News Bureau

Douglas Einar Applequist … Beth E. Morrison Carbonneau … Albert Ehmen … Joan L. Mitchell … Jared Cleveland Risken

Alma Mater, center, and Labor and Learning don custom-made hats and a scarf during a winter storm earlier this week after the wind chill factor dipped below zero. Snow flurries continued over the next few days without significant accumulation. January marked the fifth consecutive month that Champaign-Urbana temperatures were above average.

More than 56,000 prospective first-time freshmen have applied for enrollment next fall across the University of Illinois system, record demand that is up 13 percent from the year before, officials announced Feb. 5.

Several events have been scheduled on the U. of I. campus to commemorate Black History Month.

Will broccoli by any other name be more likely to wind up in students’ tummies than in lunchroom garbage cans? Does strategic placement of fruit on the cafeteria line increase its appeal to finicky kids?

Boxer Muhammad Ali famously declared his intent to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee,” but perhaps boxers should look to another type of insect for inspiration: the trap-jaw ant.

Understanding the complex geological processes that form supervolcanoes could ultimately help geologists determine what triggers their eruptions. A new study using an advanced computer model casts doubt on previously held theories about the Yellowstone supervolcano’s origins, adding to the mystery of Yellowstone’s formation.

Millennials face significant hurdles in their quest for homeownership, said Yilan Xu, a professor of agricultural and consumer economics at Illinois and co-author of a new paper examining homeownership trends among those born between 1980-2000.

Deciding how and when to withdraw funds from the patchwork of different retirement accounts represents the biggest financial planning challenge facing retirees, said Richard L. Kaplan, the Peer and Sarah Pedersen Professor of Law at Illinois.

Illinois Public Media (WILL-AM-FM-TV) will premiere a new hourlong talk show March 14. “The 21st" will be broadcast weekdays at 11 a.m., with veteran journalist and public radio host Niala Boodhoo serving as host and as executive producer.

Fans of world music have a smorgasbord of events to choose from this month, including Slavic folk music performances, a percussionist playing handmade instruments and a conference devoted to Afro-Brazilian dance and music.

A $700,000 grant awarded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the Office of Community College Research and Leadership at the University of Illinois will fund new studies focused on helping community college transfer students earn baccalaureate degrees.

The Super Bowl will feature car ads, beer ads, food ads – but probably none for carrots. Most food ads, game time or anytime, are pitching less-healthy fare. Kids are often the target. Do they understand what an ad is? Who made it and why? Advertising professor Michelle Nelson worked with an Illinois school district to develop an advertising literacy curriculum that also promotes healthy eating.

A midwinter evening descends on the Bardeen Engineering Quad. 

The Preservation Working Group and University Library will host a hands-on informational event from 1 to 4 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Champaign Public Library.

The Graduate College will host a free screening of “The PHD Movie 2: Still in Grad School” at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 17 in Foellinger Auditorium. The doors open at 6 p.m. The event is open to all graduate students.

Since 2008, the Education Justice Project, a unit of the College of Education, has offered for-credit courses and other programs to incarcerated men at the Danville Correctional Center, a men’s medium-security prison.

The Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities is soliciting submissions and nominations for the IPRH Prizes for Research in the Humanities for the 2015-16 academic year.

Interested in meeting writing goals in a distraction-free setting?

Illinois temperatures in January showed some very large swings in which the highs and lows tended to cancel each other out, with a monthly temperature of 26.7 degrees, or just 0.3 degrees above average, according to Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel, of the Illinois State Water Survey at the University of Illinois.

A report on honors, awards, appointments and other outstanding achievements of faculty and staff members.

 Ernest Dawn

Conservation efforts are designed to restrict activities in protected areas, but the restrictions can have unintended consequences. A University of Illinois researcher examined the results of a multimillion-dollar European Union aid project in West Africa and found that a country’s national governance quality can affect the livelihoods of families who rely on resources from national parks and other protected areas.

A two-year project funded by the National Science Foundation is laying the groundwork for meeting society’s growing demand for citizens literate in computer science by integrating computing with elementary school mathematics – an approach that holds promise for democratizing access to computer science education and promoting diversity within the U.S. technology workforce.

Underrepresented students’ first-semester GPA may be a better predictor of whether they’ll graduate college than their ACT score or their family’s socioeconomic status, a new study found.

The U. of I. Flash Index fell again in January to 105.3 from its 105.5 level in December. As was the case last month, this is the lowest reading since March 2013 (104.7). This is consistent with data indicating a national economic slowdown.

The technology that charges batteries for electronic devices could provide fresh water from salty seas, says a new study by University of Illinois engineers. Electricity running through a salt water-filled battery draws the salt ions out of the water.

Many immigrants coming to the U.S. for factory jobs are taking advantage of opportunities in small towns like Beardstown, rather than big cities. In her new book, “Global Heartland,” published this month by Indiana University Press, University of Illinois urban and regional planning professor Faranak Miraftab looks at how this workforce is produced for the global labor market, how the workers maintain their lives and families on low-wage jobs, and how they’ve transformed the places they now call home.

Allerton Park and Retreat Center will host a winter weekend seminar on topics related to beer and brewing from 1 p.m. Feb. 27 to noon Feb. 28.

The College of Fine and Applied Arts will present a thought-provoking discussion about memory at its next Uncorked and On Topic at 5:15 p.m. Feb. 4 in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Tryon Festival Theatre foyer.

Interim Chancellor Barbara Wilson will join the Council of Academic Professionals Feb 4.

The U. of I. Audiology Clinic is offering free hearing screenings through April 22. Appointments may be scheduled by calling 217-333-2230; appointments are not available by email.

Guillermo del Toro’s “Crimson Peak” will open the 18th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival.

Einstein Bros. Bagels has opened two more campus locations: the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science and the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Basic Sciences Building.

University Primary School is accepting enrollment applications for the 2016-17 academic year.

Dance at Illinois will present February Dance 2016 at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 4, 5 and 6 at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

While continuing to advocate for an end to the state's ongoing budget impasse, President Tim Killeen said Jan. 25 that the university is also proposing solutions to provide stable, predictable funding in the future.

Edward L. McMillan was re-elected to a second one-year term as chairman of the U. of I. Board of Trustees during its annual organizational meeting Jan. 21. 

Urbana campus administrators are considering a host of initiatives regarding the campus climate for underrepresented minorities and to increase awareness of issues of diversity and inclusion, including the possibility of creating a required general education course.

The Illinois-Sweden Program for Educational Research and Exchange this week was awarded the Institute of International Education's Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education for the best international partnership in the country.

Sorab Pirozshah Mistry

Renowned investigative journalist and nonfiction author Bob Woodward spoke Jan. 26 at Foellinger Auditorium in the first of the College of Law’s lecture series about Abraham Lincoln. Woodward spoke about how Lincoln relates to the 21st century and the country's more recent presidents. The next lecture features award-winning columnist and political commentator George Will at 7 p.m. March 1 at Foellinger Auditorium.

We had finished our acclimatization training. We had arranged for a truck to take us - again - across the vast Catamarca wilderness to base camp of Ojos del Salado. We had recruited two young men with mountaineering experience to join the expedition.

Using head shape and genetic analyses, new research challenges the formerly designated subspecies within the western rattlesnake species. These findings have important implications for ecological conservation efforts across the United States and could provide the basis for new species designations.

Workers leave both good bosses and bad bosses, a finding that companies can use to their strategic advantage, according to research from Ravi S. Gajendran, a professor of business administration at Illinois.

Chris Kienke’s artwork uses images of Americana such as flags, fireworks, hot rods, car culture, the open road and guns to examine ideas of patriotism and how we define ourselves as Americans.

The Egyptian protesters of the Arab Spring had numbers, excitement and social media, but they could not make democracy happen. Linda Herrera thinks one reason is that they did not know how. She’s hoping to help change that with a new educational website in five languages, featuring two prominent peace activists: Mohamed ElBaradei and Rajmohan Gandhi.

High school students perform better on tests if they are in a classroom with a view of a green landscape, rather than a windowless room or a room with a view of built space, according to research from the University of Illinois Department of Landscape Architecture.

Richard Partin doesn't have a Clue of the precise date he first realized he loved the Trivial Pursuit of board gaming.

The University of Illinois Board of Trustees on Thursday approved a revised policy requiring background checks for all new faculty, academic professional and civil service employees.