News Bureau

Four University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign faculty members were honored by the Office of the Provost with the Campus Awards for Excellence in Faculty Leadership.

Fourteen University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign students and recent alumni were offered Fulbright grants to pursue international education, research and teaching experiences across the globe this coming year.

Faculty and staff members and graduate teaching assistants this spring were honored with Campus Awards for Excellence in Instruction. The awards recognize excellence in teaching, mentoring and advising.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign computer science professor Sarita V. Adve and physics professor Philip W. Phillips have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest honor societies in the nation.

Illinois professors Janice N. Harrington, English, and David Sepkoski, history, received 2020 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships.

Illinois architecture professor Randy Deutsch has been elevated to the American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows.

For the ninth time in the past 10 years, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is among the top producers of Fulbright U.S. Student Awards. Thirteen students from the Urbana campus received Fulbright awards for the 2019-20 academic year.

Two University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign scientists are among 126 recipients of the 2020 Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This honor is one of the most competitive and prestigious awards available to early career researchers. 

Nancy Sottos, an engineering professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. She is one of 87 new members and 18 international members announced by the Academy on Feb. 6.

Music professor Christina Bashford was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for a project examining violin culture in Britain.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Eight professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been elected 2019 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Eight faculty members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been named to the 2019 Highly Cited Researchers list, a global listing of scientists who produced the past decade’s most influential papers.

Tim Nugent, the visionary first director of a ground-breaking University of Illinois program for students with disabilities, is being inducted posthumously into the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame.

Liliane Windsor, a professor of social work at the University of Illinois, has been named a Health Policy Fellow by the National Academy of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Six researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were named recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. 

Two U. of I. students are among 244 students nationwide awarded David L. Boren Scholarships to study language in world regions critical to U.S. interests.

Thirteen University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign students and young alumni accepted Fulbright grants for the upcoming academic year, providing opportunities for international educational, research and teaching experiences.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — University of Illinois freshman Ari Kelo, a graduate of Northside College Preparatory High School in Chicago, will join a three-week summer program at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London as part of the Fulbright Summer Institute, an initiative of the U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Commission.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Two University of Illinois undergraduates have been awarded U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarshipsto study critical languages during the summer of 2019.

Eleven faculty members were honored with the Provost’s Campus Distinguished PromotionAward for 2019.

Gabriel Wacks is the first University of Illinois student accepted into Peking University’s Yenching Academy. Along with about 125 scholars from more than 40 countries, he will enroll this fall in an interdisciplinary master’s degree program in China studies.

U. of I. student Philip Kocheril of Champaign was awarded a Barry M. Goldwater scholarship for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years.

The Office of the Provost honored three University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign faculty members May 7 with Campus Awards for Excellence in Faculty Leadership.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Electrical and computer engineering professor Haitham Al-Hassanieh and chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Diwakar Shukla are recipients of this year's Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. According to the foundation, the awards "honor early career scholars whose achievements mark them as among the most promising researchers in their fields."

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is among the U.S. colleges and universities that produced the most 2018-19 Fulbright U.S. Student Awards, as announced recently by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. Top-producing institutions are highlighted annually in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Faculty members selected for endowed chairs deemed to be among the most distinguished honors on campus are Matthew Finkin, a professor of law; Jiawei Han, a professor of computer science; and Nancy Sottos, a professor of materials science and engineering.

University of Illinois Librarian and Dean of Libraries John Wilkin is being honored for his innovation in library technology, including online publishing and providing access to digital content.

University of Illinois professor Mara Wade has been awarded an international research prize for her work on emblems and the culture of Nuremberg, Germany.

The School of Chemical Sciences at Illinois is hosting a celebration of diversity in the fields of chemical sciences and chemical engineering with two public events Feb. 5.

The American Chemical Society will designate a national historic chemical landmark for St. Elmo Brady, the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States, earning it in 1916 at the University of Illinois.

Twelve Illinois undergraduates have been awarded Gilman scholarships to study abroad during the spring 2019 semester.

Alumna Anna Oates won the National Records of Scotland Award for the Most Outstanding Student Work in Digital Preservation for her master’s thesis work on the PDF/A standard. She received the award Nov. 29 at a ceremony at the Amsterdam Museum as part of an international conference hosted by the Dutch Digital Heritage Network and the Amsterdam Museum on World Digital Preservation Day. Anna Oates received her master's degree in 2018 from the School of Information Sciences.

Eleven faculty members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been named to the 2018 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list.

Four professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been elected 2018 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They are: mechanical science and engineering professor Narayana Aluru, computer science professor William Gropp and plant biology professors Andrew Leakey and Ray Ming.

Martin Ostoja-Starzewski, a professor of mechanical science and engineering at Illinois and a member of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology Computational Imaging Group, was awarded the 2018 Worcester Reed Warner Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers during a ceremony at ASME’s International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Pittsburgh.

The Winston Knolls Education Group has awarded the department of special education at the College of Education at Illinois the 2019 Margaret Bancroft Distinguished Leadership Award. The award celebrates recipients’ accomplishments, professional achievements and public and civic service.

Donald J. Wuebbles, the Harry E. Preble Endowed Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Illinois, has been selected as the 2018 Bert Bolin awardee and lecturer of the American Geophysical Union’s Environmental Change section.

Twenty-seven Illinois companies and organizations were honored Oct. 23 for their significant achievements in protecting the environment, helping sustain the future and improving the economy. The winners were announced during a ceremony at the Union League Club in Chicago.

Renske van der Veen, a professor of chemistry at Illinois, was awarded a Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering, a five-year, $875,000 grant.

Illinois sociologist Rebecca Sandefur has been named the recipient of a 2018 MacArthur fellowship, or “genius grant.”

Two graduate students at Illinois have been awarded Department of Energy fellowships.

Anda Trifan, a doctoral candidate in professor of biochemistry Emad Tajkhorshid’s research group, has been awarded a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship to support her research in theoretical and computational biophysics. Edward Hutter, a doctoral candidate in professor of computer science Edgar Solomonik’s research group, was awarded the fellowship to support his research in computer science.

The National Communication Association announces the selection of Leanne Knobloch, a professor of communication at Illinois, as the 2018 recipient of the Charles H. Woolbert Research Award. 

Five University of Illinois professors at the Urbana-Champaign campus have been named University Scholars in recognition of their excellence in teaching, scholarship and service.

Five undergraduates from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are among the 550 students nationwide awarded U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarships to study critical languages this summer.