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  • Professor Will Schneider

    Will Schneider: My path to Illinois

    Apr 6, 2020 2:00 pm

    'Illinois has historically played a large role in shaping our understanding of child maltreatment, and I believe that we can alter the trajectory of generations of children to come.'

  • young bird nests among leaves on the forest floor. Photo by author

    Waiting for the sun to set to find a rare bird

    Jun 30, 2022 10:00 am

    Each night, we perform checks of Whip-Poor-Will nests to record development of eggs and chicks, as well as instances of predation or failure. Nests are at risk on the ground, but a few broods hatch and reach fledging age, when they begin to fly.

  • Tamar Dallal, a senior in engineering physics, creates a flower arrangement for an exhibition at Japan House. Photo by Fred Zwicky

    Vivifying ikebana: Japanese flower arranging

    Oct 21, 2022 9:15 am

    Tamar learned jiyuka, or freestyle arrangement, which encourages contemporary artistic expression using simple design principles to create miniature arrangements highlighting the theme of kokoro, or heart, mind and spirit.

  • Sourbette and Sophie, Baudet du Poitou donkeys at the U of I College of Veterinary Medicine, are inseparable. Photos by Michelle Hassel

    Vet Med: Saving an endangered breed of donkey

    Jun 3, 2022 10:45 am

    Numbers of Baudet du Poitou donkeys have dwindled to only 300-400 worldwide. A breeding effort is underway at Illinois to expand their numbers and help save the breed from extinction. Photos by Michelle Hassel.

  • Illinois graduate student Martha Larkin pulls a lever to operate a hand press as students get hands-on experience with historical printing technologies.

    Using a 19th-century hand press to teach history of printing

    Dec 8, 2022 9:45 am

    'I want students to literally get their hands on historical technology. Rather than talking about how print worked, students do these things – set print, bind books and use computer technology,' says Professor Ryan Cordell.

  • researcher holds small Kirtland's snake

    Unearthing an uncommon, burrowing snake

    Oct 12, 2020 9:30 am

    Kirtland’s snakes were once widespread in Illinois, but now are listed as a threatened species. With more than 99% of Illinois’ natural prairies lost to agriculture and urban development, these snakes struggle to maintain their current populations.

  • Ananya Sen. Photo by Fred Zwicky

    Tracking an invisible world

    Jul 22, 2019 9:30 am

    Successful experiments are worth the sleepless nights I spend dissecting the processes in living things that are essentially invisible to us.

  • In 2009, a fast-moving windstorm known as a derecho swept through this site, near Fountain Bluff in Illinois. Photo by Melissa Daniels

    Tracking a forest’s recovery one year after storm

    Aug 1, 2018 10:00 am

    In February, 2017, a tornado swept through this part of the Shawnee National Forest. There are few canopy trees left standing and invasive understory plants have taken over

  • The multimedia 'CETACEAN (The Whale)' performance takes you to the sea

    Sep 21, 2023 10:30 am

    The 'CETACEAN' performances are Sept. 28 to Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Stock Pavilion, 1402 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Urbana. Admission is free and seating is first come, first served.

  • professor of labor and employee relations Teresa Cardador. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

    Teresa Cardador: My path to Illinois

    Mar 30, 2020 2:15 pm

    'Meaningful work is not simply something you go out and find like an egg at an Easter egg hunt. It’s something co-created, over time, by individuals and the organizations they work in.'

  • Ph.D. student Brian Graves presented his virus-busting video game. Photo by Fred Zwicky

    Teaching generations of students about outbreaks – with art

    Jan 26, 2023 12:45 pm

    'The art show is a midpoint in a journey to revamp the health district’s Germ Busters program, which conducts outreach to K-8 students on a variety of infectious diseases.'

  • Two Brood X adults of the genus Magicicada rest on a fern leaf. Photo by Marianne Alleyne

    Taking a cicada road trip

    May 27, 2021 9:30 am

    'Every night, we quietly lurk in the dark at the edge of the lawn to listen for the rustling of dried leaves as the cicadas come out of their burrows. It’s a bit creepy, but also stunning...'

  • The team hoists Illini kicker James McCourt aloft after he kicks a 39-yard field goal to give the Illini a 24-23 victory. Photo by Fred Zwicky

    Surviving a football frenzy

    Nov 15, 2019 9:45 am

    Photographer Fred Zwicky puts you on the field as bedlam unfolds and Illinois fans celebrate a major upset victory over heavily favored Wisconsin.

  • Illinois Natural History Survey medical entomologist Jiayue (Gabriel) Yan peers through a viewing port as he works inside a sealed glove box, using tongs to carefully handle Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Photos by Fred Zwicky

    Starving mosquitoes for science

    Feb 22, 2024 9:30 am

    Go Behind the Scenes with Illinois Natural History Survey medical entomologist Jiayue (Gabriel) Yan as he studies how nutrition influences mosquito infection with dengue virus. 

  • An airborne male red-winged blackbird swoops at the author while the female guards her nest. Photo by Shelby Lawson

    Staging a threatening encounter at a blackbird nest

    Oct 7, 2021 8:00 am

    'The male stares me down while flicking his tail and wings – a sign that I’m not welcome here. Red-winged blackbirds are among the most brash and vocal birds you’ll ever meet.'

  • steam clouds the view of the ancient works inside one of Illinois' steam tunnels

    Spooky Spaces at U of I: The steam tunnels

    Oct 28, 2022 10:30 am

    You can't go inside them - they're dangerous and you'd be arrested - but the steam tunnels under the campus serve important functions. Plus, the old brick tunnelways produce weird noises that complete their creepy image.

  • A view of the thornscrub habitat along the bluffs of the Rio Grande. Credit: Photo by Sara Johnson

    Searching the Texas brushland for a rare, temperamental plant

    Aug 18, 2022 9:45 am

    'As it stands with most rare species, this work isn’t always easy, but it is fulfilling. The excitement of seeing one rare plant – let alone a thriving population – is enough to sustain me in this work.'

  • Ornate Turtle. Photo by Devin Edmonds

    Searching for turtles in a sea of grass

    Jun 5, 2018 10:30 am

    To survey local Ornate Turtles, one has to find them. Turtle tracking dogs help a lot.

  • Rohit Bhargava. Photo by Brian Stauffer

    Rohit Bhargava: My path to Illinois

    Apr 9, 2020 9:15 am

    'Illinois technology has transformed lives, from the transistor to the LED, the MRI and the web browser. I knew we had the science and people to transform cancer too, if only we could bring them together.'

  • Lori Fuller's hand creating colored pencil art. Photo courtesy of Lori Fuller

    Rocks, moss and muddy tree roots

    Apr 15, 2018 12:30 pm

    Campus staff member tells of finding inspiration for her art on a trip to the Great Smokey Mountains. 'I have one goal in mind,' she writews. 'I want to see something extraordinary.'

  • Tyrone Phillips works with the cast and crew as they rehearse prior to opening night at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Photo by Fred Zwicky

    Returning to Illinois theatre to direct, mentor students

    Apr 25, 2023 4:15 pm

    Tyrone Phillips, an Illinois theatre program alumnus and the artistic director of Chicago’s Definition Theatre, returned to direct students in a play this spring.

  • Professor Lisa Lucero does field work in Belize. Anthropology professor Lisa Lucero and her colleagues are working to capture the history from Maya ruins before they are plowed under. Photo by C. Taylor. Photo copyright © 2022 VOPA and Belize Institute of Archaeology, NICH.

    Rescuing ancient Maya history from the plow

    Jun 22, 2022 3:45 pm

    Anthropology professor Lisa Lucero and her colleagues are working to capture the history from Maya ruins before they are plowed under.

  • workers remove the terra cotta roof tiles from the roof below the bell tower, stacking them to be reinstalled after reinforcements to the roof and the addition of an ice and water shield. All photos by Fred Zwicky

    Renovating historic Altgeld Hall

    Nov 20, 2023 2:00 pm

    'The renovation of Altgeld Hall will mark the rebirth of one of the campus’s most storied and iconic buildings. The facility, which opened in 1897, was instrumental in the university’s early growth, and this project ensures that its legacy will continue,' says project manager Kevin Price. 

  • Milky Way. Photo by U.S. Forest Service

    Rediscovering a path to the Milky Way

    May 6, 2020 11:00 am

    We’re here because it’s wet. Archaeologist Tim Pauketat, who has studied Cahokia 25 years, wants to see it flooded. Watching how the water flows here will help unlock some of the secrets of this place, he says.

  • researcher Rebecca Barzilai maps and collects soil samples from the floor of a religious shrine in Greater Cahokia, an ancient Native American settlement on the Mississippi River in and around present-day St. Louis. Photo by Leslie Drane, the Emerald Acropolis Project

    Reading history in the soil

    Jan 28, 2020 8:45 am

    Archaeologists are often asked, 'What is the most interesting thing you’ve ever found?' My answer...is not as much about the objects I find as it is about the stories I learn from them.

  • A stream of extracellular vesicles travels through blood vessels near a tumor. Photo by Stephen Boppart

    Professors Marni and Stephen Boppart: Tracking the traffic between our cells

    Nov 21, 2023 10:30 am

    The 2023 Allen Distinguished Investigators are visualizing and tracking extracellular vesicles: tiny packages of molecular cargo in nanosized lipid carriers, released by all cells in the body. 

  • farmers learn how to grow their crops sustainably. Photo courtesy Esther Ngumbi.

    Professor Esther Ngumbi: My path from the Kenyan coast to Illinois

    Mar 23, 2020 9:45 am

    'I grew up on the Kenyan coast... My parents were teachers, but their income was not enough to sustain us and send us to school. So, we also farmed. I got up early every day to work on the farm before school.'

  • Evans teaching landowners about the safe use of chainsaws. Photo by Taryn Bieri, University of Illinois

    Preserving Illinois forests, one landowner at a time

    Apr 28, 2023 10:15 am

    Illinois Extension forestry and research specialist Christopher Evans describes leading the first field day of a Beginning Forest Landowner Program to give landowners the experience, skills and connections needed to better manage their forests.

  • Young woman sits on a fallen tree in the woods. PHOTO BY MELISSA DANIELS

    Pondering U of I's ecological impact

    Apr 22, 2021 9:00 am

    I am biased, but I think the university’s leadership in so many areas of environmental research is exceptional. Here’s why.

  • 1. Postdoctoral researcher Mikus Abolins-Abols peers into the nest of an American robin. Photo by L. B. Stauffer

    Playing a parasite for science

    Aug 22, 2018 10:15 am

    I act the part of the cowbird: I spy on robins to find their nests and slip a foreign egg into each one. 

  • petrosglyph of a hand in Monroe County, Illinois

    Petroglyphs: Preserving the Past in 3D

    Mar 7, 2019 1:45 pm

    Archaeology team uses a portable 3D scanner to recreate the details of a hand petroglyph from a site overlooking the Mississippi River in Monroe County, Illinois.

  • Greenhouse assistant student worker Alexandra (Lexi) Gomez cuts back dead foliage from a Ischnosiphon pruinosus plant. Photos by Fred Zwicky

    Nurturing a tropical paradise in the heart of the Midwest

    Mar 10, 2023 9:00 am

    The U of I Plant Biology Greenhouse and Conservatory houses more than 200 species and 60 families of tropical and subtropical plants selected for their botanical interest or economic importance.

  • Measuring the unseen life of a river

    Sep 25, 2019 8:00 am

    Illinois researchers can learn about the life of a river without seeing the animals that live there.

  • curious chickens watch photographer Michelle Hassel as she takes their picture

    Learning from chickens

    Oct 19, 2022 8:15 am

    A tour of the U. of I.’s Poultry Research Farm reveals that chickens are daring, pragmatic and curious about humans. The facility trains students in all aspects of chicken care, breeding and management, and supports research at Illinois and beyond.

  • The observers watch as a farmer tosses a net into one of several ponds on the cooperative grounds. Photo by Quang Trieu, Vietnam Academy of Social Science.

    Learning by listening to the people who live it

    Mar 18, 2024 9:15 am

    Experts from Illinois visit a cooperative prawn and rice farm in Southeast Vietnam to hear the farmers' stories about their challenges and adaptations to a changing climate.  

  • In a July ceremony, Elizabeth Woodburn receives her white coat, signifying that she is a physician-in-training, from dean King Li and executive associate dean Rashid Bashir. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

    Journey to becoming a physician-innovator

    Jul 17, 2018 8:45 am

    A a member of the inaugural class of the world’s first engineering-based medical school talks about how she got to Illinois

  • 3. Wildflowers bloom in the recently burned understory of the pine flatwoods of Floridas Apalachicola National Forest.

    In search of ‘white birds in a nest’

    Jul 24, 2018 8:00 am

    Our willingness to tromp through swamps and brambles is fueled by the hope of catching a glimpse of “white birds in a nest” (Macbridea alba) in bloom

  • The author helps his colleagues install mist nets around a pond. ALT TEXT: Photo of the author standing near a vertical pole used to secure the nets. He grasps a cord used to tighten the nets in place. Photo by Elizabeth Beilke

    In pursuit of Indiana bats

    Jun 22, 2021 8:45 am

    'My role at this site is to attach temperature-sensitive radio tags to reproductive female Indiana bats. We’ll use these tags to track the bats to roost trees during the day and to monitor their body temperatures.'

  • The weavers gather in a community center in Tambo Perccaro. Photo by Francisco Seuffenheld

    Illinois outreach: The weavers of Tambo Perccaro

    Jul 16, 2018 3:45 pm

    'About 70 people are waiting for us in the courtyard of the community center when we arrive. They are llama herders, farmers and weavers. Many have walked for miles to be here...'

  • Artist and professor Bea Nettles found this name in a cemetery in Rochester, N.Y., and used it in her 'Head Lines' book.

    Hunting Goodenough Days

    Nov 30, 2020 8:00 am

    Artist Bea Nettles uses photographs of names from gravestones to create poetry for her book projects. Her most recent book 'Head Lines: Worlds Warning' is a chronology of the COVID-19 outbreak.

  • The author sets a trap for ticks with dry ice. Photo by Fred Zwicky

    Hunting a creature that hunts me

    Aug 20, 2021 1:15 pm

    When I reach the trap...I see that it’s covered in ticks. Hooray! Quickly though, I realize that I’ve introduced my own CO2 to the scene, along with the added attractant of my body heat. Suddenly, I become the local target of choice for the ticks.

  • Gary Stitt, 61, stretches his arms to the sky as people gather for a Dance for People with Parkinson’s class at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. All photos by Fred Zwicky

    Grace and healing: Parkinson's dance class exercises body, mind

    Jun 12, 2020 10:30 am

    Dance for People with Parkinson’s uses dance to inspire patients to expand the limits of their condition. 'You just have to keep moving, one way or another. If I ever stop moving, that’s the end of it.' says participant Gary Stitt.

  • sampling of the collection of documents, photos, reports and artifacts related to photosynthesis research in Govindjee's office. Photos by Fred Zwicky

    Govindjee's photosynthesis museum

    Jul 9, 2019 8:00 am

    Plant biology professor emeritus Govindjee, who has made key contributions to the scientific understanding of photosynthesis, is also an archivist and historian of photosynthesis research.

  • Agricultural and biological engineering professor Girish Chowdhari. Photo by Matthew Lester Photography, LLC.

    Girish Chowdhary: My path to Illinois

    Mar 27, 2020 9:00 am

    'At Illinois, this vision has bloomed into an invaluable research collaboration for some of the brightest minds crop sciences. The robots can do the research fieldwork required in a fraction of the time.'

  • A Blanding’s turtle held in field researcher's hand. Photo by Andrea Colton and Emily Sunnucks

    Gathering data to save a rare turtle

    Aug 13, 2020 9:45 am

    'Our goal is to learn as much as we can about (Blanding's turtles). Knowing...how many Blanding’s turtles remain – in the context of the turtle community as a whole – will help in the development of viable conservation and recovery plans for them.'

  • Following the sounds of prairie cicadas

    Sep 24, 2020 1:00 pm

    Scientists at the Illinois Natural History Survey study the elusive insect.

  • The author, Juliana Soto, with a sooty ant tanager, Habia gutturalis. Soto is a graduate student in the U. of I. Program in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology. Photo by Natalia Ocampo Peñuela

    Following in the footsteps of early 20th century naturalist Elizabeth Kerr

    Jun 5, 2023 9:15 am

    Today marks the beginning of our expedition to the Central Andes of Colombia. All eight of us are women. We are all Colombian ornithologists working together to survey the birds here. Interestingly, we are not the first women to do this.  

  • Members of the Geoscientists Without Borders team pose with Jimu villagers after the successful completion of a new village borehole.

    Finding water closer to home in Jimu Village

    Oct 10, 2018 4:00 am

    Many of these happy faces wore skeptical frowns last April when we first approached the villagers with our crazy idea to find a new water source for them using high-tech instruments

  • graduate student Mary Lyons. Photo by Fred Zwicky

    Finding time for play

    Dec 5, 2019 8:00 am

    Graduate student Mary Lyons studies teachers’ strategies for supporting young children’s play-based learning.

  • A composite of images from holiday- and winter-themed books at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Photos by Fred Zwicky

    Finding the holiday spirit in rare books

    Dec 20, 2018 3:00 pm

    The Rare Book and Manuscript Library has holiday- and winter-themed books and images, from a depiction of a 1683 frost fair on a frozen river to illustrations of Norse folk tales