PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 26, No. 13, Feb. 1, 2007

brief notes

'Prairie Fire'
15th season of local stories begins
The 15th anniversary season of WILL-TV’s “Prairie Fire” begins at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 1, when host Alison Davis Wood and her crew use a motorcycle and pontoon boat to follow three tri-athletes in a half Ironman event at Lake Mattoon.

Wood and videographers Tim Hartin and Julius Bolton wanted to be close enough to show the struggles of the athletes as they ran, swam and biked. “It was a challenge because the events were so spread out,” Wood said.

The first episode also features a behind-the-scenes look at the Orange Krush, produced by two UI students. The segment looks at the student support group for men’s basketball and its impact on the Illini home record through the years.

During the anniversary season, viewers are being asked to vote for their favorite segment from the program’s archives. “We’ve done about 350 segments, and people often call wanting to see one of them again,” Wood said. “This year, we’ll air one past story each week as a ‘Viewers’ Choice’ segment. A list of segments is available at the WILL Web site, www.will.uiuc.edu, along with an e-mail link to vote.

The Viewers’ Choice segment on Feb. 1 will be a profile of Tim Nugent, who started wheelchair athletics at the UI. “All the championships and Olympic medals won by UI wheelchair athletes can all be traced back to one guy,” Wood said. “He saw all the disabled students coming to the UI after World War II and had the vision to start the program.”

Other February stories include a piece about Abraham Lincoln’s riding of the 8th judicial circuit, seen through the eyes of Bloomington lawyer Guy Fraker; the Maid Rite Sandwich Shop in Springfield; Bagelfest in Mattoon; Crosswinds Equine Rescue in Tuscola; Rockome Gardens in Arcola; and Edwards Place in Springfield.

The new episodes conclude April 26 with the “Prairie Fire 15th Anniversary Special.” Wood and original host Jeff Cunningham will give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at “Prairie Fire” through the years.

Themed meals featured
Spice Box returns for spring semester
Students and guest chefs have begun a new semester of creating experiences in fine dining at the Spice Box, a working laboratory for students majoring in hospitality management. The restaurant is on the second floor of Bevier Hall.
The theme for the Feb. 2 meal, prepared by guest chefs Annie and Lauren Murray of LA Gourmet Catering of Champaign is “Who dunnit? Fine Dining Inspired by ‘Clue.’ ”

Additional meals, in a wide array of themes, will follow on Friday nights throughout the semester.
A complete list of the meal dates, their themes and guest chefs is available on the Spice Box Web site, www.spicebox.uiuc.edu. Contact jnorth@illinois.edu to be placed on an e-mail list for updates.

Each dining event offers a four-course meal, including salad, appetizer, featured entrée and dessert, or a salad and entrée. A specialty alcoholic beverage also is offered. Price varies according to menu, and reservations are required. Reservations are available at 5:30, 6, 7 and 7:30 p.m.

To reserve seating, call 333-6520.

NCSA
Apply now for fellowship program
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is accepting proposals for the center’s fellowship program for the academic year 2007-2008. Proposals are sought from faculty members at the UI and from around the nation for cross-disciplinary and collaborative engagements between NCSA faculty and staff members interested in contributing to the creation of a national cyberinfrastructure for arts, humanities, science and engineering.

UI faculty members are eligible to apply to the NCSA/UIUC Faculty Fellows Program. Deadline for proposal submissions is March 30.

The NCSA/NSF Summer Faculty Fellowships are open to U.S. faculty members not affiliated with the Urbana campus. Deadline is March 16.

A primary requirement for the fellowships is to join experts with innovative staff members at NCSA to create new knowledge. NCSA expects to award about a dozen NCSA/UIUC Faculty Fellowships and about six NCSA/NSF Summer Faculty Fellowships.

Contact Radha Nandkumar with proposal ideas at fellowships@ncsa.uiuc.edu or 244-0650. For more information, application guidelines and proposal submissions go to http://fellowships.ncsa.uiuc.edu.

I space
Two new exhibitions under way
Free-hand architectural sketches and mixed media work are featured in two new exhibitions on view through Feb. 24 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the UI.

• “Envisioning Architecture: Drawings by Martin Wolf” offers an insider’s perspective on the working style and process of architect Martin Wolf, the principal in charge of design at Solomon Cordwell Buenz and Associates, Chicago.
  Many of today’s architects and designers have shifted to computer-aided design techniques. Wolf, however, demonstrates through the exhibition – which includes a video of him at work – why free-hand drawing is still a vital tool for many practicing architects at various stages of the design process.
• “John Fraser: In Reserve” brings together recent as well as earlier pieces from the artist’s body of work, including art not previously exhibited. Selected works combine subtle color, texture, balance and minimalist design to create a sense of power and drama. The collection includes a free-standing sculpture along with reliefs and collage/assemblages.
  

I space gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

University Primary School
Visitors may observe classrooms
University Primary School (preschool, kindergarten, first grade) will host an open house on Feb. 28. Visitors may see the preschool in action from 8:30 a.m. to noon and the combined kindergarten and first grade class from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The deadline for applications for the 2007-2008 academic year is March 16. For more information, contact director Nancy Hertzog at 333-3996 or nhertzog@illinois.edu.

‘Engineering, Technology and Culture’
Interdisciplinary lecture series continues
The interdisciplinary lecture series, “Engineering, Technology and Culture,” continues Feb. 14 with a lecture by Gary Downey of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Downey will present “Are Globalization, Diversity and Leadership Variations of the Same Problem? Moving Problem Definition to the Core.” On Feb. 21, Carl Mitcham of the Colorado School of Mines will present “John Dewey and Herbert Simon: Two Perspectives on Engineering and Decision Making.” Four additional lectures are scheduled this spring. All presentations are from noon-1 p.m.; locations vary. Visit http://gal4.ge.uiuc.edu/ETSI or call 333-2595 for more information.

Religion and violence
Public symposia will examine religion
The darker side of religion in the U.S. will be put under intense scrutiny during free public symposia on Feb. 2 and April 20 at the UI.

The topic of religion and violence “is of enduring relevance both as a matter of domestic/civic concern and as a matter of international concern,” said Jonathan Ebel, one of the organizers and a professor of religion at UI.

Both meetings will feature some of the prominent names in a variety of disciplines, Ebel said, including American religious history, ethics, law, philosophy and theology.

The February symposium, “Saving Faith/Killing Faith: A Religious History of Violence and Restraint,” will examine the history of violence with “particular attention to the myths of nation that have created and spread violence,” Ebel said. Among the participants is Martin Marty, a professor emeritus of the history of modern Christianity at UIC.

The April meeting will explore “Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Violence, Faith and America”; a third symposium will be held in October at Arizona State University.

Topics, presenters, locations and times for the first two meetings can be found at www.relst.uiuc.edu/events/forum.html.
The local meetings are sponsored by the Illinois Forum on Religion in America, an organization Ebel and his colleague Richard Layton founded at Illinois from their academic unit, the Program for the Study of Religion.

Creative Writing Program
Award-winning authors to visit UI
Four award-winning authors will visit the UI early this year to read from their works, talk about their craft and meet future writers and their professors in the university’s Creative Writing Program.

One of the authors is Dave Eggers, who earned his bachelor’s degree at the UI in journalism in 2002.

Eggers has been well known in the literary world for more than a decade. “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” (2000), a memoir with fictional elements, quickly became a best-seller and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in the general non-fiction category. The memoir was praised for its originality, idiosyncratic self-referencing and several innovative stylistic elements.

Eggers also has written traditional non-fiction, novels, short stories and children’s books, and has served as an editor or contributor to scores of publishing outlets.

He will read from his work at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 9 in the Authors Corner of the Illini Union Bookstore, the site of all the talks, which are free and open to the public.

The authors are taking part in the Creative Writing Program’s Spring 2007 Carr Visiting Authors Series, held each semester to showcase up-and-coming and established American writers. 

This semester’s other Carr authors:

• 5:30 p.m. Feb. 8, poet Camille Dungy, whose most recent work is “What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison” (Red Hen Press, 2006).
• 5:30 p.m. April 10, Dunya Mikhail, a poet famous in her native Iraq and known for her subversive, innovative and satirical poetry.
• Peter Orner, April 19, 4:30 p.m., a novelist and short-story writer who teaches in the graduate writing program at San Francisco State University. Orner is the author of the novel “The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo.”
  

Education forum
Poverty, children and schools discussed
Poverty and its influence on children, schools and the Champaign-Urbana community – and finding new strategies to address it – will be the topic of a two-part forum Feb. 10 at the UI.

The Saturday event will begin at 8:30 a.m. with a keynote talk, panel discussion and community forum at the Levis Faculty Center. The featured speaker will be Nancy K. Cauthen, deputy director of the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University. 

Joining Cauthen for the panel discussion will be Maneesha Date, a policy analyst for Voices for Illinois Children; Jane Quinlan, from the Champaign-Ford regional office of education; and representatives from the Champaign and Urbana school districts.

From 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., there will be a seminar for educators, policymakers, and human-services, health-care and child-welfare professionals, as well as interested community members. The focus of the seminar at Levis will be a community workshop program called “Bridges Out of Poverty,” developed in part from the ideas of Ruby Payne, the founder and president of aha! Process Inc.

The goal in both sessions will be to not only discuss poverty-related concerns, but also to seek new ways to work together and to more effectively address the concerns, said Robert Henderson, a professor emeritus of special education at Illinois and one of the organizers.

The morning session is free and open to the public, with a continental breakfast available before the event, starting at 8. The seminar that follows requires advance registration by Feb. 5 and a $25 fee to cover lunch and materials used in the session.

The forum is the latest in a series initiated in the fall of 2005 to promote discussion on education and other related topics, with a focus on the local schools and community. The series is sponsored by the university’s College of Education and organized by the university’s chapter of Phi Delta Kappa, a professional association for educators.Co-sponsors for the Feb. 10 forum include the Champaign and Urbana school districts, the Illinois North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement, and Parkland College.

To register for the seminar, call the Illinois North Central Association at 333-1120 or e-mail smorriso@uillinois.edu. Teachers and school personnel can earn CEU and CPDU credits by attending.

Additional information about the “Bridges” program can be found on the aha! Process Inc. Web site, www.ahaprocess.com.

Employee benefits 
Information kiosk now available
A human resources and benefits information kiosk has been set up in the fourth floor reception area of the Illini Union Bookstore Building. The self-service kiosk provides employees with online access to university benefits and human resources information. The home page directs users to NESSIE, benefits forms and human resources quick links. Users also may view a PowerPoint presentation that provides an introduction to benefits and insurance information. This kiosk is available weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The hours of the Benefits Service Center, located in Suite 480 of the Illini Union Bookstore Building, have changed. Benefits staff members are now available weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 333-3111 to set up an appointment.

Biomedical research highlighted
Two NIH speakers featured
More than 20 years ago, researchers discovered that nitrogen oxides mediate both positive and negative physiological mechanisms in cancer. Despite an explosion of work in this field, researchers are just now starting to understand the biology underlying these pro- and anti-carcinogenic effects.

On Feb. 19, David Wink, a senior investigator in the Radiation Biology Branch of the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md., will present an overview of the latest findings on nitric oxide and cancer as part of the spring 2007 weekly seminar series on translational biomedical research.

On March 19, Chana Khana, a senior scientist who heads the tumor metastases section of the National Institutes of Health Pediatric Oncology Branch, will speak on a comparative approach to cancer biology and therapy.

Other lectures in this series will address other aspects of the physiologic role of nitric oxide, cancer therapy and environmental contexts for infectious disease.

Hosted by the UI College of Veterinary Medicine, all talks begin at noon on Mondays in the Small Animal Clinic auditorium; metered parking is available in Lot F-27 located at 2001 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana.

Talks are free and open to the public. Veterinarians may earn one hour of continuing education credit by attending.
The Translational Biomedical Research Seminar Series at the highlights fundamental research discoveries with potential to directly benefit human and animal health and society.

For the complete schedule of talks in the series, go to www.cvm.uiuc.edu/trbioseries.html.

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