News Bureau

The Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center is the centerpiece of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s $15 million investment in the emerging area of quantum information science and engineering.

University of Illinois social work professor Ryan Wade explores the prevalence and impact of racialized sexual discrimination on sexual networking websites used by gay or bisexual men of color.

William Boyd Buck ... Emanuel “Manny” Donchin ... Les Gasser ... Marjorie Ellen “Marge” Gordon ... Alvin E. Gustafson ... Phillip I. Henson ... Matthew McClure ... Kurt A. Mitchell ... Pauline Rymer ... Rebecca J. Simon ... Bernard “Bernie” Daniel Taylor

Twenty-seven Illinois companies and organizations were honored Oct. 23 for their significant achievements in protecting the environment, helping sustain the future and improving the economy. The winners were announced during a ceremony at the Union League Club in Chicago.

Spurlock Museum presents the panel discussion “Looking Back, Looking Forward” on Thursday, Nov. 15 at 4 p.m. The discussion at the museum is held in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center at Illinois.

The University Library has announced plans to redesign the Main Library at Illinois. As an ongoing project, the Senate Committee on the Library will regularly discuss this project throughout the 2018-19 academic year. Those interested in this conversation are invited to attend the upcoming Library Committee Meeting on Thursday, Dec. 6, from 9 to 10 a.m., Room 232 in the English Building, 608 S. Wright St., Urbana.

Sicilian Pupi, or Sicilian Puppet Theater, will present a performance at 6 p.m. Oct. 30 in Foellinger Auditorium, 709 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana. The event is free and open to the public.

Cooler weather has caused soil temperatures to decrease across the state, according to Jennie Atkins, Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring Program manager at the Illinois State Water Survey at Illinois.

Charles “Chuck” Richard Kibler ... Jennifer Joy Loy ... Yoko Muroga (Nakamura) ... Pauline Rymer ... James Wilburn “Jim” Seets

An accurate census is essential for public and private planning, but the 2020 effort is underfunded and behind schedule, an Illinois expert says.

A new book by Illinois information sciences professors Gerald McWorter and Kate Williams-McWorter tells how a former slave founded an integrated town in western Illinois that became a station on the Underground Railroad.

Renske van der Veen, a professor of chemistry at Illinois, was awarded a Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering, a five-year, $875,000 grant.

Hurricane Michael made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida, as the first Category 4 storm in recorded history to reach shore in the northeast Gulf Coast. News Bureau physical sciences editor Lois Yoksoulian spoke with Illinois atmospheric sciences professor Deanna Hence about the storm’s size, strength and path, and the impact of global climate change on future hurricanes. 

A study of 3,588 square kilometers of privately owned land in central Kenya offers evidence that humans and their livestock can, in the right circumstances, share territory with zebras, giraffes, elephants and other wild mammals – to the benefit of all.

A spate of Supreme Court decisions on the tension between religious freedom and the protective function of government has caused a sense of unease among religious people, says Robin Fretwell Wilson, the Roger and Stephany Joslin Professor of Law at Illinois and editor of the book “The Contested Place of Religion in Family Law.”

Entomology professor Gene Robinson, an international leader in honey bee research, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine “for pioneering contributions to understanding the roles of genes in social behavior.” Robinson directs the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Mice with epilepsy have altered patterns of neuron activity in the portion of the brain that controls the reproductive endocrine system, University of Illinois researchers report in a new study. Furthermore, the differences in neuron activity in female mice fluctuate across the reproductive cycle, the team found.

University Primary School, the Reggio Emilia-inspired laboratory school of the College of Education at Illinois, is hosting an annual fall community open house Wednesday, Nov. 7.

Illinois education scholar and dean James Anderson will deliver the Center for Advanced Study Annual Lecture on the 14th Amendment and citizenship, immigration and national identity.

Rashid Bashir, the executive associate dean and chief diversity officer of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, will become the next dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign effective Nov. 1.

It is just past noon as Zuze Dulanya, Evance Mwathunga and I climb out of the van. The shiny new handpump for Jimu Village sits where just last week a drill rig bored the hole for this much needed, much anticipated new water source. Beneath a nearby row of sweet gum trees, two long benches surround a lone, red-cushioned side chair.

“Ha!” Zuze says. “We know who will be getting the hot seat today!”

Kidney dialysis patients who engage in technology-based positive psychology exercises during their treatments may significantly improve their depressive symptoms and quality of life, a new study found.

The lasting impact of Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee will be the image of a lone woman speaking truth to power, says Lesley Wexler, a University of Illinois law professor who studies anti-discrimination law.

Former NASA astronaut and Illinois alumnus Scott Altman will serve as the grand marshal of this year’s University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Homecoming Parade on Friday, Oct. 12 at 6 p.m.

Rita Josephine Deters ... John L. Larson ... Marilyn Sue O’Hara ... Joseph H. Smith ... Gerald Durbin Wood ... David Zola

Illinois sociologist Rebecca Sandefur has been named the recipient of a 2018 MacArthur fellowship, or “genius grant.”

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Robert J. Jones and Kimberlee K. Kidwell, the dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, invite faculty members, staff, students and the public to the dedication of the YingYing Zhang Garden.

Champaign, Ill. - The University of Illinois Black Chorus will perform its fall concert, “Grace (an amazing homecoming),” Sunday, Oct. 7 at 3 p.m. in the Foellinger Great Hall of Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana. The concert continues a legacy of 50 years of sustained campus, national and international musical performances.

Led for 38 years by University of Illinois professor of music  Ollie Watts Davis, the concert welcomes alumni back to campus and features music from the African-American sacred music tradition, with arrangements of spirituals, anthems, hymns and traditional and contemporary gospel selections.

The concert is supported by the School of Music at Illinois and Krannert Center for Performing Arts. Tickets are $10 and available for purchase at the Krannert Center Ticket Office. For ticket information, call 217-333-6280.

The Brandon Seabrook String Trio will hold an improvisation workshop at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5, with a performance following at 7:30 p.m., in the Music Building Auditorium, 1114 W. Nevada St., Urbana. The event is part of the Improvisers Exchange, a two-year initiative investigating the field of music improvisation. Both events are free and open to the public.

University of Illinois anthropologists talk about their work at Cahokia in the new documentary “Native America,” about the cities built by Native Americans.

The Illinois statewide average temperature for September was 70 degrees, 3.8 degrees above normal and the 12th-warmest September on record, according to Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel of the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois. 

An American Indian studies professor tells a story of Hopi runners who ran with and often beat the world’s best.

Scientists are helping determine the age of an antique Chinese porcelain vase in Krannert Art Museum’s collection through an X-ray fluorescence analysis of its paint.

A celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day will take place Oct. 8 from 11 a.m. to noon on the South Quad near the ACES Library, 1101 S. Goodwin, Ave., Urbana. A reception follows.

The Program in Jewish Culture and Society's new lecture series, “21st Century Jewish Writing and the World,” features four award-winning Jewish writers.

Breaking the bonds between oxygen and hydrogen in water could be a key to the creation of hydrogen in a sustainable manner, but finding an economically viable technique for this has proved difficult. Researchers report a new hydrogen-generating catalyst that clears many of the obstacles – abundance, stability in acid conditions and efficiency.

In Greek mythology, Zeus punishes the trickster Prometheus by chaining him to a rock and sending an eagle to eat a portion of his liver every day, in perpetuity. It was the right organ to target – the liver has the ability to regenerate itself, though not overnight nor for eternity.

New research conducted by biochemists at the University of Illinois has determined how damaged liver cells repair and restore themselves through a signal to return to an early stage of postnatal organ development.

The University YMCA, 1001 S. Wright St., Champaign, is launching its “Transforming Lives, Connecting Communities” campaign to support capital renovations to its historic building, programming support and strengthening of its endowment. The public is invited to the campaign kickoff Tuesday, Sept. 25, from 5-7:30 p.m. at Riggs Brewery, 1901 S. High Cross Road, Urbana.

An Oct. 4 bicentennial lecture at Illinois will take the measure of Lincoln’s body, in life and death.

Without the #MeToo movement and the high bar of a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court, it’s doubtful that the sexual assault allegations leveled against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh would have surfaced, says Lesley Wexler, a University of Illinois law professor who studies anti-discrimination law.

Home prices within a school district affected by a school-based mass shooting episode declined by 7.8 percent over the course of at least three years after the incident, according to a new paper co-written by University of Illinois scholar Juan Sebastian Munoz.

A series of events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Project 500 initiative will take place on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus Sept. 27-29. 

A coalition of nonprofits in Los Angeles led a park-equity movement that shifted California’s funding priorities and brought green spaces closer to the homes of low-income people of color, a new study found.

Martha JoAnn Milligan ... Charles William (Bill) Smith

Author David Quammen will speak at the University of Illinois about his new book, which features the revolutionary work of microbiologist Carl R. Woese.

Two graduate students at Illinois have been awarded Department of Energy fellowships.

Anda Trifan, a doctoral candidate in professor of biochemistry Emad Tajkhorshid’s research group, has been awarded a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship to support her research in theoretical and computational biophysics. Edward Hutter, a doctoral candidate in professor of computer science Edgar Solomonik’s research group, was awarded the fellowship to support his research in computer science.

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts has a new assisted listening system to help patrons with hearing impairment enjoy performances.

Stiff microbial films often coat medical devices, household items and infrastructure such as the inside of water supply pipes, and can lead to dangerous infections. Researchers have developed a system that harnesses the power of bubbles to propel tiny particles through the surfaces of these tough films and deliver an antiseptic deathblow to the microbes living inside.

Tracy Sulkin, a professor of political science in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a U. of I. faculty member since 2002, is the dean designate of the College of Media effective Sept. 16, pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

Bring your bike to the 11th annual Light the Night event on Thursday, Sept. 20 and get a free set of front and rear lights. Illinois law requires bicyclists riding at night to use lights.