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
2025-05-08 - A proposal for providing general chemistry students with resources and instruction to help improve their math fluency has been awarded funding through the Provost’s Initiative on Teaching Advancement (PITA).The proposal was submitted by Elise McCarren, director of the Chemistry Merit Program, and Jennifer McNeilly, director of the Math Merit Program. Their project, “Assessing and Improving...Posted: 2025-05-08
2025-05-08 - In chemistry, the right combination of essential elements can lead to scientific discoveries that impact the world.Drawing a comparison, Rosa Milagros Santos, associate provost of faculty development at Illinois, described as “essential elements” the generosity of individuals who support faculty research and the talented faculty members who benefit from their support. “Combining these two...Posted: 2025-05-08
2025-05-05 - A first-year graduate student, Eliza Asani truly enjoys chemistry, but you won’t find her in the lab. As a computational chemist, she spends most of her time in front of a computer.That would have surprised Asani several years ago when she was a freshman at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.“I had no idea what I wanted to do,” said Asani, who enjoyed English and chemistry in high...Posted: 2025-05-05
2025-05-05 - The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation has announced the selection of Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholars for 2025, including Illinois chemistry faculty member Nicholas E. Jackson.The Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program supports the research and teaching careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences. Based on institutional nominations, the program provides discretionary...Posted: 2025-05-05
2025-04-30 - Chemistry graduate student Alexander Gomez received an Outstanding Mentor award during the C2 awards ceremony on April 28.The goal of the C² program is to foster excellence in the chemical sciences at Illinois. Graduate and undergraduate chemistry and chemical engineering students are encouraged to ...Posted: 2025-04-30
2024-04-12 - Three graduate students from the Department of Chemistry were recognized by the Chemical Sciences Through Community (C2) program for outstanding mentorship of undergraduates. Oliver Pichardo Peguero is a graduate student in the research group of Prof. Jeff Chan. Danielle Loving is a graduate student in the research group of Prof. Martin Burke. And Carlos Juarez-Yescas is a graduate...Posted: 2025-04-28
2025-04-25 - 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 Paul Braun, history professor...Posted: 2025-04-25
2025-04-21 - 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 annually to two leading researchers in the interdisciplinary field of colloid and surface chemistry...Posted: 2025-04-21
2025-04-17 - 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 attributes that determine the taste and aroma of coffees, especially those with high quality flavor...Posted: 2025-04-17
2025-04-14 - 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 temperatures, making the plastic ideal for a variety of everyday items, from food containers to medical...Posted: 2025-04-14
2025-04-11 - 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 Staff Spirit and Dedication Award; Professor...Posted: 2025-04-11
2025-04-11 - As the global population grows, the demand for food and energy is increasing even as extreme weather events make crops more vulnerable to stress. While traditional breeding takes years to develop more resilient crops, plant bioengineering offers a faster, more precise way to improve traits for higher yields and better stress tolerance.But engineering plants to enhance their helpful traits is a...Posted: 2025-04-11
2025-04-03 - Drug-carrying DNA aptamers can deliver a one-two punch to leukemia by precisely targeting the elusive cancer stem cells that seed cancer relapses, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign report.The aptamers — short single-strand snippets of DNA that can target molecules like larger antibodies do — not only deliver cancer-fighting drugs, but also are themselves toxic to the...Posted: 2025-04-03