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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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George Frederick Smith (1891 – 1976)

Spotlight: Smith, George Frederick (1891-1976)

G. Frederick Smith, as he was more generally known, was born in Lucasville, Ohio, and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Smith attended the University of Michigan, and received his BS, MS and PhD (1922) degrees, the PhD obtained under H. H. Willard in analytical chemistry. He joined the faculty of the University of Illinois to teach analytical chemistry in 1921. At Michigan he had learned about perchlorates – at Illinois he published an article on the analysis of steel, in which he pointed out the advantages of magnesium perchlorate, which he prepared for his own use, as a super drying agent....