News

2014-05-31 - Professor Martin Burke has received two notable prizes in recent months. The first is the 2014 Thieme IUPAC Prize in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. This prize is awarded to a scientist under 40 whose research has had a major impact in synthetic organic chemistry. It is presented every two years at the IUPAC International Conference on Organic Synthesis. Two Illinois faculty members have won the...

2014-05-31 - I am sad to report that our colleague Don Secrest died suddenly on Saturday, May 10, 2014, at the age of 82. Born in Akron, OH, on January 3, 1932, he attended the University of Akron where he obtained his BS degree in 1955.

2014-05-31 - The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology recently held an open competition to seed new interdisciplinary research directions in engineering and the physical, behavioral and, life sciences.

2014-05-31 - William Channing ("Bill") Smith, a Ph.D. chemist, wine distributorship owner, loving family member and part of the "Greatest Generation," died peacefully on April 29, 2014, in Wilmington, NC, with his wife of 58+ years, Barbara Verne Smith, by his side.

2014-05-31 - Kyle Dunbar (Mitchell Group) has been chosen by the 2014 Bioorganic Gordon Research Conference as the recipient of the 2014 Knowles Award. This award, sponsored annually by the American Chemical Society Division of Biological Chemistry, allows the recipient the opportunity to present a 15-minute oral presentation at the meeting on the the topic of your poster. In addition, there is a $1000 award...

2014-05-31 - Soon, making and improving medical drugs could be as easy for chemists as stacking blocks is for a child. University of Illinois chemist Martin Burke, a pioneer of a technique that constructs complex molecules from simple chemical “building blocks,” led a group that found that thousands of compounds in a class of molecules called polyenes – many of which...

2014-05-31 - I am very happy to announce that Wilfred van der Donk and John Rogers have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which was founded in 1780 and is one of the nation’s oldest scientific academies.

2014-05-31 - Chemistry faculty and affiliates, including Zan Luthey-Schulten, Klaus Schulten, Martin Gruebele, and Taekjip Ha, are part of group grant proposal that has been recommended for funding by the NSF's Physics Frontiers Centers.

2014-05-31 - When Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Hyunjoon Kong, graduate student Cartney Smith, and colleagues set out to improve MR imaging (MRI), they turned current contrast agent technology on its head—or rather, they turned it inside out.

2014-05-31 - Professor Thomas B. Rauchfuss was awarded the Ronald Nyholm Prize, given biennially by the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) for outstanding contributions to inorganic chemistry.

2014-05-31 - Professor Jonathan Sweedler has been named to win this year’s Malcom E. Pruitt Award. This award is bestowed by the Council for Chemical Research in recognition for outstanding individual contributions to the progress of chemistry and chemical engineering by promotion of mutually beneficial interactions among universities, the chemical industry and government. The Award is bestowed in a special...

2014-05-31 - One of the most-quoted reasons for pursuing undergraduate research are the strong bonds that the experience creates-- between the university and the student, between students, and between faculty and students.

2014-05-31 - Looking at a smooth sheet of plastic in one University of Illinois laboratory, no one would guess that an impact had recently blasted a hole through it. Illinois researchers have developed materials that not only heal, but regenerate. Until now, self-repairing materials could only bond tiny microscopic cracks. The new regenerating materials fill in large cracks and holes by regrowing material....

2014-05-31 - Hirata group alumnus Dr. Olaseni Sode (PhD, 2012) has been named one of a highly selective group of recipients of the prestigious Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Academy of Sciences.

2014-05-31 - Professor Wilfred van der Donk was the third recipient of the Bioorganic Chemistry Award, given biennially by the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) to recognise excellence in any area of bioorganic chemistry.