News Bureau

UI staff members volunteer at 'Ground Zero' By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor (217) 244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Teaching youth to "just say no" has long been viewed as the first line of defense in the war on drugs. And several studies have provided compelling evidence that refusal skills training, which teaches participants strategies for resisting social pressure, can be successful at preventing youth from trying drugs and alcohol.

Applications for the 2017 Alternative Academic Career Summer Workshops for Pre-Doctoral Students in the Humanities – an initiative of the Humanities Without Walls consortium – are now available at the HWW website. These workshops will showcase opportunities beyond the walls of the academy in an uncertain academic job climate. They are a continuation of a workshop series offered in 2015 and 2016 in conjunction with the Chicago Humanities Festival for students from HWW member institutions. In 2017, HWW will sponsor its first national summer workshop for graduate students interested in learning about careers outside of the academy and/or the tenure track system.

On the Job: Daniel Honnold

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies will host its 8th annual Latin American Film Festival Sept. 18-24 at the Art Theater Co-op, 126 W. Church St., Champaign. The festival will screen six recent fiction films and one documentary from different countries of the region.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - From humans to honey bees, neuropeptides control brain activity and, hence, our behaviors. Understanding the roles these peptides play in the life of a honey bee will assist researchers in understanding the roles they play in their human counterparts.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The boundaries of human duality are expanded and examined in an exhibition on view Nov. 21 through Dec. 20 at I space, the Chicago gallery of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign:

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Four University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign faculty members have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Astronomers at the University of Illinois have found the first clear evidence for a cradle in space where planets and moons form. The cradle, revealed in photographs taken with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, consists of a flattened envelope of gas and dust surrounding a young protostar.

Closing of ERIC clearinghouse signals end of an era

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A powerful new tool for probing molecular structure on surfaces has been developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Single molecule absorption spectroscopy can enhance molecular analysis, surface manipulation and studies of molecular energy and reactivity at the atomic level.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Nine University of Illinois undergraduates have been awarded Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships to study abroad this semester. Illinois is among the top 15 schools in the nation in terms of number of recipients.

The Emmy and Latin Grammy Award-winning family entertainment of Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band will perform a free concert at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at 10 a.m. Feb. 13. 

Steel was once the prototype and pace-setter of American industry, dwarfing every competitor in the world. “Making Steel” chronicles the rise and decline of the steel industry by focusing on the 115-year history of a steel mill and company town – Sparrows Point, Md.

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part story on performance-based funding, a new mechanism expected to be incorporated in the state of Illinois' 2013 education budget. This week's story is on the mechanics of performance funding and why it is being considered. The second story, to appear in the Feb. 16 edition of Inside Illinois, focuses on Tennessee's experience with performance-based funding and whether Illinois will be able to emulate it. (See Part 2.)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Blood clots can save lives, staunching blood loss after injury, but they can also kill. Let loose in the bloodstream, a clot can cause a heart attack, stroke or pulmonary embolism.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. The University of Illinois Pershing Rifles, a fraternal service organization of the Reserve Officer Training Corps, will host a military drill competition on March 9 and 10.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - More than 100,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for an organ transplant, and an average of 17 die waiting each day, according to University of Illinois communication professor Brian Quick.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Rising gas prices are making front-page news across the country again, with the price at the pump above $4 per gallon in some areas as the summer driving season revs up. Although consumers may be pained to hear that prices seem headed back to levels not seen since the summer of 2008, they can take comfort knowing that, adjusted for inflation, the real price of a gallon of gas has barely budged over the past five decades, according to research by a University of Illinois energy policy expert.

A new course numbering system will take effect on the Urbana campus with the fall 2004 semester.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Illinois Club has awarded 10 University of Illinois students more than $20,000 in scholarships for the 2013-2014 school year.

Stanford University Ecologist Christopher B. Field will deliver the 2016 Charles David Keeling Lecture – “Climate Change: The Road through Paris” – from 7-8:30 p.m. April 14 in Room 100 Noyes Laboratory. A reception will follow.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Ira Solomon, the head of the nationally ranked department of accountancy at the University of Illinois, has earned the top award for educational excellence from the nation's largest accounting organization.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Jonathan Hollander, a senior majoring in materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is among 11 students nationwide to receive a Churchill Scholarship for study at Cambridge University in England.

A Minute With™... nutrition professor Karen Chapman-Novakofski

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Science is not just evidence, but intuition. It is not just procedures, but creativity. Its conclusions are not set in stone, but ever-changing and open to question as part of a dynamic social enterprise.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Professor John Jakle continues to be a fearless Roads Scholar.

The UI and the UI Foundation recorded $210.6 million in outright cash gifts, pledge payments, annuities/ life income gifts and estate distributions for the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to Walter Knorr, UI chief financial officer and treasurer of the UI Foundation. It marks the fifth consecutive year that cash gifts exceeded $210 million.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Exercise is a lot like spinach ... everybody knows it's good for you; yet many people still avoid it, forgoing its potential health benefits.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Using an extremely sensitive measurement technique, researchers at the University of Illinois have found clear evidence that a lead-specific DNAzyme uses the "lock and key" reaction mechanism. In the presence of zinc or magnesium, however, the same DNAzyme uses the "induced fit" reaction mechanism, similar to that used by ribozymes.

You don’t have to look to the runways of New York City to find the hallmarks of high culture and style. Inside IMPULSE magazine, an independent quarterly publication created by U. of I. students, it’s easy to find glamour and glitz in the heart of Champaign-Urbana.

The Graduate College will host a free screening of “The PHD Movie 2: Still in Grad School” at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 17 in Foellinger Auditorium. The doors open at 6 p.m. The event is open to all graduate students.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Graphene, a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon, holds remarkable promise for future nanoelectronics applications. Whether graphene actually cuts it in industry, however, depends upon how graphene is cut, say researchers at the University of Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Gambling addictions and drunken driving are among life-changing problems that will worsen if Illinois allows casinos to take bets 24 hours a day, a University of Illinois professor who has studied gambling for more than two decades says.

Robert H. Burger began his career at the UI in 1976 as a serials cataloger in the Slavic library. From 1989 until February of this year, Burger was head of the Slavic library. He assumed new responsibilities as associate university librarian for services on Feb. 21.

A wet April extended the trend for above-average precipitation in Illinois. This year was the seventh-wettest December-to-April period on record, according to Brian Kerschner, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Climatologist Office at the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. University of Illinois theater professor Daniel Sullivan received the Tony Award for best director of a play for his work on David Auburns "Proof." The award was announced at ceremonies on June 3 at New York Citys Radio City Music Hall.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A record number of University of Illinois students and recent graduates have been awarded scholarships by the Fulbright U.S. Student Program for the 2008-09 academic year. Two other candidates have been named alternates in the competition.

As part of the budgetary reductions and administrative streamlining that the UI has undertaken in recent years, procurement has been identified as an area for the university to save money.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Feel like time is repeating itself and won't move on? It could be your internal clock is backpedaling because your PKG-II is out of whack.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Researchers studying a critical stage of pregnancy - implantation of the embryo in the uterus - have found a protein that is vital to the growth of new blood vessels that sustain the embryo. Without this protein, which is produced in higher quantities in the presence of estrogen, the embryo is unlikely to survive.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - In a time of record-high food insecurity rates in the U.S., cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (the former Food Stamp Program) is the wrong approach to fighting hunger, says a University of Illinois economist who studies the efficacy of food assistance programs on public health.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Hassan Aref, professor and head of the department of theoretical and applied mechanics at the University of Illinois, has been selected as the 2000 recipient of the Otto Laporte Award from the American Physical Society.

Campus screening • noon Oct. 29, Room 223 of Gregory Hall Urbana Public Television • 7 p.m. Oct. 23 • 9 p.m. Oct. 31 • 9:30 p.m. Nov. 2 • 6 p.m. Nov. 5 On the Web The documentary also will be posted sometime this fall on the College of Media's Web site.

UI physics and astronomy professor Susan Lamb's approach to retirement is similar to the colliding galaxies she studies - it's simply a matter of merging and evolving.

Janette Bradley Wright is staff secretary for the College of Communications, department of advertising for about a year, and she’s been in the department for about 10 years.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Creatures ugly, endearing and dangerously curious, including a monster named "Bobo," a legendary "She" sea spirit and a "Traction Man," are among hundreds of protagonists book experts are recommending kids get to know this year, and they all appear in the 2005 edition of the "Guide Book to Gift Books."

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Five University of Illinois scholars have received National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships for 2015. The U. of I. is the only institution to be awarded more than three of the fellowships for the coming year.

Campus graphic standards established for print and Web