News Bureau

After driving the winding dirt roads of Yalbac Ranch, we venture for 20 minutes into a steep ravine surrounded by dense jungle. Cicadas sing to us from above as we approach Pool 1, a 60-plus-meter-deep cenote (steep-sided sinkhole fed by groundwater). It is difficult to see the pool at first.  But, as the truck tires grind over loose limestone, making those sitting in the back of the truck bounce, a water temple and the pool appear to emerge from the jungle. Previous VOPA excavations show that 1,300 years ago, Maya came from different regions of the lowlands to this sacred pool. 

The University of Illinois Summer Band will present its annual summer concert series on the Quad on Thursday, June 23, and Thursday, July 21, both at 7 p.m. The performances are free, and attendees are welcome to bring lawn chairs and blankets.

Kenneth J. Frantz ... David Ledbetter Nanney ... Joyce F. Norris ... Jessica Giannerini-Thomas ... Marjorie Lou Castle ... Roy J. Charles ... Norman D. Busboom ... Walter W. "Buddy" Holt ... Robert J. Silver ... Bryan D. Stewart

Illinois budget impasse: A Minute With…™ Christopher Z. Mooney, expert on Illinois politics

The book “Sensing Chicago: Noisemakers, Strikebreakers, and Muckrakers” by Adam Mack, published by the University of Illinois Press, won an award for superior achievement from the Illinois State Historical Society.

With the Ebola virus outbreak now ended in Sierra Leone, the University YMCA, the Illinois State Alliance of YMCAs and the Sierra Leone YMCA are revisiting an international-service learning exchange partnership that was brought to a halt by the Ebola outbreak relief efforts in 2014.

Campus members are invited to meet Christian Kamara, the CEO and national secretary of the YMCA of Sierra Leone, to learn more about the work that the organization performs and to explore possible collaborations.

National Park Service at 100: A Minute With™ parks and politics expert Robert Pahre

With maps and infographics, the Illinois Austerity Atlas visually chronicles the impacts the state budget impasse has had on social services, higher education, youth programs and public health.

Rethinking inequality and its causes: A Minute With™ sociologist Kevin Leicht

Podiums that don't match a speaker's proportions can undermine the speaker's message by diminishing him or her to a disembodied head. University of Illinois architecture professor Kathryn Anthony helped to design a podium that can be adjusted for people of different heights and for wheelchair users.

“You never know what path you’re going on,” said Patty Jones, the associate director for research at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. And, yes, she has gone on many different paths.

Bryan D. Stewart ... Vivian Ilene (Ohl) Alsip ... Mary Alyce (Carpenter) Pearson ... Delwyn (Del) Lynn Harnisch

College of Engineering faculty members Paul V. Braun, Huimin Zhao, Jianming Jin, Rizwan Uddin and Jessica Krogstad were all recently honored, and a former nuclear reactor on campus became an America Nuclear Society Nuclear Historic Landmark.

We are working in the the cleared agricultural fields near Cara Blanca Pool 7, a pre-Columbian residential area in west central Belize. Hundreds of ancient Maya structures once housed a thriving community here. Now the area is being converted into farmland, and our job is to salvage what we can before the plows sheer off this history, layer by layer.

A series of modifications to federal student financial aid policy have eroded perceptions of higher education as a public good in the U.S., creating a “flawed” financial aid system that promotes both personal debt and tuition increases, suggests a new study by University of Illinois scholars Daniel A. Collier and Richard Herman.

Michael J. Plewa, a professor emeritus of genetics and University Scholar at Illinois, has been selected by The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi - the nation’s oldest and most selective all-discipline honor society - as the 2016-18 Phi Kappa Phi Scholar. Plewa received the award for his achievements in research, teaching, service and leadership.

Three University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign students have been awarded U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarships to study a foreign language this summer. During the past 10 years, the program has sent over 5,000 American undergraduate and graduate students overseas to learn critical languages.

Japan House has developed a mobile guide to its gardens, which visitors can listen to on their phones for a self-guided tour.

The Audiology Clinic at the U. of I. is offering free hearing screenings June 1 to July 22. Screenings appointments may be scheduled by calling 217-333-2230. The clinic does not schedule appointments by email.

A Minute With...™ Robin Fretwell Wilson, director of the Program in Family Law and Policy

A Minute With...™ Kathryn Anthony, an Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Distinguished Professor of architecture

Illinois Theatre, the producing entity of the department of theatre at Illinois, announces the 2016 presentation of “The Sullivan Project,” a new-play production curated by Tony Award-winning director Daniel Sullivan. Sullivan is the holder of an endowed Swanlund chair and a theatre professor at Illinois.

The Illini Union Board’s Summer Quad Cinema Series features four films open to the Champaign-Urbana community, free of charge. 

Film titles, run dates and ratings are Zootopia, PG, May 26; Eye in the Sky, R, June 9; The Boss, R, July 7; and The Angry Birds, PG, Aug. 4. Start time for all films is 9 p.m. In case of inclement weather, the movies will be shown inside the Illini Union.

Clinical trials of the anti-cancer agent PAC-1 are continuing to expand, thanks to a $7 million angel investment from an anonymous contributor who originally invested $4 million to help get the compound this far in the drug-approval pipeline.

The U.S. has been a leading voice for human rights. It’s also run prison camps, now and in the past, that denied people those rights. A. Naomi Paik wanted to explore that contradiction – finding out why these camps were organized, how they were justified, how prisoners have been treated and their response to that treatment. The result is her book “Rightlessness: Testimony and Redress in U.S. Prison Camps since World War II,” published in April.

A Minute With...™ Jacob Sosnoff, professor of kinesiology and community health

The Illinois Learning Sciences Design Initiative recently awarded $164,000 in grants to six interdisciplinary research teams on campus.

The awards were disbursed under the second phase of ILSDI’s seed-funding program, which was implemented to foster interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations among faculty members on campus and facilitate development of large-scale proposals for external funding

Ten University of Illinois students have been offered student Fulbright grants to pursue international educational, research and teaching experiences this coming year. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to build international relations to solve global challenges. 

The Slavic collection at the U. of I. is the largest in Illinois, the Midwest and any state-supported U.S. university. Jan Adamczyk, a senior library specialist, takes care of the collection and responds to questions about it.  

A new educational software application under development at the University of Illinois is introducing middle school students to the topic of climate change and showing them how their dietary choices affect the planet.

Four faculty members were honored with the Campus Awards for Excellence in Faculty Leadership at the Celebration of Academic Service and Leadership event held at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center on May 11.

Given by the Office of the Provost, the three annual awards recognize faculty members who distinguish themselves with their vision of the future and their effort to enable and promote others in shaping that future. Each award consists of an honorarium of $2,000 for the personal use of the recipient and a personalized commemorative plaque. The event also recognized members of provost committees.

People who had outstanding balances on their student loans when they graduated or dropped out of college had lower net worth, fewer financial and nonfinancial assets, and homes with lower market values when they reached age 30, according to a paper by University of Illinois social work professor Min Zhan.

A curriculum that has involved hundreds of Illinois youths in advocating for policy changes in their communities also could help schools fulfill a new state mandate that makes civics education a requirement for high school graduation.

A Minute With...™ Sheldon Jacobson, expert on aviation security

It is early May in central Belize, nearing the end of the dry season. While farmers anxiously await the beginning of the rainy season vital for crops, archaeologists hope it starts as late as possible. Tropical storms transform the landscape, making it difficult to get around, even in four-wheel-drive vehicles. Also, excavating in the clayey mud is not fun.

When hiring slows during recessions, the brunt of job losses is borne by job-seekers in their twenties and early thirties, according to a new paper by Eliza Forsythe, a professor of labor and employment relations and of economics at Illinois.

The College of Engineering seeks applicants to its Faculty Entrepreneurial Fellows Program. Selected fellows receive $50,000 in proof-of-concept funding, along with release from their teaching and committee service, to focus on bringing their work to the world by developing a specific technology innovation. In return for their release from teaching, fellows educate students about innovation and entrepreneurship. Students receive course credit.

A new study reveals that police recruits and experienced officers are more likely than others to subscribe to colorblind racial beliefs – the notion that they – and people in general – see no differences among people from different racial groups and treat everyone the same.

Organizers of a new independent high school, Academy High, will share details with prospective parents and students at two meetings May 18 at the I Hotel and Conference center.

The water going down the drain could help keep the lights on, according to a new study showing that reclaimed water – municipal wastewater that has been treated or cleaned – could be more efficient for cooling power plants than water taken from the local environment.

The history of Latinos in baseball is the subject of a new documentary, “Playing America’s Game,” which premieres Saturday, May 21, on the Big Ten Network. A production of BTN and the University of Illinois, the film profiles U. of I. history professor Adrian Burgos Jr., a leading expert on Latino baseball history.

A new study concludes that parental depression contributes to greater brain activity in areas linked to risk taking in adolescent children, likely leading to more risk-taking and rule-breaking behaviors. While previous research has found associations between clinically depressed parents and their teenagers’ risk taking, the new study is the first to find corresponding changes in the adolescents’ brains.

A Minute With…™ Julian Reif, expert in health care economics

When academics choose to litigate speech disputes with colleges and universities, they end up losing nearly three-quarters of the time – a finding that points to the growing tension between academic freedom and campus speech codes, says U. of I. labor and employment relations professor Michael LeRoy.

Krannert Art Museum will exhibit the work of seniors in the School of Art and Design during the final week of the school year.

Betty Ann Nelson … Roger A. Sommer … Jane Terry … Pauline Elizabeth Thrasher

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts will open its 2016-17 season with Afro-Cuban music, blues and a mixture of Bhangra, funk, rock and jazz. The variety of music at the “Opening Night Party” is matched by the variety of performers throughout the season.

University of Illinois history professor Harry Liebersohn has been chosen to receive the prestigious Humboldt Research Award honoring a career of research achievements. This follows news earlier this spring that he had been named as a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin – the first U. of I. history professor, and perhaps the first Illinois professor in any field, to receive that honor.

The number of first-year students expected to report to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus for the upcoming fall semester is similar to the fall 2015 total.

Amazon will host an AWSome Day for U. of I. researchers from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 11. The event will take place in the Training Room of the Atkins Building, 1800 S. Oak St., Champaign, in the Research Park. The goal of this event is to help researchers and their staff members understand Amazon Web Services.