News Bureau

Researchers at the University of Illinois and the University of Connecticut have developed new brush polymers – synthetic proteinlike molecules that catalyze their own formation – that could provide insight into enzyme behavior and self-replicating systems. The polymers have potential applications in catalyst development, nanomaterials and medicine.

Journalism professor Stephanie Craft: To be news literate, know how to judge a story’s credibility, and also be intentional in how you consume news and understand the forces that shape it.

The success of community health interventions targeting Latinos could be hindered by linguistic and cultural gaps unless researchers recognize the diversity that exists among Latino populations and work closely with community members to adapt programming accordingly, a new study led by University of Illinois researchers suggests.

The statewide average temperature in January was 31.4 degrees, 5 degrees above normal, and the 14th-warmest January on record, according to Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel of the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois.

Robert C. Corum ... Charles M. Draper ... Norma Bartholomew Kent 

Advances in magnetic resonance imaging have transformed medicine over the last several decades. Unfortunately, this technology is rarely available to veterinarians. The University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine is now one of a few veterinary research and clinical care schools in the U.S. with a state-of-the-art 3-Tesla MRI facility.

Nicole Cooke, a University of Illinois professor of library and information sciences, wrote a recently published textbook to help librarians and library students better understand the importance of serving diverse groups of people.

University of Illinois political scientist Alicia Uribe-McGuire describes the politics involved in the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.

Aerospace engineering professor John Lambros and his Ph.D. student, Owen Kingstedt, were recognized with the 2017 Society of Experimental Mechanics M. Hetényi Award. An aerospace engineering faculty member since 2000, Lambros has simultaneously garnered SEM’s 2017 P.S. Theocaris Award, which recognizes a senior individual for distinguished, innovative and outstanding work in optical methods and experimental mechanics.
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The executive order on immigration sets U.S. policy back more than 50 years, says Illinois labor and employment relations professor Michael LeRoy, an expert on immigration and employment policy.

Barry Benson has been named the Urbana campus’s vice chancellor for advancement and the senior vice president of the University of Illinois foundation, pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. He will report for duty March 16. 

The University of Illinois College of Law will host a panel discussion at noon Friday on President Trump’s executive order on immigration. The discussion will be moderated by U. of I. law professor Lesley Wexler.

Audience members will use their cellphones to interact with dancers and the set during the premiere of “Critical Mass” this week at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. The performances are part of February Dance: Designed Environments, presented by the University of Illinois dance department.

The Ice Arena at Illinois is getting a new refrigeration system and ice mat.

The new system will be more efficient than the one currently in use and will have  a life expectancy of eight to 10 years. The new ice mat could be moved if a new facility or larger renovation are planned.

A new analysis reveals just how much Americans are adding to their caloric intake by spicing up or sweetening their coffee or tea.

Skot Wiedmann, an electronics technician and art instructor at the University of Illinois, built his Hyve Touch Synthesizer to inspire interdisciplinary work between engineers and musicians, and to allow people to explore music in a creative and fun way.

Cody A. Breitenfeldt ... Hazel C. Cacioppo ... David M. Grothe ... Luther H. Holmes ... David F. Mulliken ... Dan White

Microscopic shifts in metabolism and increases in tiny transport vesicles out of tumor cells preface larger changes to the tumor environment and could prepare the way for cancerous cells to spread and metastasize, University of Illinois researchers report.

Special education professor James Shriner on a case recently heard by the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the educational benefits that public schools are required to provide to students with disabilities.

Artist Stephen Cartwright uses data he collects about himself and his environment to create sculptural landscapes.

After 33 years of service, the Scholarship Program Committee for the Civil Service Employee and Dependents Scholarship Program is analyzing the program  to ensure its continuity. 

The Audiology Clinic at Illinois is offering free adult hearing screenings Jan. 25 through April 22. Screening appointments may be scheduled by calling 217-333-2230. No appointments are accepted via email. 

Krannert Art Museum will host the first solo museum presentation by performance artist Autumn Knight, who incorporates elements of theater, dance, psychology and religious studies into her work.

Professor and copyright librarian Sara R. Benson explains an upcoming Supreme Court case at the intersection of copyright and patent for functional designs.

University Primary School is now accepting enrollment applications for the 2017-18 academic year. The school is the College of Education at Illinois lab school, serving children preschool through fifth grade in a Reggio Emilia, project-based curriculum.

The theme for the YMCA Spring 2017 Friday Forum Lecture Series is the “State of the State.” With many challenges facing the state of Illinois, the lecture series seeks to address state-level issues including the budget impasse’s effects on social services, funding for education, incarceration and more.

Scientists have discovered how a unique bacterial enzyme evades the body’s key weapons in its fight against infection.

Gene S. Gilmore

Krannert Art Museum will open several spring exhibitions on Jan. 26, including artwork created through the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project, objects related to the history of land-grant universities and light sculpture.

Although the human genome has been mapped, many questions remain about how genes are regulated, how they interact with one another, and what function some genes serve. A new tool developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology distills the huge amount of genomic data into gene networks that can point to the function of genes, highlighting relationships between genes and offering insights into disease, treatment and gene analogs across species.

A report in the journal Science Advances details the grim realities facing a majority of the nonhuman primates in the world – the apes, monkeys, tarsiers, lemurs and lorises inhabiting ever-shrinking forests across the planet. The review is the most comprehensive conducted so far, the researchers say, and the picture it paints is dire.

Charlotte Jane (Honn) Brownfield ... Mary L. Giles ... Margaret McLaren Jensen ... Martin L. Maehr ... Robert J. Nelson ... Dorothy Ann (Sturdivant) Schoeps

Why the sudden impetus to reorganize the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? For starters, it was never a bipartisan effort.

A re-creation of the oldest medieval vernacular play, in a new English translation, will be staged on the University of Illinois campus.

Communication professor John Murphy, who studies presidential rhetoric, says the inaugural address traditionally carries a message of unifying the country, which may be even more important this time.

Edward Feser is leaving the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to become the provost and executive vice president at Oregon State University.

With a theme of “Pursuing the Dream in Challenging Times,” the 2017 communitywide celebration of the life of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. includes a half-dozen events throughout Champaign and Urbana.

The department of mathematics at Illinois will hold a family winter math carnival called The Gathering for Gardner 2017 on Saturday, Jan. 28, from 2-5 p.m. at Altgeld Hall, 1409 W. Green St., Urbana. The day is filled with hands-on activities, demonstrations, games, puzzles, refreshments and mathematical prizes for participants.

A review of 207 studies involving more than 20,000 people found that those who engaged in therapeutic interventions were, on average, significantly less neurotic and a bit more extraverted after the interventions than they were beforehand.

Professor Richard Kaplan discusses the impetus behind congressional leaders’ desire to change Medicaid, the health insurance program with more than 74 million enrollees in the U.S.

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.