Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Research news

Physical sciences This image shows an overhead shot of a large semiconductor plant located in a rural area.

New PFAS removal process aims to stamp out pollution ahead of semiconductor industry growth

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study is the first to describe an electrochemical strategy to capture, concentrate and destroy mixtures of diverse chemicals known as PFAS — including the increasingly prevalent ultra-short-chain PFAS — from water in a single process. This new development is poised to address the growing industrial problem of […]

Humanities Diptych image with book cover of "After Palmares" and a headshot of Marc Hertzman.

History professor’s book looks at Brazil’s longest-lasting maroon society, its influence today

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The largest and longest-lasting society formed by people who escaped slavery and their descendants endured for a century in northeastern Brazil, and it continues to be a potent political symbol of Black pride today. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign history professor Marc Hertzman wrote about the settlement and how memories of it survive […]

Social sciences Jose Atiles standing near a staircase in a campus building.

New book examines the impact of colonialism on Puerto Rico

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Powerful hurricanes, the COVID-19 pandemic, spiraling public debt and political corruption triggered humanitarian, economic and environmental crises in Puerto Rico. However, a new book suggests that the Puerto Rican and U.S. governments made these multilayered crises catastrophic through the socioeconomic, legal and racialized structures and conditions they created. “Crisis by Design: Emergency […]

Engineering This is a portrait of the researcher featured in this article.

New study: Earthquake prediction techniques lend quick insight into strength, reliability of materials

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Materials scientists can now use insight from a very common mineral and well-established earthquake and avalanche statistics to quantify how hostile environmental interactions may impact the degradation and failure of materials used for advanced solar panels, geological carbon sequestration and infrastructure such as buildings, roads and bridges.

Humanities Diptych image with book cover of "The Promise of Beauty" and headshot of Mimi Thi Nguyen.

Illinois professor’s book explores the relationship between beauty and crisis

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Creating and nurturing beauty in dark times helps us endure another day. Beauty can help us appraise how we live and how we can build better lives. Its presence or absence is a critique of the social and political structures that are necessary to allow it to flourish, said Mimi Thi Nguyen, […]

Expert viewpoints This image shows the researcher featured in this article.

Have newspaper political endorsements outlived their purpose?

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor Melita Garza is a journalism historian who studies news as an agent of democracy. News Bureau editor Lois Yoksoulian discussed the history and future of presidential endorsements with Garza in light of recent nonendorsement decisions within some news organizations.  Why do some newspapers endorse presidential candidates? In the early days […]

Behind the scenes University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign student Nathan Knoll presents his response to a prompt as political science students navigate ways to defuse and open dialogue in a polarized political environment as part of the Richard G. and Carole J. Cline Symposium “Bridging Political Differences in a Polarized World" held on Oct. 24 at the Illini Union Ballroom.

Appealing to our ‘better angels’ with the Braver Angels

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — I’m sitting in the well-appointed Illini Union Ballroom on a sunny, late-October afternoon. My current mood: anxious. Sure, our 20th-ranked Illinois football team is taking on No. 1 Oregon this weekend, but that’s not on my mind right now. (Turns out my pregame butterflies were well founded.) Pre-election jitters are foremost, with […]

Health and medicine Charee Thompson and Junhyung Han standing in a campus building.

Communication with doctor during first visit affects pain patients’ outcomes

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Chronic pain — defined as daily or significant pain that lasts more than three months — can be complicated to diagnose and treat. Because chronic pain conditions are clouded with uncertainties, patients often struggle with anxiety and depression, and they and their doctors often find these conditions challenging to discuss and manage, […]

Expert viewpoints Photo of Taisa Markus

How should the next US president handle sanctions on Russia?

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign adjunct law professor Taisa Markus is an expert in securities law and cross-border capital markets. Markus, also a visiting professor at Kyiv Mohyla Faculty of Law, spoke with News Bureau business and law editor Phil Ciciora about U.S. sanctions on Russia. Depending on the results of the presidential election, how do you foresee […]

Life sciences Photo of the researcher in his lab. He is standing in front of a device that sends projectiles into test materials.

Thin skin significantly blunts injury from puncture, study finds

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Being thin-skinned offers unexpected advantages against puncture wounds, a new study finds.

Expert viewpoints Education professor Paul Bruno standing in front of an upward staircase.

How are funding reforms such as vouchers — and potentially Project 2025 — affecting public education?

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Paul Bruno, a professor of education policy, organization and leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, spoke with News Bureau education editor Sharita Forrest about recent developments in funding policies for primary and secondary education, including Ohio’s decision to use tax appropriations for building projects at private religious schools and potential reforms […]

Business Bo Zhang, a professor of labor and employment relations and of psychology at Illinois

New research creates better tool to assess personality traits of job seekers

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — New research co-written by two University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign experts who study personnel psychology points to a better way of helping researchers and employers identify the differences in how people respond to personality tests. The tool — a hybrid of two existing measurement models called the “Mixture Dominance-Unfolding Model,” or “MixDUM” — could help human resources […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010