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Jonathan Sweedler, Paul Braun elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
 Four faculty members from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have been newly elected as members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest honorary societies in the United States. Materials science professor...
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Qian Chen awarded the 2025 Langmuir Lectureship of ACS
Qian Chen, Professor and Racheff Faculty Scholar in Materials Science & Engineering, and Professor of Chemistry, has been awarded the Langmuir Lectureship of the American Chemical Society.The award is among the highest honors of the ACS Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry and is awarded...
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New course blends coffee and chemistry for unique global learning experience
 Several years ago, a conversation with a young coffee farmer from Panama stirred in José Andino Martinez a deep curiosity about the chemistry of coffee. The farmer impressed upon Andino the significance of the coffee bean growing and roasting process in producing a wide variety of...
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Researchers discover a way to reduce waste and save energy in making an industrial chemical
 Sometimes less is more. That’s what chemistry researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign discovered as they were developing a new chemical reaction to produce a widely used chemical additive that gives polypropylene near-glass-like clarity and lower processing...
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Jonathan Sweedler wins Beckman Institute Vision and Spirit Award
The Beckman Institute recognized two community members during its annual April celebration of Arnold Beckman’s birth.Microscopist and Outreach Specialist T Josek won the...

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Organic Chemistry
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Worth H. Rodebush

Spotlight: Rodebush, Worth H. (1887-1959)

Worth Huff Rodebush was born on a farm near Selden, Kansas in 1887. As his biographers stated, "The child of a frontier, rural society which had little interest in pure science, he became part of the scholarly community which developed modern physical chemistry." Rodebush received his PhD in 1917 while working with Wendell Latimer at the University of California, Berkeley. With Latimer, he developed the concept and theory of the hydrogen bond. He joined the Chemistry Department at the University of Illinois as an Associate Professor in charge of the Division of Physical Chemistry in 1921....