News

2019-10-10 - A few months ago, a new term cropped up on Twitter to describe an all-too-common phenomenon at academic institutions: a dude wall. In science departments, these walls honor historical figures by portraying retired faculty, previous heads of an institution, or even just preeminent scientists in a field. But they’ve been attracting negative attention for their lack of diversity—almost...

2019-10-02 - Professor Josh Vura-Weis was recently selected as the winner of the 2019 Inter-American Photochemical Society (I-APS) Young Investigator Award, sponsored by the Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology, which is published by Elsevier.

2019-09-30 - Iris Stovall, double Illinois alumna and longtime Department of Chemistry academic staff member, passed away on September 19, 2019. Dr. Stovall received her M.S. (1975) and Ph.D. (1978) from the University of Illinois in natural resources and environmental sciences, completing a postdoc at Illinois before joining the Department of Chemistry in 1979. She served as assistant director of general...

2019-09-26 - Elizabeth Murphy, an undergraduate in the Paul Braun group, is one of three winners in the Beckman Institute’s research image contest. The goal of the contest was to submit images that showed the intersection between art and science.

2019-09-20 - Professor Catherine Murphy, along with Dr. Haimei Zheng, Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory, are this years' joint MRS Medal winners.

2019-09-17 - The Pauling Medal Award recognizes outstanding achievement in chemistry and is presented annually by the Portland, Puget Sound, and Oregon Sections of the American Chemical Society. The award is named after Dr. Linus Pauling, a native of the Pacific Northwest, because of the inspiration of his example. Professor Catherine Murphy will be receiving the ACS Linus...

2019-09-13 - With the goal of advancing the understanding of the neurochemistry of addiction, the Neuroproteomics and Neurometabolomics Center on Cell-Cell Signaling at the University of Illinois, has had its funding renewed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse with a $6 million grant.

2019-09-12 - The Discovery Fund, established in 2018 and supported by a generous gift from chemistry alumni Ving Lee (Ph.D., ‘75, Rinehart) and May Lee (Ph.D., ‘76, Rinehart), provides funding for innovative research in the Department of Chemistry.

2019-09-11 - Lucas Hernandez, a fifth-year graduate student in the David Sarlah group, received the 2019 Alfred R. Bader Award for Student Innovation.

2019-09-11 - Professor Greg Girolami and Dr. Vera Mainz organized a symposium celebrating the 150th anniversary of the periodic table, held last week in conjunction with the American Chemical Society’s national meeting in San Diego.

2019-09-10 - ​​​​​​​Lauren Hagler, a beginning fifth-year graduate student in Steve Zimmerman’s group, is the recipient of the first annual Women in Chemistry (WIC) Inclusive Leadership Award.

2019-09-10 - In February, the Department of Chemistry celebrated the dedication of an American Chemical Society (ACS) National Historic Chemical Landmark in honor of Illinois alumnus St. Elmo Brady, who, in 1916, became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States. Central to the celebration were representatives from Tougaloo College, Howard University, Fisk University, and...

2019-09-05 - Alumnus H. N. Cheng (Ph.D., ’74, Gutowsky) is a candidate for the 2020 American Chemical Society President-Elect. Dr. Cheng obtained his B.S. from UCLA, followed by a Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in 1974, under the direction of Herb Gutowsky. He is currently a research chemist at USDA Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans, where he has been active in developing and promoting...

2019-09-03 - Yaroslav Boyko, a third-year graduate student in the David Sarlah lab, has received a Bristol-Myers Squibb Graduate Fellowship in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. Boyko’s research is focused on the total synthesis of a rare family of marine natural products, the isomalabaricanes—molecules which have attracted much interest due to their potent anticancer activity. Unfortunately, detailed biological...

2019-08-30 - Illinois Chemistry alumnus St. Elmo Brady (Ph.D., ’16) was the first African American to obtain a PhD in chemistry in the United States. More than fifty years after his death in 1966, Brady will receive the 2019 Sankofa Award from the University of Illinois Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The Sankofa Award recognizes champions of diversity who made significant...