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Deaths

Kenneth Nelson Dugan, 84, of Pesotum, Illinois, died Oct. 29. He was a firefighter for the University of Illinois Fire Department, serving as battalion chief. Memorials: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Henry William Lippold, 89, of Altoona, Wisconsin, died Saturday, Oct. 20, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. A memorial service will take place at The Classic, 2455 Sawgrass Place, Altoona, from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17. He began teaching at the university in 1959, splitting his time between academics and serving as the news director, anchor, reporter and writer for WILL-TV. Memorials: Henry Lippold Fellowship Fund at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.

Dr. Thomas N. “Doc” Monfort, 79, died Oct. 18 at his home in Farmer City, Illinois. A visitation will take place from 4 to 7 p.m., followed by a celebration of life at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 19, at New Horizon United Methodist Church, 3002 W. Bloomington Road in Champaign. He accepted a position at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Illinois in 1964, where he worked as a clinician and also conducted research on racehorses for the Illinois Racing Commission. He was responsible for the creation of the Illinois Equine Center in Farmer City, which is now supported by Midwest Equine and the College of Veterinary Medicine. Memorials: Society for Hooved Animal’s Rescue and Emergency, 20844 Cumberland Road, Farmer City, IL 61842.

William “Harry” Soloman, 92, of Champaign, died Oct. 28 at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 5, at Morgan Memorial Home, Savoy, Illinois. Burial will be in Stearns Cemetery in Fithian, Illinois. Visitation will be from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the funeral home. He was a firefighter for the University of Illinois Fire Department, retiring as battalion chief in 1978. Memorials: American Heart Association.

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Engineering Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Nishant Garg, center, is joined by fellow researchers, from left: Yujia Min, Hossein Kabir, Nishant Garg, center, Chirayu Kothari and M. Farjad Iqbal, front right. In front are examples of clay samples dissolved at different concentrations in a NaOH solution. The team invented a new test that can predict the performance of cementitious materials in mere 5 minutes. This is in contrast to the standard ASTM tests, which take up to 28 days. This new advance enables real-time quality control at production plants of emerging, sustainable materials. Photo taken at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (Photo by Fred Zwicky / University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Researchers develop a five-minute quality test for sustainable cement industry materials

A new test developed at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign can predict the performance of a new type of cementitious construction material in five minutes — a significant improvement over the current industry standard method, which takes seven or more days to complete. This development is poised to advance the use of next-generation resources called supplementary cementitious materials — or SCMs — by speeding up the quality-check process before leaving the production floor.

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