Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Deaths

Daniel Lee Beckman, 75, of Savoy, Illinois, died May 5 at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana. He taught electron microscopy for 10 years at the university. Memorials: American Hemochromatosis Society.

Susan Kathleen Connelly, 69, of Urbana, died May 8. She was an executive adviser for the Volunteer Illini Program at the university.

Paul Krabbe, 87, died May 23 at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana. He worked at the university for 35 years designing and building computers. He contributed to the ILLIAC projects, a series of supercomputers built between 1951 and 1974.

Carolyn G. (Shaw) Mink, 59, of Oneida, Illinois, formerly of Urbana, died May 15 at her home. She was an office support specialist in the Office of New Student Programs at the university. Memorials: Mink Family Memorial, OSF Hospice or Immanuel Lutheran Church.

Mete A. Sozen, 87, a longtime Urbana resident, died April 5 in London. He was a professor of structural engineering at Illinois from 1957-92. He had many accomplishments, including the invention of the earthquake simulator to test scale models of structures. Memorials: Purdue Research Foundationor the Mete A. Sozen Fellowship Fund through the University of Illinois Foundation.

Marilyn Upah-Bant, 64, of Urbana, died May 2. She was a journalism teacher at University of Illinois Laboratory High School and became its director of development and alumni relations.  A memorial service to celebrate her life will be held at a later date.

Read Next

Life sciences Photo of Michael Ward standing in tall grass on a riverbank.

How are migrating wild birds affected by H5N1 infection in the U.S.?

Each spring, roughly 3.5 billion wild birds migrate from their warm winter havens to their breeding grounds across North America, eating insects, distributing plant seeds and providing a variety of other ecosystem services to stopping sites along the way. Some also carry diseases like avian influenza, a worry for agricultural, environmental and public health authorities. […]

Announcements Marcelo Garcia, professor of civil and environmental engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering.

Illinois faculty member elected to National Academy of Engineering

Champaign, Ill. — Marcelo Garcia, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Social sciences Male and female student embracing on the quad with flowering redbud tree and the ACES library in the background. Photo by Michelle Hassel

Dating is not broken, but the trajectories of relationships have changed

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — According to some popular culture writers and online posts by discouraged singles lamenting their inability to find romantic partners, dating is “broken,” fractured by the social isolation created by technology, pandemic lockdowns and potential partners’ unrealistic expectations. Yet two studies of college students conducted a decade apart found that their ideas about […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

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

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010