2021-03-27 - The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences has selected Sarah Sheeley (PhD, '04, Sweedler) in the Department of Chemistry for the 2021 LAS Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising.

2021-03-27 - Engineers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have improved their previously developed force-sensitive molecules, called mechanophores, to produce reversible, rapid and vibrant color change when a force is applied, according to a new study that includes Jeffrey Moore, chemistry professor and director of the Beckman Institute.

2021-03-26 - Seven University of Illinois chemistry students are among a total of more than 2,000 students to be awarded the prestigious 2021 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships, and seven UIUC chemistry students were accorded honorable mention.

2021-03-12 - More than 30 years ago, Anna Bertelloni was a postdoctoral researcher working on natural products from marine organisms in the lab of UIUC chemistry Prof. Kenneth L. Rinehart. That work led to plitidepsin, which recent research efforts published in Science reveal as a promising treatment to fight COVID-19.

2021-03-12 - The American Chemical Society UIUC Student Chapter has been selected as an “Outstanding Chapter” for the 2019-2020 academic year and will be recognized for this highest achievement during the 2021 ACS Spring meeting.

2021-03-10 - A research image created by graduate student Reshmi Dani has received honorable mention as one of six finalists in the Illinois Graduate College's 2021 Image of Research exhibition.

2021-03-09 - An assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California-Berkeley, Markita Landry (PhD, ’12) was a double-major in chemistry and physics as an undergraduate, and at Illinois, completed her doctorate in chemical physics. But she has pivoted her research to what she's most excited about, neurobiology and plant genetic engineering.

2021-03-08 - Using high-level quantum dynamics simulations Prof. Nancy Makri and graduate student Sohang Kundu are providing new insight into nature’s ability to harness quantum mechanics to process light energy into chemical energy. They have produced the first fully quantum mechanical simulation of the energy transfer process in photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes that uses an accurate description of...

2021-03-08 - A new study led by Illinois chemistry Professor Martin Gruebele uses ultrafast nanometric imaging, which revealed good and bad emitters among populations of carbon dots. This observation suggests that by selecting only super-emitters, carbon nanodots can be purified to replace toxic metal quantum dots in many applications, according to the researchers.

2021-03-08 - Researchers at the Beckman Institute, including Rohit Bhargava, affiliate faculty member in the Department of Chemistry, have developed a new variation of an infrared microscope with analytical capabilities, rendering it effective for probing the chemical conformations of biomolecules. Their work was published in Analytical Chemistry and featured on the cover.

2021-03-04 - An internationally acclaimed organic chemist and UIUC professor for nearly 60 years, Peter Beak made fundamental contributions to organic chemistry that included unifying concepts and new areas of investigation and served as research advisor for more than 100 graduate and postdoctoral students.

2021-02-26 - In a study led by affiliate faculty member Huimin Zhao, researchers have developed a direct cloning method that aims to accelerate large-scale discovery of novel natural products.

2021-02-25 - An affiliate faculty member in chemistry, Rohit Bhargava was selected as the 2021 recipient of The Optical Society (OSA) Ellis R. Lippincott Award. Co-presented by the OSA, the Coblentz Society and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS), this award recognizes significant innovations in the field of vibrational spectroscopy. 

2021-02-25 - Several Cancer Center at Illinois members, including chemistry Professor Paul Hergenrother, are joining forces with scientists from the Mayo Clinic and Georgetown University on an expansive project targeting improved treatment for glioblastoma (GBM), the most aggressive form of brain cancer.

2021-02-23 - Using a PET imaging agent designed by chemistry Professor John Katzenellenbogen, a new clinical study shows the ability to identify which breast cancer patients are likely to benefit from a hormone therapy that’s commonly used as a treatment for estrogen receptor-positive cancer but effective in only about half of all patients.