks at presidential speechmaking through one of its more-eloquent practitioners, John F. Kennedy.

World War II French Jewish spy Marthe Cohn will speak in Krannert Center’s Great Hall at 6 p.m. Feb. 13.

Land conservation programs that have converted tens of thousands of acres of agricultural land in Illinois back to a more natural state appear to have helped some rare birds increase their populations to historic levels, a new study finds. Other bird species with wider geographic ranges have not fared as well, however.

Growing muscle tissue on grooved platforms helps neurons more effectively integrate with the muscle, a requirement for engineering muscle in the lab that responds and functions like muscle in the body, University of Illinois researchers found in a new study.

With a population between 10,000 and 30,000 in its heyday (A.D. 1050-1200) and a sprawling assortment of homes, storage buildings, temples, cemeteries, mounds and other monuments in and around what is now St. Louis and East St. Louis, Illinois, the ancient Native American city known as Greater Cahokia was the first experiment in urban living in North America.

A new book, “Revealing Greater Cahokia, North America’s First Native City,” offers the most complete picture yet of a decade of archaeological research on a little-known part of the larger city and its precincts in East St. Louis.

The Chancellor’s Commission on Native Imagery: Healing and Reconciliation is seeking input from the community to help the campus move forward on the matter of the permanently retired symbol Chief Illiniwek.

In reversing an Obama-era decision that effectively allowed internet gambling, the Department of Justice has revitalized the Interstate Wire Act of 1961, an anti-gambling statute championed by then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to fight organized crime, said John W. Kindt, a professor emeritus of business administration at the University of Illinois and a leading national gambling critic.

The School of Chemical Sciences at Illinois is hosting a celebration of diversity in the fields of chemical sciences and chemical engineering with two public events Feb. 5.

The American Chemical Society will designate a national historic chemical landmark for St. Elmo Brady, the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States, earning it in 1916 at the University of Illinois.

Two Illinois professors tell the story of a secret Hollywood studio at the heart of the Cold War and the early nuclear age.

Waves of undulating cilia drive several processes essential to life. They clear debris and mucus from the respiratory tract, move spinal fluid through the brain and transport embryos from the ovaries to the uterus for implantation. According to a new study in mice, however, cilia perform somewhat differently in the male reproductive tract.

By gaining control over shape, size and composition during synthetic molecule assembly, researchers can begin to probe how these factors influence the function of soft materials. Finding these answers could help advance virology, drug delivery development and the creation of new materials. 

President Trump’s approach to undocumented immigrants and migratory laborers follows the example of past presidents who relied on racial animus to scapegoat foreigners during times of cultural change, says U. of I. labor professor Michael LeRoy.

Research by Michael LeRoy, a professor of labor and employment relations at Illinois, indicates that presidential powers over immigration have been significantly hamstrung by the courts, with plaintiffs winning all or part of 89 percent of the rulings in cases that consider immigration orders that affect employment relationships.

Danny L. Elam ... Randall Joseph Lutz ... Glenn Gregory Simpson ... Kent Thompson

In recognition of its innovation and leadership in climate action, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is the recipient of Second Nature’s Climate Leadership Award for four-year institutions.

Tap at Illinois will celebrate tap dancing with a semesterlong series of tap performances at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

A University of Illinois team of researchers led by chemistry professor M. Christina White has developed a new manganese-based catalyst that can change the structure of druglike molecules to make new drugs, advancing the pace and efficiency of drug development. 

The Illinois Fire Service Institute, part of the U. of I., will host a ceremony on Wednesday, Jan. 9 at 10 a.m. on the IFSI training grounds in Champaign. The event, held in cooperation with the Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal, will officially release four mobile trailers containing equipment essential for firefighting skills training.

Edward E. Durbin ... Doris Patricia “Pat” Foster ... Judy Kurlakowsky ... Marjorie E. Nelson ... Frances Joann Pierce

Researchers at the University of Illinois and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service suggest in a new study that environmental greenness may not be associated with higher test scores in schoolchildren after all.

With warmer-than-average temperatures, December 2018 brought slight snowfall and a historic late-season severe weather outbreak to Illinois.

On Dec. 1, the National Weather Service confirmed 29 tornadoes in Illinois, an event that is considered the largest December tornado outbreak in state history, according to Brian Kerschner, a spokesman for the state climatologist office at the U. of I.’s Illinois State Water Survey. The second-largest number of tornadoes in December was 21  in 1957.

By enticing away the repressors dampening unexpressed, silent genes in Streptomyces bacteria, researchers at the University of Illinois have unlocked several large gene clusters for new natural products, according to a study published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.

Researchers placed 160 cameras on 19 of the 22 Apostle Islands in northern Wisconsin to see which carnivores were living there. After taking more than 200,000 photos over a period of three years, the team discovered that several  carnivores are living on various islands in this remote archipelago in Lake Superior.

The Rare Book and Manuscript Library collection includes holiday- and winter-themed books and images, such as photographs of snowflakes, a depiction of a 1683 frost fair on a frozen River Thames and illustrations of Norse folk tales.

2018 marks the 80th anniversary of the landmark physics discovery of superfluidity. News Bureau physical sciences editor Lois Yoksoulian asked University of Illinois physics professor and 2003 Nobel Prize winner Anthony Leggett about the significance of the historic finding.

Illinois Public Media announces the launch of “Reel Midwest,” a new independent film series that aims to find the best in features, documentaries and short films in Illinois and across the Midwest. “Reel Midwest” showcases the region’s brightest talents through a selection of thought-provoking documentaries, narrative dramas and short films.

A new study links higher levels of several key nutrients in the blood with more efficient brain connectivity and performance on cognitive tests in older adults.

The study, reported in the journal NeuroImage, looked at 32 key nutrients in the Mediterranean diet, which previous research has shown is associated with better brain function in aging. It included 116 healthy adults 65-75 years of age.

The number of vegetables in childrens’ home-packed lunches increased if they participated in deciding what foods to include, a University of Illinois researcher found in a new study.

Employee discrimination claims largely received worse outcomes in arbitration than other work-related disputes such as wrongful termination or breach of contract, according to new research co-written by U. of I. labor professor Ryan Lamare.

For tech company workers protesting sexual harassment in the workplace, there are few practical benefits to be gained from employers ending mandatory arbitration beyond an increased perception of procedural justice, says U. of I. labor professor Ryan Lamare.

Sammy Ray “Sam” Sommer ... Kerrin Thompson

Twelve Illinois undergraduates have been awarded Gilman scholarships to study abroad during the spring 2019 semester.

An Illinois professor who has aided in asylum cases talks about the criteria, changes in the process and why Central Americans are seeking this protection.

A new compound that targets a receptor within sarcoma cancer cells shrank tumors and hampered their ability to spread in mice and pigs, a study from researchers at the University of Illinois reports.

Screenwriter and Illinois alumnus David Magee wrote the script for "Mary Poppins Returns."

The rubber stopper is sticky in my hands. I can see it drooping into the vial, threatening the two tiny insect specimens inside, a pair of small green stoneflies, Alloperla furcula. Vial stoppers should not be sticky, and definitely should not be melting into the glass vial holding these important reference specimens. I have to save them from total annihilation.

Move over, trap-jaw ants and mantis shrimp: There’s a faster appendage in town. According to a new study, the Dracula ant, Mystrium camillae, can snap its mandibles at speeds of up to 90 meters per second (more than 200 mph), making it the fastest animal movement on record.

An emotional coping skills program developed for natural disaster survivors appears to help young children deal with the traumatic experiences associated with living in chronic poverty, a new study found.

In the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, 16-year-old students in middle-track schools decide whether to stay in school to pursue an academic career or enroll in a vocational training program. A new study offers evidence that the path they choose influences their personality years later.

A new study examines the planning processes associated with Chicago's 606 Trail and concludes that delegating management of the project to a nonprofit may have made gentrification the most likely outcome.

Illinois researchers and their French partners have created a website to make thousands of letters written by Marcel Proust available to the public.

William Curtis Blaylock ... Susan Blunier ... Paula Jo Goodwin ... Barbara Clarke Swain

With the “Land of Lincoln” celebrating its bicentennial, a historian looks at the influence of four Illinois-connected presidents.

Alumna Anna Oates won the National Records of Scotland Award for the Most Outstanding Student Work in Digital Preservation for her master’s thesis work on the PDF/A standard. She received the award Nov. 29 at a ceremony at the Amsterdam Museum as part of an international conference hosted by the Dutch Digital Heritage Network and the Amsterdam Museum on World Digital Preservation Day. Anna Oates received her master's degree in 2018 from the School of Information Sciences.

The statewide average temperature for November in Illinois was 35.3 degrees, which is 7.2 degrees below normal, according to Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel of the Illinois State Water Survey at the U. of I. November 2018 was ranked the eighth-coldest November on record.

On Dec. 5, the Global Carbon Project published the Global Carbon Budget 2018, giving world leaders access to data on atmospheric carbon concentrations, emissions and trends. Illinois atmospheric scientist Atul Jain was among the many scientists worldwide who contributed data to the report. Jain talked about the carbon budget and this year’s findings with News Bureau physical sciences editor Lois Yoksoulian.

In a step toward producing renewable engine fuels that are compatible with existing diesel fuel infrastructure, researchers report they can convert wet biowaste, such as swine manure and food scraps, into a fuel that can be blended with diesel and that shares diesel’s combustion efficiency and emissions profile.

They report their findings in the journal Nature Sustainability.

Illinois author Nafissa Thompson-Spires has received national recognition for her first book, “Heads of the Colored People,” which uses humor and satire to tell the stories of black Americans.

Boys who enter sixth-grade with co-occurring social skills, anxiety, learning and conduct problems are at the greatest risk of developing aggressive behavior and using substances by the end of eighth grade, a new study found.