News Bureau

Six researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have been named to the 2024 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list. The list recognizes researchers and social scientists who have demonstrated exceptional influence, as reflected through their publication of multiple papers frequently cited by their peers during the last decade. 

Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is an economic engine and an important civic building for the community as well as a site for football games, say Illinois architecture professors Kevin J. Hinders and Benjamin A. Bross.

The Illinois dance department’s October Dance concert “Rewind/Remix” will look back at historical modern dance figures and put a contemporary spin on dance history.

New artworks acquired by Krannert Art Museum will transform the museum’s collection and be used for research and teaching.

The theatre department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will offer views of healing and reconciliation in this season’s plays.

International Education is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its founding with a full slate of events this Homecoming Week.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign social work professor Will Schneider is leading a team of national experts in exploring whether providing short-term financial help prevents repeated child maltreatment in Illinois families involved with the state's child welfare system.

Justin Wytmar, who recently completed his junior year at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is among 20 students nationally who were awarded the Beinecke Scholarship, which is valued at $35,000. The Beinecke award supports graduate study in the arts, humanities or social sciences. 

The recipients of the 2024 Campus Awards for Excellence in Public Engagement include faculty members Sheldon Jacobson and Emily Knox; graduate students Dusty Bacon and Imani Canton; the Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab community engagement team; and the University of Illinois Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Clinic.

Debra Flessner was selected as the 2024 Office Professional of the Year by the Illinois Administrative Professionals at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The office administrator for System Offices Shared Services, Flessner is the 32nd recipient of the annual award. 

Di Lan Johnson, a junior in global studies, was awarded the Boren scholarship and plans to study in Taiwan for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Jeanne Gang, an internationally renowned architect, graduated from the university in 1986 with a degree in architecture. Here's the transcript of her 2024 Commencement speech.

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts will feature a wide variety of performers for its 2024-25 season.

Internationally renowned architect Jeanne Gang believes architecture can connect people to each other, their environment and their communities. She is the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Commencement speaker and an Illinois alumna.

The School of Art and Design Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition at Krannert Art Museum gives University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign seniors in art and design an opportunity to show work that is a culmination of their education.

Five University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty members have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest honorary societies in the United States. Nancy M. Amato, Rashid Bashir, Alison Bell, Charles Gammie and Paul Selvin are among the 250 inductees for 2024.

Seven University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professors have been elected 2023 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They are among the 502 scientists, engineers and innovators recognized for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements by the world’s largest general scientific society. 

The new U. of I. fellows are computer science professor Sarita Adve; evolution, ecology and behavior professor Rebecca Fuller; civil and environmental engineering professor Praveen Kumar; chemistry professor Christy Landes; communication professor Marshall Scott Poole; natural resources and environmental sciences professor Cory Suski; and crop sciences and NRES professor Martin Williams, an ecologist in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service.  

The School of Art and Design Master of Fine Arts Exhibition at Krannert Art Museum presents the artistic work of Illinois graduate students.

The Lyric Theatre program at Illinois will perform “Fugitive Songs,” expressing the restlessness of young people on the run, at three venues in April.

The 2024 Insect Fear Film Festival will feature films in which humans are shrunk to the size of ants and participate in ant societies.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign dance professor Cynthia Oliver is leading the chancellor’s arts integration initiative for campus.

Internationally recognized architect and Illinois alumna Jeanne Gang will serve as the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s 2024 commencement speaker.

February Dance, presented by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign dance department, features the work of five choreographers, including Jaymes Crowder-Acres, a senior whose work “Take It to the Cypher” celebrates house music and street dance.

Krannert Art Museum is organizing the first solo exhibition for artist Jen Everett, whose work explores themes of Black life, family, responses to turmoil and Everett’s identity as a queer Black woman.

Matt Ballinger has been named the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s next executive director of public safety and chief of police. The appointment takes effect Feb. 1, subject to approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts’ spring season will feature many genres of music, dance and theater.

At its November 16 meeting, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees will consider a three-year extension for U. of I. athletics director Josh Whitman through June 30, 2031.

The October Dance performance by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign dance department will feature the historic Martha Graham work “Steps in the Street.”

The 15-millionth volume in the collection of the University Library is a copy of Walter of Henley’s 13th-century work “Hosbondrye,” one of the most influential works on agriculture and land management in the Middle Ages.

Xinzhu Yu, a professor of molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is a recipient of the National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award from the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. 

According to the NIH, the New Innovator Award “supports investigators at each career stage who propose innovative research that, due to their inherent risk, may struggle in the traditional NIH peer-review process despite their transformative potential.” The award provides $2.4 million in funding over the next five years.

Naomi Oreskes, a leader in examining efforts to undermine the scientific truth on the causes of global warming, will give a Center for Advanced Study MillerComm lecture on how free market ideology is preventing action on climate change.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's incoming class of 8,325 includes the largest number of in-state residents in nearly two decades.

Joanne Lee Molinaro, known as “The Korean Vegan,” gained fame through her TikTok videos and now is a best-selling cookbook author. She’ll be on campus at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts as part of the PYGMALION Festival.

An exhibition at the Illini Union Art Gallery during September will feature photographs of artwork from the Mexican Muralism movement.

Krannert Art Museum is hosting a traveling exhibition of the prints of artist Marie Watt, whose work draws on pop culture, mythology and her Native American and European ancestry.

Jamelle Sharpe has been named the 14th dean of the College of Law, pending approval by the U. of I. Board of Trustees.

The Heavy Metals Project of the University Library will survey the 19th-century books in the Library’s collection and test those with their original cloth-covered bindings to determine if they contain traces of heavy metals in the pigments used for the covers.

A wide range of artists will perform during Krannert Center for the Performing Arts’ 2023-24 season, which opens with the 10th year of ELLNORA: The Guitar Festival.

Rising sophomores, juniors and seniors at Illinois high schools and new graduates with autism who are interested in attending the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are encouraged to apply to I-Ready, a virtual summer camp. 

“The New Normal,” a 30-minute documentary premiering May 23 at 1:30 p.m. CST/ 2:30 p.m. EST on the Big Ten Network, documents the journey of University of Illinois Urbana Champaign researchers to create a fast and inexpensive coronavirus test to ensure that U. of I. students, faculty and staff could remain safe and healthy during the pandemic

Cari West-Henkelman received the 2023 Office Professional of the Year award from the Illinois Administrative Professionals organization at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Sixteen academic professionals and civil service staff members have received the inaugural Chancellor’s Staff Excellence Award recognizing exceptional performance at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

John Coleman will be the next vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. 

Germán Bollero will be the next dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. Bollero has served as the interim dean of ACES since September 2021.  

The eighth annual Illini Success report shows that recent University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign graduates experienced exceptional success in finding jobs, enrolling in graduate school or beginning volunteer programs. The report found that 95% of graduates secured a “first destination” within six months of graduation.

The paintings by Shozo Sato, the founder of Japan House and an emeritus professor of theatre and of art at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, explore American landscapes, floral motifs and memories of postwar Japan.

Six-time Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee will serve as the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s commencement speaker May 13 in Memorial Stadium.

The 2023 Insect Fear Film Festival celebrates 40 years of entertaining and educating people about insects and their close relatives. This year’s festival features living fossil organisms.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign announced Dean’s List honorees and graduates for the fall semester 2022, as well as those who graduated in August 2022. 

A new exhibition at Krannert Art Museum, “Pattern and Process,” examines how artists use pattern to understand natural, physical and personal realms.