News Bureau

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

On Oct. 19, the Urbana-Champaign Senate approved a university policy on open access to research articles. This policy grants the university a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise all rights under copyright to the scholarly articles produced by faculty members.

The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology will sponsor two upcoming Chambana Science Café events.

The Advance Illinois Project is replacing the FACTS legacy system with a new customer relationship management database and related document management and business intelligence functionality.

The U. of I. main Quad is a next stop on a nationwide tour of HungerU – a mobile exhibit to raise awareness of nutrition and food security issues. HungerU will be on the north end of the Quad from 9 am. to 4 p.m. Nov. 4. Visitors can pedal tractors around the Quad and participate in events to win prizes. The interactive games and displays provide information about the significance of modern agriculture and how it affects the world’s food crisis and the state of food security in more than 100 countries.

Xin Liu, an assistant professor of astronomy in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is among the new faculty members to be included in our New Faces feature.

Issues related to Chief Illiniwek, the former university symbol, were discussed at the Urbana-Champaign Senate-sponsored annual meeting of the faculty Oct. 26.

Those who have seen sculptor Nnenna Okore’s work at Krannert Art Museum will be able to hear from the artist how she transforms materials and gallery spaces into works of art.

Bacteria have many methods of adapting to resist antibiotics, but a new class of spiral polypeptides developed at the University of Illinois targets one thing no bacterium can live without: an outer membrane.

A federal grant of more than $919,000 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will fund one new course at the University of Illinois and support training for clinicians at area agencies in conducting early interventions with people who abuse substances.

Stephen Long, a professor of plant biology, will deliver the lecture “Feeding and Fueling the World from Crops. Will it be possible by 2050?” at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Knight Auditorium in Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana.

Visiting Australia was on Lindsay Duffy’s bucket list since the seventh grade, the U.of I. junior said. So Duffy “did a little happy dance” when she learned she’d be studying abroad Down Under.

When Pierce Hadley came to the University of Illinois, he wanted access to professors, a chance to do research in a lab, and a perspective on how his classes and research in bioengineering could relate to medicine. He found all of that when he became one of 12 students who are the first cohortof the Illinois Cancer Scholars Program, a new undergraduate training program launched in fall 2014 in the department of bioengineering.

U. of I. students Alex Tran and Angela Annarino prefer to work in the dark. While their peers are studying, sleeping or unwinding at the end of a long day of class, Tran, from Chicago, Illinois, and Annarino, from Lamont, strap on their work vests and radios. It’s during the night when they are needed the most.

The next industrial revolution has arrived at the Universityof Illinois, but it’s not happening on the side of Green Street that anyone familiar with the Urbana campus would expect. Located on the third floor of the Business Instructional Facility, the Illinois MakerLab is touted as the world’s first 3-D printing lab in a business school.

“Fabricating flexible electronics is my thing. I love it!” said Seung Yun “Simone” Heo, her enthusiasm evident even while speaking about the technical processes of metal vapor deposition and electron beam lithography. “We’re making everything from scratch. I can do it myself from step one. It’s not that hard to do, it’s more about time and effort.”

The first time Angela Kucharski saw the Marching Illini perform, she knew she wanted to be a part of it.

Illinois student Dexter Smith knew he wanted to study at the U. of I. since the eighth grade. But he needed financial help to stay at Illinois, and found it through some fellow classmates.

They show up in rubber boots and load their backpacks with gear: GPS units, latex gloves and data collection notebooks. The other equipment–calipers, syringes, scales and folding tables–will be used later when the students bring turtles here to their temporary laboratory alongside a park road.

The student who chooses English as a major should be prepared. Prepared for the questions, concerns and even mocking about the value of their degree.

Krannert Art Museum will celebrate the contribution of Chicago musicians to progressive jazz music with upcoming performances in its Sudden Sound Concert Series.

A Minute With...™ Alecia Swasy, professor of business journalism

The newly expanded background check policy will be implemented by the Nov. 1 deadline, but suggested revisions for it won't be brought to the U. of I. Board of Trustees until January.

The chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, William Adams, will speak on the University of Illinois campus on Oct. 29 as part of events marking the 50th anniversary of the NEH.

Energizing the U. of I. since 1941, Abbott Power Plant provides safe, reliable, environmentally compliant and cost-effective energy to support the mission of the university.

The School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics will offer a unique learning opportunity in the form of its Intensive Foreign Language Instruction Program for winter 2016.

Technology Services will perform maintenance to the campus network on Friday morning, Oct. 23, beginning at 3 a.m. The work is expected to take 15 to 20 minutes, but maintenance could potentially continue until 5 a.m. 

On Friday, Oct. 23, several campus-area streets and intersections will be closed between 5:30 and 7 p.m. for the Homecoming parade.
 MTD routes through the parade area will be modified and delays may occur. Streets and intersections that are affected are listed below.


University of Illinois President Timothy L. Killeen announced nearly $24 million in spending cuts Oct. 19 for central administration programs not directly related to teaching and research as the university prepares for expected reductions in funding once a new state budget is approved.

The University YMCA will present the “Behind Closed Doors No-More” exhibition series, displaying linocuts and quilts by Elzbieta (Elka) Kazmierczak. The exhibition opens at 5 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Y’s Murphy Gallery, followed by a gallery talk with Kazmierczak at 5:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be provided.

Japan House is auctioning more than two dozen handmade quilts. The online auction is live now and continues through Nov. 8. A portion of the proceeds from the auction will go to the Kimiko Gunji Legacy Fund to support visiting artists and teachers who will share Japanese culture.

Judy Whittington is one of the first people who new faculty and staff members and students meet in the department of astronomy. She makes them feel welcome and continues to provide support throughout their time at the university.

Sandy Dall’Erba, an associate professor of agricultural and consumer economics in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, is among the new faculty members to be included in our New Faces feature.

By the time you read this issue of Postmarks, we’ll be nearing the middle of the fall semester here at Illinois.

The annual summary of committee members on the Urbana-Champaign campus can be viewed online. In an effort to provide the most accurate information, Inside Illinois has compiled a list of URLs for units that appoint committees.

The new executive director of the U. of I.'s Willard Airport has more than 25 years airport management experience. David "Gene" Cossey (COO-zee) was named the airport's executive director Oct. 20 following a national search led by a university-appointed committee. He will start Dec. 7.

Sarah McCarthey, director of teacher education in the College of Education at the University of Illinois, discusses the preliminary results of Illinois' standardized test scores for the state's schoolchildren.

A new analysis of fire activity in Alaska's Yukon Flats finds that so many forest fires are occurring there that the area has become a net exporter of carbon to the atmosphere. This is worrisome, the researchers say, because arctic and subarctic boreal forests like those of the Yukon Flats contain roughly one-third of the Earth's terrestrial carbon stores.

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

Three faculty panelists will lead a discussion of the issues arising from the June censure of the U. of I. by the American Association of University Professors and the proposal by the U. of I. Board of Trustees this fall to require criminal background checks for all new faculty members. The event, sponsored by the Urbana campus AAUP Chapter, will be at 4 p.m. Oct. 20 in Room 314A Illini Union.

Technology Services recently implemented a new password system that will save faculty and staff members and students time by not having to maintain multiple passwords. It also will be easier to reset a password if the user forgets it.

Aaron McCollough, an assistant professor for the university library and the head of scholarly communications and publishing, is among the new faculty members to be included in our New Faces feature.

Administrators are continuing to apply pressure to state leaders for a budget resolution, and are working to have the University of Illinois removed from the American Association of University Professors censure list.

Activities for the 2015 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Homecoming, its 105th, take place Oct. 18 (Sunday) through Oct. 24 (Saturday).

Interim Chancellor Barbara J. Wilson said suggestions for changes in the university's expanded background check policy are being seriously considered.

Vibrant colors surround the north entrance to the Illini Union on a recent fall day. 

The fourth annual MRL Biological Conference will be Nov. 4 and 5 at the Materials Research Laboratory. The laboratory offers an array of characterization tools, which enable a wide range of structural research in biological and advanced materials systems. To further educate current and future facility users in the number of options available to them, this workshop is devoted to biological inquiry and applications.