News Bureau

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.  

Soil moisture levels rose across Illinois the second week of September as the state saw increased rainfall and cooler soil temperatures.

Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities is accepting proposals for the 2016-17 IPRH fellowship year, which has announced the theme of “Publics.” The deadline for proposals is Dec. 4.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. The Champaign County Citizen Police Academy is accepting applications for the 16th session, which will begin Sept. 12.

Zaida “Zan” Luthey-Schulten, a part-time faculty member in the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, will present “Stochastic Simulations of Cellular Processes: From Single Cells to Colonies.” The lecture will begin at noon Nov. 5 in Room 1005 of the Beckman Institute as part of the Beckman Institute Director’s Seminar. Lunch will be provided.

The Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities has recognized outstanding humanities research in numerous ways since its inception. The IPRH Prizes for Research in the Humanities celebrates excellence in humanities scholarship at the U. of I.

A transit boarding island on Green Street, reconfigured Illini Union vehicle entrance and parking, all-way pedestrian crossing and protected bicycle lanes are some of the new features to be developed by the Multimodal Corridor Enhancement Project starting in 2016.

Penny Chisholm, a professor of environmental studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will kick off the upcoming weekend symposium hosted by the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology with a free public lecture. No registration is necessary.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. A day of family fun will take place Saturday (Oct. 13) during the Family Fall Festival at the University of Illinois Arboretum. Children and adults can enjoy a variety of activities, contests and exhibits while learning more about horticulture.

Registration is now open for the 11th annual Boneyard Creek Community Day. The event, to be held Saturday, April 23, encourages the public to help protect local waterways through cleanup and educational activities.

Supporters of the U. of I. Wildlife Medical Clinic will host a fundraiser at the Harvest Moon Drive-In Oct. 3 for a viewing of “How to Train Your Dragon.”

A Los Angeles-based artist will discuss how race is represented in art in a lecture this evening, Oct. 8, at Krannert Art Museum. Ken Gonzales-Day, a professor of art and humanities at Scripps College, will speak at 5:30 p.m. The title of his lecture is "Interruption and Absence: A History of Lynching (Latinos) and How It Changed What I Think About Contemporary Art."

Mobility has long been associated with success, power and adaptability. However, relocation of families, neighborhoods or whole ethnic groups has often been a matter of necessity or hardship. The College of Fine and Applied Arts will address how the worlds of art, culture and commerce have been marked by recent or historical migrations at Uncorked and On Topic at 5:15 p.m. Nov. 12 in the Tryon Festival Theatre foyer at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

University Primary School will host an open house Oct. 13 and 14. Prospective families, researchers and community members may observe the preschool in action from 9 a.m. to noon.

The deadline is nearing for the annual Chancellor’s Distinguished Staff Award. This program is designed to recognize outstanding contributions to the U. of I. by members of the staff.

Applications are now being accepted for the 2016 Illinois Governor’s Sustainability Award, the nation’s longest-running state environmental awards program.

The Staff Advisory Council seeks nominations for one representative from Equal Employment Opportunity Group 5 (clerical-secretarial) and one representative from Equal Employment Opportunity Groups 1 and 3 (executive-administrative-managerial). These representatives will serve a four-year term beginning July 1.

The campus will host its fifth annual Summit on Online Education on Oct. 14 with Johns Hopkins University professor, author and New York Times higher education columnist Kevin Carey as the keynote speaker.

The Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana celebrates the artistry of area young people during its spring concert.

Registration is now open for the “Plants in Silico” symposium and workshop, which will bring together leaders in the fields of computation, mathematics, plant sciences, data visualization and molecular, cellular, organ-level and ecosystem modeling.

The Police Training Institute is again offering the Citizen Police Academy, an educational program that allows area residents to learn about issues faced by those in law enforcement. The academy begins April 14, with graduation June 16.

Each year, faculty members are invited to submit scholarly and creative proposals for consideration by the Center for Advanced Study’s permanent professors.

The U. of I. and Dow AgroSciences LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, announced the Sept. 28 grand opening of the Dow AgroSciences Innovation Center in the Research Park on the Urbana campus.

The fourth annual MRL Biological Conference will be Nov. 4 and 5 at the Materials Research Laboratory. The laboratory offers an array of characterization tools, which enable a wide range of structural research in biological and advanced materials systems. To further educate current and future facility users in the number of options available to them, this workshop is devoted to biological inquiry and applications.

The Educational Technology Leadership Summit will be from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Dec. 9 at the I Hotel and Conference Center. The summit will bring state educational leaders to the U. of I. to participate in a unique professional learning opportunity on educational technology.

Faculty and staff members and students are invited to discuss the future of campus information technology at the IT Power Plant Town Hall from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Sept. 22 in Illini Union Room C.

The U. of I. will again offer four-week online courses during winter break this year. Winter Session 2015-16 will run Dec. 21 through Jan. 15. The courses offer an opportunity for undergraduate degree-seeking students to take an active role in their education, learn time management, set goals and meet them as they work toward degree completion. Illinois faculty members teach the courses that are offered to U. of I. undergraduate students at the Urbana campus and nondegree students at other institutions.

Would you like to enhance your experience when attending performances at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts? Patrons may use monthly guides provided by the Music and Performing Arts Library to learn more about the performers and works being performed through materials in the library's collections. 

The University Library invites the campus community to a Library Research Showcase from 1 to 4 p.m. Nov. 10 at the Main Library. Library faculty members and academic professionals will present their research, which impacts a wide variety of library services as well as the global library and information science profession and other scholarly fields.

Illinois temperatures in January showed some very large swings in which the highs and lows tended to cancel each other out, with a monthly temperature of 26.7 degrees, or just 0.3 degrees above average, according to Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel, of the Illinois State Water Survey at the University of Illinois.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a travel alert to highlight countries where the Zika virus is prevalent.

Champaign County Citizen Police Academy accepting applications for enrollment

John Erdman, a professor emeritus of food science and human nutrition and a part-time faculty member in the Bioacoustics Research Laboratory at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, will present the next Beckman Institute Director’s Seminar at noon Dec. 3. 

Allerton Park and Retreat Center will host a winter weekend seminar on topics related to beer and brewing from 1 p.m. Feb. 27 to noon Feb. 28.

Warmer weather in the second week of April brought warmer and drier soils, according to Jennie Atkins, a manager for the Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring Program at the Illinois State Water Survey.

Technology Services will perform maintenance to the campus network on Friday morning, Oct. 23, beginning at 3 a.m. The work is expected to take 15 to 20 minutes, but maintenance could potentially continue until 5 a.m. 

Saturday Engineering for Everyone is an open and free lecture series aimed at non-engineers of all backgrounds who are interested in learning about engineering.

The U. of I. took on a leadership role to more actively respond to global climate change when Interim Chancellor Barb Wilson signed Second Nature’s Climate Resilience Commitment on Feb. 9.

Soil temperatures increased through the first half of March, according to Jennie Atkins, Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring Program manager at the Illinois State Water Survey at the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois.

Benjamin Cashore, a professor of environmental governance and political science with the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University, will speak on campus April 8. The Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy program is sponsoring the event.

University Primary School is accepting enrollment applications for the 2016-17 academic year.

Since 2008, the Education Justice Project, a unit of the College of Education, has offered for-credit courses and other programs to incarcerated men at the Danville Correctional Center, a men’s medium-security prison.

Anne Balsamo, the dean of the School of Media Studies at The New School in New York City, will speak on campus April 22 about the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in innovation.

The Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment will host an array of events during Sustainability Week, Oct. 19-23.

Three faculty members will join Krannert Art Museum curators at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 1 for a discussion of the current exhibition “Attachment.”

The Scholarly Commons of the University Library and the Graduate College are partnering to host The Image of Research, a competition celebrating the diversity and breadth of graduate student research at the U. of I.

Each year, faculty members are invited to submit scholarly and creative proposals for consideration by the Center for Advanced Study’s permanent professors. Faculty members with winning proposals are appointed associates (tenured) or fellows (untenured) and are awarded one semester of release time to pursue their projects in the coming year.

Wesley Student Center and United Methodist Church at the U. of I. have been sponsoring a monthlong exploration of race and violence in America. The final event will be a panel discussion at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 4 featuring Travis Dixon, a U. of I. professor of communication, and Monica McDermott, a U. of I. professor of sociology, as well as Champaign Mayor Deb Frank Feinen and Champaign Police Chief Anthony Cobb.

Brian A. Boyd, an expert on autism spectrum and related developmental disorders, will give the annual Goldstick Family Lecture in the Study of Communication Disorders at the University of Illinois.

First Street northbound between Peabody Drive and Gregory Drive is closed for repairs and will reopen on Nov. 30, weather permitting.