2025-06-24
- Chemistry Ph.D. student Anna DeBernardo has had an interest in chemistry since high school and planned, at least, to minor in chemistry in college. But her interest in coding led her to computational chemistry and ultimately, she discovered a strong connection with theoretical chemistry. "Especially in how it allows me to apply rigorous mathematics to meaningful problems," said DeBernardo,...
Posted: 2025-06-24
2025-06-23 - The School of Chemical Sciences (SCS) and the Department of Chemistry have recognized a group of faculty members and graduate students for their commitment to excellence in the classroom in the 2024-25 academic year.Two chemistry faculty members and four graduate students in chemistry received the annual SCS awards for excellence in teaching and five additional chemistry graduate students...Posted: 2025-06-23
2025-06-23 - For Michael Strauss, this summer marks an exciting time in his career as a new assistant professor of chemistry at Illinois for many reasons, but especially because he is eager to launch his research group and blend creativity with organic and materials chemistry in order to challenge traditional approaches to materials...Posted: 2025-06-23
2025-06-18 - Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have discovered important new clues in the mystery of how an ancient enzyme can turn atmospheric carbon into biomolecules, a natural process that could be helpful in developing new methods for converting greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into useful chemicals. As deforestation and the use of fossil fuels cause atmospheric...Posted: 2025-06-18
2025-06-17 - Researchers can now observe the phonon dynamics and wave propagation in self-assembly of nanomaterials with unusual properties that rarely exist in nature. This advance will enable researchers to incorporate desired mechanical properties into reconfigurable, solution-processible metamaterials, which have wide-ranging applications — from shock absorption to devices that guide acoustic and optical...Posted: 2025-06-17
2025-06-17 - Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology have developed a computational model that digs into the chemical “recipe” of polymer manufacturing to provide predictive control over how materials self-organize to give rise to new textures and properties.“That means manufacturers can design and simulate materials with built-in patterns – enhancing toughness, reducing...Posted: 2025-06-17
2025-06-12 - Mikael Backlund is one of 50 scientists selected as Scialog Fellows by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement to participate in a Quantum Matter and Information initiative that will bring together scientists from physics, chemistry, materials science, surface science, applied mathematics, computer science, engineering, and related fields to develop new...Posted: 2025-06-12
2025-06-03 - This past academic year, undergraduate student researcher Santiago Castro had a lot to learn when he joined the organic chemistry lab of Prof. Jeff Chan. Despite his lack of experience in an organic chemistry research lab, Castro said his graduate student mentor, Chang Jiang, has helped him become considerably more proficient in a variety of research techniques.“Jiang has been a very level-headed...Posted: 2025-06-03
2025-06-03 - A third-year graduate student, Dong Ok Kim has been a mentor for the past two years to Michelle Zorigt and Martha Kubakh, two undergraduate researchers in the electrochemistry lab of professor Joaquín Rodríguez-López, who described Kim as an outstanding mentor and female role model.He said Kim’s guidance as a mentor had a transformative influence on the interests and development of Zorigt and...Posted: 2025-06-03
2025-06-02 - Two chemistry faculty members, Liviu Mirica and Nick Jackson, have been selected by the Center for Advanced Study to pursue individual creative scientific projects in the 2025-26 academic year.The Center for Advanced Study (CAS) at the University of Illinois is an interdisciplinary center that works with every department — from hard science and engineering to humanities and the arts — to support...Posted: 2025-06-02
2025-05-30 - Feature story about chemistry professor Joaquín Rodríguez-López appeared in the Spring 2025 edition of the College of LAS alumni magazine, The Quadrangle.Never saying no to scienceTo chemistry professor Joaquín Rodríguez-López, science begins with opportunity What does science require? Growing up...Posted: 2025-05-30
2025-05-28 - Shuming Nie, professor of bioengineering and of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has achieved a rare milestone of 100,000 citations, according to Google Scholar1.“It is a feeling of joy and satisfaction,” said professor Nie, “knowing that my academic work has been read and cited by so...Posted: 2025-05-28
2025-05-22 - Each year during the Department of Chemistry's May Convocation ceremony, several awards are presented to graduating undergraduate and graduate students. All of the awards were established by a gift to the department, and some are in memory of an individual. All of the awards include a $1,000 monetary gift to the recipients and...Posted: 2025-05-22
2025-05-13 - Graduate student Sagnik Chakrabarti was selected as the recipient of the 2025 Theron Standish Piper Award for Outstanding Inorganic Ph.D. Thesis in the Department of Chemistry.In a special presentation to the department on May 13, 2025, Chakrabarti presented his thesis, "Low-valent Nickel and Palladium Compounds Relevant to Cross-coupling Catalysis."Advised by chemistry Prof. Liviu Mirica,...Posted: 2025-05-13
2025-05-13 - Two PhD graduates, Gavin Lindsay and Rachel Nixon, were awarded the 2025 Klemperer Award for Outstanding Materials Chemistry Ph.D. Thesis in the Department of Chemistry.In back-to-back presentations to the department on May 15, 2025, Nixon presented her thesis, “Toward the sustainable production of ammonia by integration of electrochemistry with light energy and nanostructured catalysts...Posted: 2025-05-13