CAMPUS »
Chet Utterback has worked at the UI’s Poultry Research Farm for 26 years and not once has a chancellor dropped by to ask for his advice. That all changed two weeks ago after Utterback, along with about 50 campus civil service workers, was invited by Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise to attend a session of her ongoing Visioning Future Excellence goal-setting tour.
Online survey gets instant response
The UI is offering a seminar series starting in May, designed to give educators a multifaceted peek at how higher education is changing to address society’s changing needs.
A generation ago, all an entrepreneur needed was an idea and a garage. Now, entrepreneurs need little more than an Internet connection – and, for UI students, the help of a unit on campus that can guide them as they turn their ideas into full-fledged businesses.
Kevin Kelly has four jobs, and they’re all about making noise. He hosts “Live and Local” on WILL-FM (90.9), and directs three distinctly different musical groups – the East Central Illinois Youth Orchestra, the choir at Emmanuel Memorial Episcopal Church and The Prairie Ensemble – a small orchestra known for its quirky programming and unstuffy presentation.
The odds are good you won’t see an umlaut above the university’s legendary “Block-I” logo anytime soon. But an Urbana campus summit with the leaders of three prestigious Swedish universities April 25-26 shows just how big a partnership with Sweden is becoming.
It would be more accurate if the title of this week’s “On the Job” feature were changed to “Back on the Job.” That’s because Damon Brogdon, an engineering draftsman for Facilities and Services at the UI for five years, only recently returned to his cubicle at the Physical Plant Services building after serving overseas the past five months through his Air National Guard unit, the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing.
RESEARCH »
Illinois in 2006 joined other states in creating a first-person, legally binding consent registry for organ donation. Now the task is persuading more people to sign up, including those newly eligible each year when they turn 18. But how do you reach these teenagers in a multimedia age?
A new study from the UI concludes that learning-by-doing, stimulated by increased ethanol production, played an important role in inducing technological progress in the corn ethanol industry. It also suggests that biofuel policies, which induced ethanol production beyond the free-market level, served to increase the competitiveness of the industry over time.
A new report by researchers at the UI offers sobering information about bullying. Students who are the most vulnerable – those with health problems or learning/developmental disabilities, who are poor or are racial/ethnic or sexual minorities – are more likely to be victimized by their peers.
Scientists report that they have mapped the physical architecture of intelligence in the brain. Theirs is one of the largest and most comprehensive analyses so far of the brain structures vital to general intelligence and to specific aspects of intellectual functioning, such as verbal comprehension and working memory.
The claim that Chicago public school teachers aren’t working enough hours during the school day is unwarranted at best and intellectually dishonest at worst, according to research from a UI labor expert.
How many gardeners does it take to change a light bulb? Three – one to change it and two to argue about whether this is the right time of year to plant new bulbs.
Could peacekeepers actually be a detriment to ending a war and finding long-term peace? An analysis of conflicts since World War II shows that that’s the case more often than not, say two experts on the subject.
A new study offers compelling genetic evidence that head and body lice are the same species. The finding is of special interest because body lice can transmit deadly bacterial diseases, while head lice do not.
We all have them – positive memories of personal events that are a delight to recall, and painful recollections that we would rather forget. A new study reveals that what we do with our emotional memories and how they affect us has a lot to do with our gender, personality and the methods we use (often without awareness) to regulate our feelings.
Honors »
UI professors Edward Diener and Jennifer A. Lewis are among 220 new members named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
UI professor Huimin Zhao has received a 2012 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.
Eight civil service staff employees will be honored with the Chancellor’s Distinguished Staff Award at a banquet April 24. The award recognizes exceptional performance.
