News

2019-02-04 - Chemistry professor Liviu Mirica, who came to Illinois this semester from Washington University, is one of seven researchers who were brought to the university as part of the President’s Distinguished Faculty Recruitment Program. He is an expert in the design of chemical agents that contain metal ions, and has studied the role of transition metal ions in neurodegenerative diseases such as...

2019-02-07 - St. Elmo Brady became the first African-American to earn a PhD in chemistry in the United States, graduating from the University of Illinois in 1916. On Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019, the American Chemical Society (ACS) honored Brady with a National Historic Chemical Landmark at an all-day event in Noyes Laboratory. The event began with opening comments from professor Jonathan Sweedler, director of the...

2019-02-01 - I have to pass on some sad news to the department:  I just learned that our long-time colleague Andrzej Wieckowski passed away yesterday. His family’s wish is to have the service and for him to be buried in Poland. Andrzej was born in Łódź in 1945, and served on our faculty in the Analytical area from 1985 to his retirement in 2012. He was the editor for the North Americas of...

2019-01-31 - We are saddened to share that Dr. James R. Beck (PhD, ’61, Rinehart), alumnus and longtime supporter of the University of Illinois, passed away on January 16, 2019. Dr. Beck was born in Paris, Illinois on August 17, 1931. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1957 before coming to Illinois where he studied under Prof. Kenneth L. Rinehart, completing...

2019-01-28 - The Chemistry Graduate Diversity Office recently received a $5,000 grant from the PPG Industries Foundation towards diversity and inclusion initiatives for under-represented minority (URM) graduate students and post-docs in the Department of Chemistry. Dr. Lloyd Munjanja, who applied for the grant, is envisioning use of the grant in developing workshops that enable scientists to become better...

2019-01-09 - Chemistry professor M. Christina White and graduate student Jinpeng Zhao developed a new catalyst that has the potential to advance the pace and efficiency of drug development. 

2018-12-10 - Cutting edge ideas presented in three minutes or less. In the time it takes for your favorite song to play, University of Illinois graduate students recently showcased their remarkable research to a panel of judges at the fourth annual Research Live! competition at Illinois.   This year, five graduate students in LAS...

2018-12-07 - Nine faculty members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been named to the 2018 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list. The list recognizes “leading researchers in the sciences and social sciences from around the world,” according to Clarivate Analytics.  It is based on an analysis of journal article...

2018-12-04 - Chemistry alumnus traces his success to influential professor at Illinois. This fall, Martin Pomper gathered with others from across the world to be officially inducted the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors in medicine for professional achievement and commitment to service.

2018-11-29 - An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Bioengineering, and Chemistry have joined forces to develop a highly sensitive neural probe to monitor brain chemistry. The team received $3 million from the National Institutes of...

2018-11-16 - Peter D. Senter (PhD, ’81, Coates) was one of six chemists from Seattle Genetics recognized with a 2018 ACS Heroes of Chemistry Award for their work to develop ADCETRIS, an innovative drug used in the treatment of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. This annual award...

2018-11-14 - The gold nanocrystals created by Catherine Murphy carry huge potential The gold nanoparticles created by Catherine Murphy, the Larry R. Faulkner Endowed Chair in Chemistry, range in size from 5 to 100 nanometers. To get an idea how small that is, consider this: Your fingernails grow about 1 nanometer per second. One of those virtually invisible gold nanoparticles might not pack much market...

2018-11-08 - As a senior studying sociology and chemistry, Tonisha Thacker is used to people questioning her choice of majors, which on paper can seem like complete opposites. “People are always like, ‘Why?’” she said. But her track record of success speaks for itself—recently, Thacker was named the Research Park’s most advanced marketing-business...

2018-11-08 - Professor Chad Rienstra, who came to Illinois in 2002, was recently named the John Witt Professor of Chemistry in a ceremony lauding his work in research and teaching. Rienstra’s research into producing high-resolution structures of protein structures through nuclear magnetic resonance technology has driven progress in medicine, especially in brain diseases associated with aging.

2018-11-02 - Theodore “Ted” Brown, the founding director of the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois, celebrated his 90th birthday with family, friends and former colleagues during a two-day symposium. The Ted Brown 90th Birthday and Research Symposium on Confronting the Challenges of Climate Change was held at the Beckman Institute from Monday, October 15 to Tuesday, October 16, 2018....