News Bureau

Tom Battershell ... Jeannine W. Corlas ... Keith Randall Erickson ... Philip Clayton Mitchell ... Shirley J. Smith.

The Center for Advanced Study announces the Associates, Fellows and Beckman Fellows for 2019-20.

A wet April extended the trend for above-average precipitation in Illinois. This year was the seventh-wettest December-to-April period on record, according to Brian Kerschner, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Climatologist Office at the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois.

Members of the news media may pick up stadium passes and parking passes for commencement at the Office of Public Affairs, 507 E. Green St., Champaign. Commencement is Saturday, May 11, at 9:30 a.m.

The Chancellor’s Distinguished Staff Award honors eight civil service staff employees for exceptional performance.

Stephen P. Long, a professor of crop sciences and plant biology at the University of Illinois, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest professional honors a scientist can receive.

ELLNORA: The Guitar Festival will feature a wide variety of musicians Sept. 5-7 at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Illini Emergency Medical Services, a program of the Illinois Fire Service Institute that provides nontransport care to the 58,000 students, staff and faculty members at the Urbana-Champaign campus, was recognized as a Bronze Level EMS Ready Campus at the annual conference of the National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation.

The University YMCA is seeking volunteers and donations for its 18th annual Dump & Run recycling program. Collections during the May period of Dump & Run will be held exclusively at the Stock Pavilion, 1402 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Urbana, because the MCORE construction project limits access to  the University YMCA building on Wright Street.

Penny Nigh, an administrative aide and assistant to Executive Associate Chancellor for Administration and University Relations Wanda E. Ward, was honored by the Illinois Administrative Professional at the University of Illinois (formerly The Secretariat) with the 2019 Office Professional of the Year Award.

Louis H. “Bud” Mesker ... Darcy Elizabeth Strack

Illinois ethnomusicologist Michael Silvers, who specializes in the music of Brazil, has been awarded a 2019 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. He’ll use the fellowship to research a book that will examine the aesthetics and natural resources of instrument-making using Brazilian woods.

Since 1982, thousands of young people have experienced the performing arts at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts by attending creative daytime programs. These performances are designed to invigorate students’ imaginations while also addressing Common Core and Illinois learning standards.

In a study reported in the journal Physical Review Physics Education Research, nearly 75% of 471 undergraduate women in physics who responded to a survey offered during a professional conference reported having experienced at least one type of sexual harassment – mostly gender harassment – in their field. U. of I. anthropology professor Kathryn Clancy, a co-author of the report, talked to News Bureau life sciences editor Diana Yates about the study, which also examined the respondents’ feelings of belonging and legitimacy as scientists and scholars.

The Lyric Theatre @ Illinois spring musical features tap dancing and Gershwin tunes in “Crazy for You.”

Award-winning poet Claudia Rankine will visit the University of Illinois this week to give a reading and meet with students.

Ronald L. Miner ... Charles Edward Olson ... James H. Wyatt Sr.

Notre Dame Cathedral, severely damaged by fire this week, is widely understood as “the beating heart of France,” with global significance beyond that, says one University of Illinois historian in a Q&A. Another notes how a key aspect of music as we know it today was invented for the cathedral’s unique resonant space, a soundscape lost in the fire.

Chancellor Robert J. Jones and chemistry professor Catherine J. Murphy have been elected as members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Janet Lynn “Jaelyn” Jefferson ... Sharon Jo Shiu

The Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching will be presented April 11 to faculty and staff members and graduate teaching assistants at the U. of I., recognizing excellence in teaching, mentoring and advising.

Six employees are recipients of the 2019 Chancellor's Academic Professional Excellence awards, which recognize academic professionals for their work, personal and professional contributions.

The Campus Instructional Facility Project at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is an example of a new public-private partnership model that allows for tax-exempt financing. The $75 million project also incorporates design elements that will conserve energy and reduce costs in the long term.

The Event Horizon Telescope Project announced that it has captured the first image of a black hole. The feature is located at the center of Messier 87 – a giant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo. News Bureau physical sciences editor Lois Yoksoulian spoke with University of Illinois physics and astronomy professor Charles Gammie, who heads up the theory working group for the large, multi-institutional collaboration.

The UP Center, in collaboration with the University YMCA’s Art @ the Y program, is hosting the exhibit “Queering UP the Arts: Celebration of Queer Artists and Artworks,”  on display through May 13 in the University Y’s Murphy Gallery. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

The gallery, located at 1001 S. Wright St., Champaign, is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The exhibition includes submissions from adult and youth artists from Champaign, Urbana, Mahomet, Saybrook and Bloomington. The artworks are of various mediums including digital prints, photographs, cyanotypes, spray paint, acrylics and many other types.

Art @ the Y seeks to engage issues of social justice through quality arts programming. The UP Center was founded in 2009 as an organization to advocate for the equality, wellness, advocacy and visibility of the LGBTQ communities in Champaign County.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association announced that CSOA-presented concerts scheduled to take place from Wednesday, April 10, to Tuesday, April 23, are canceled due to the current strike by musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts will celebrate its 50th anniversary April 12-14 with music, a gala and a global toast.

Nicole Krauss, an award-winning and best-selling author, will talk about her latest novel, “Forest Dark,” and her other works at two campus events April 9.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced $28.6 million in grants to support 233 humanities projects nationwide, including four at the University of Illinois. Each of the Illinois researchers will receive an award of $6,000.

An initiative of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the Health Make-a-Thon aims to help Champaign County residents bring to life their ideas for improving human health through the Health Maker Lab – a network of maker labs, design spaces and fabrication facilities across the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois. Out of 140 ideas submitted, 20 finalists have been selected to pitch their concepts to a panel of judges and a live audience on April 13. Ten will each win $10,000 in Health Maker Lab resources to create a prototype of their idea.

Manfred Raether ... Ralph Stoner Wolfe

“Quantum Rhapsodies” uses narration, video images and the music of the Jupiter String Quartet to explore the world of quantum physics.

The 14th Annual Edible Book Festival, sponsored by the University Library at the University of Illinois and Common Ground Food Co-operative, will be held April 6. The campus and local community are invited to experience this unique intersection of literature and cuisine.

Significant rain in March led to above-normal soil moisture in Illinois and major flooding events for many local streams and rivers, according to Brian Kerschner, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Climatologist Office at the U. of I.’s Illinois State Water Survey. 

University of Illinois history professor Marsha Barrett has been awarded a prestigious ACLS Fellowship.

Frank Gallo ... Charles E. “Charlie” Hartman ... Helen Wright

DoCha, downtown Champaign’s premiere free chamber music festival, announces its 10th anniversary season, Friday to Sunday, April 5-7.

Visiting scholar to present 'Can You Trust Your Local News' lecturePenny Muse Abernathy, a Knight Chair of journalism and digital media economics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, will present her lecture “Can You Trust Your Local News?” Saturday, April 6, at 12:20 p.m. in Room 300 of Levis Faculty Center, 919 W. Illinois St., Urbana.

Come Home to Krannert Center weekend, Friday-Sunday, April 12-14, celebrates Krannert Center for the Performing Arts’ 50th anniversary. The cornerstone event of the weekend, the Come Home Gala, will be held in the center’s lobby Saturday, April 13 at 6 p.m.

An Illinois political science professor explains some of the forces behind “Brexit” and why it’s so difficult.

Information provided for news media interested in covering the Day of Service on the U. of I. at Urbana-Champaign campus Saturday, April 6. Hundreds of volunteers will package 28,000 pounds of food for delivery to families in need throughout eastern Illinois.

Krannert Art Museum has produced a book about performance artist Autumn Knight, with essays and photographs that document Knight’s 2017 performances on campus.

A new version of the U. of I. license plate is available starting today. The updated version, with the "block I" logo, will be mailed to current plate-holders at no charge to them. A portion of the license plate fee goes toward scholarships for in-state students with demonstrated need.

Allan G. Mueller ... Stephen Steele Slivon

This year’s Ebert Film Fest will include “Almost Famous” and “Sideways,” documentaries on Maya Angelou and Fred Rogers, and guest actresses Gina Gershon, Virginia Madsen and Jennifer Tilly.

The new exhibit “Chess: Gymnasium of the Mind” opens April 4 in Spurlock Museum of World Culture’s central core gallery, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana. The display features a variety of chess sets from around the world highlighting unique pieces, boards and moves, and runs through July 7.

Eboni Zamani-Gallaher, the director of the Office of Community College Research and Leadership at the University of Illinois, discusses why so few community college students transfer to selective colleges and universities.

Despite record cold air temperatures, soil temperatures averaged slightly warmer than normal in Illinois this winter. Consequently, the arctic conditions are expected to have little effect on overwintering field crop insect pest populations.

A wide range of air temperatures occurred in Illinois this winter with periods of warmer temperatures in the 60s and 70s and extreme cold with lows in the -30s. Overall, temperatures averaged 29.9 degrees, 0.8 degrees above normal for the season.

An Aretha Franklin concert film from nearly 50 years ago, now restored and released, will open this year’s Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, or “Ebertfest.”

Dick J. Albers ... Martha Baxter North