News Bureau

A message to recent University of Illinois graduates: Alma wants to know what you've been up to. At least that’s the goal of the recently unveiled First Destination initiative, a campuswide program that has revamped the way postgraduate information is volunteered, reported and updated.

A Minute With...™ Asef Bayat, sociologist and Middle East expert

Gabriel "Joey" Merrin, a doctoral student in child development at Illinois, is the author of a recent study that explored the risk and protective factors associated with young people who resist gang recruitment. Raised in low-income areas of inner-city Chicago notorious for gang violence, Merrin has personal experience with the environmental factors that push and pull youths into gang affiliation.

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

John R. Dahl … Malcolm Gale Davis … Beverly D. Rodriguez

For the second straight year, the University of Illinois has proposed holding the line on base tuition for in-state freshmen next fall, a move that officials say reflects the university’s commitment to student access and affordability.

Krannert Art Museum will display most of its collection of African vessels in a spring exhibition titled “Spheres of Influence,” which opens Jan. 28.

“Time / Image,” one of Krannert Art Museum’s spring exhibitions opening on Jan. 28, explores how time is perceived through contemporary art.

A Minute With...™ Kevin O'Brien, director of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center

We thought that the expedition was over. My husband's altitude sickness left only three of us to climb Ojos del Salado, make our way up the mountain in the thin air, find the lake, collect the biological samples and get back down safely. It wasn't feasible. Then we learned something that changed the entire expedition.

Limiting the exchange of information in lawsuits to save time and money will negatively affect typical, run-of-the-mill cases, says Suja A. Thomas, a University of Illinois law professor and expert in civil procedure.

Children who participate in collaborative group work to learn about significant social issues become better decision-makers than their peers who learn the same curriculum through teacher-led discussions, a new study finds.

A new class of small, thin electronic sensors can monitor temperature and pressure within the skull – crucial health parameters after a brain injury or surgery – then melt away when they are no longer needed, eliminating the need for additional surgery to remove the monitors and reducing the risk of infection and hemorrhage.

Nancy Abelmann … James E. Barden Sr. … Dr. Sol Barnett … Diana Jane Fillenwarth Ganley … Lois J. Seibold … Dominic O. Skaperdas and Memorial services: Verlin B. “Andy” Anderson … Martha Rae Swartz Barbee … Alfred “Bud” Cler

Renowned artist and National Medal of Arts winner Ping Chong is working with dance students to create a performance based on racial history in the U.S.

A Minute With...™ communication professor Ned O'Gorman

The Emmy and Latin Grammy Award-winning family entertainment of Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band will perform a free concert at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at 10 a.m. Feb. 13. 

The University YMCA announces the spring Friday Forum lecture series “Breaking Down Racism: Fighting Racial Injustice in the U.S.”

Espresso Royale will celebrate the opening of its fourth campus location, in Grainger Engineering Library, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 2 p.m. Jan. 14.

The organic food industry has grown from fresh produce and grains to snack foods and condiments – from farmers markets to supercenters. Has this new variety in organic products, and the availability of them, affected consumers’ perceptions?

Damage developing in a material can be difficult to see until something breaks or fails. A new polymer damage indication system automatically highlights areas that are cracked, scratched or stressed, allowing engineers to address problem areas before they become more problematic.

Dedra “DeeDee” Williams, a high-level administrator at the University of Illinois for more than two decades, has been appointed secretary of the U. of I. Board of Trustees and of the university, President Tim Killeen announced Jan. 11.

You may think that mountain expeditions are all about action, but in fact there's a lot more time spent sitting around. Plans may be perfect, but obstacles arise. The weather is unexpectedly cold, the ice on the lake is too thick, the snow on the mountain is melting much later in the season than normal.

Effective Jan. 18, the popular self-balancing motorized devices known as hoverboards will not be allowed in any facilities owned, leased, occupied or controlled by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

Second-generation biofuel crops like the perennial grasses Miscanthus and switchgrass can efficiently meet emission reduction goals without significantly displacing cropland used for food production, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Illinois and collaborators published their findings in the inaugural edition of the journal Nature Energy. The researchers call it the most comprehensive study on the subject to date.

A Minute With...™ Sheldon Jacobson, expert on data science

Paulette J. (Kaminski) Graziano … David H. Offner … Loren W. Wardlow … and Memorial Service: Elizabeth Kelly-Fry

Graphic designer Janet Snyder will be more excited than most when renovations at State Farm Center are finished next fall.

In commemoration of the sesquicentennial anniversary of President Lincoln’s death and then, two years later, of the founding of the University of Illinois, the U. of I. College of Law will host “The New Lincoln Lectures: What Abraham Lincoln Means to the 21st Century,” a series of several lectures to be held in 2016 and 2017.

The Earned Income Tax Credit aids millions of Americans each year, lifting many out of poverty – but spacing it out in multiple payments could significantly reduce recipients’ dependence on payday loans and borrowing from friends and family, along with other benefits, suggests a recent University of Illinois study of a pilot program in Chicago.

With the state budget impasse still looming large, high-profile administrator positions needing to be filled and plans for a new medical school to be finalized, there's no indication 2016 will be any less challenging.

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

December was the warmest and second-wettest for that month on record in Illinois, according to Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel, of the Illinois State Water Survey. 

The Urbana-Champaign community will join the U. of I. campus community in January to celebrate the legacy of legendary civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

By 2018, after nearly five decades of using temporary campus facilities, the U. of I.'s Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center will finally have a permanent building of its own.

A Minute With...™ Sara R. Benson, an expert on sexual orientation and the law

The U. of I. Flash Index fell to 105.5 in December from its 106.1 level in November. This is not only the lowest reading all year, but the lowest reading since March 2013.

MENDOZA, ARGENTINA - We head out to Fiambala tomorrow, near the base of Ojos del Salado, the tallest active volcano in the world. We will continue our acclimatization hikes at higher and higher altitudes before beginning our approach on the lake, where we hope to collect microbial samples without contaminating the lake with our own.

VALLECITOS, ARGENTINA - Mount Franke is a giant rock pile. Some of the rocks are attached to the mountain. Many, many others are not. The loose rocks are engaged in slow tumble down the mountainside. Hikers often help them along.

POTRERILLOS, ARGENTINA - The polar explorer Amundsen hated adventure and worked hard to avoid it. Adventures begin when things go wrong and are a sign of bad planning, he said.

For us, the adventure began even before we landed in Argentina. One of our five giant duffle bags full of hignored-altitude gear never made it to Mendoza. All of my high altitude gear was in that bag. It took me four months to accumulate that gear.

Geologists investigating an unusual landform in the Wabash River Valley in southern Illinois expected to find seismic origins, but instead found the aftermath of rushing floodwaters from melting Midwestern glaciers after the last ice age. The finding could give clues to how floodwaters may behave as glacier melt increases today in places like Greenland and Iceland.

MENDOZA, ARGENTINA -- We arrived in Mendoza, Argentina today and tomorrow we are going on our first trek: up from 2,080 meters to 2700 meters on Mount Mihlo, outside of Mendoza. This will begin the acclimatization process for us. 

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

This year's winter session cohort reached 1,600 students after the number of courses offered was increased from eight to 17 because of last year's interest. The colleges offering winter session courses are Liberal Arts and Sciences, Business, Media and Applied Health Sciences.

A Minute With...™ U. of I. nuclear engineer Daniel Andruczyk

Most historical accounts describe the Illinois Indians of the late 1600s as a weak and beleaguered people, taking refuge in a settlement 80 miles southwest of present-day Chicago. The reality, however, is quite different, argues University of Illinois history professor Robert Morrissey, in the December issue of the Journal of American History. The Illinois, he says, were making “perhaps the most remarkable bid for power in 17th century native North America.”

A number of drugs already approved to treat parasitic infections, cancers, infertility and other conditions also show promise as antibiotic agents against staph and tuberculosis infections, according to a new study by University of Illinois chemists and collaborators.