Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Deaths

John C. Hough Jr., 75, of Urbana, died June 1 at his home. He taught human anatomy at the university for 29 years before retiring in 2011. Memorials: American Cancer Societyor WILL.

Janet D. Knesek (nee Scott), 64, of Savoy, Illinois, died May 31 at her home. She worked as a cook at Hendrick House at the university, where she also took pride in helping establish and maintain the residence hall’s rooftop organic garden. Memorials: Leukemia Research Foundationor St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Joseph “Joe” Konitzki, 91, of Savoy, Illinois, died May 28 at his home. He was the associate director of the university’s department of rehabilitation for 27 years. Memorials: St. Matthew Catholic Church.

Richard Newport Wright III died May 31 at Holy Cross Hospital in Germantown, Maryland. After earning a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the university in 1962, he joined the university as a faculty member, attaining the rank of full professor in 1970. His research and teaching yielded applications for the construction of highways, bridges and buildings, as well as for early computer‑design tools. Memorials: Identity, 414 East Diamond Ave., Gaithersburg, MD 20877 or the Asbury Foundation, Gaithersburg Beloved Community Initiative, 201 Russell Ave., Gaithersburg, MD 20877.

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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

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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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