News

2013-05-21 - Graduate student Matthew Hermes, of the Hirata Lab, was recently chosen as one of two winners of the 2012 Graduate Student Award in Computational Physical Chemistry, given by the American Chemical Society's Theoretical Subdivision.

2013-05-08 - A DNA-based glue has been developed by scientists at the University of Illinois, US. The adhesive uses DNA base pair mimics that bind to each other more strongly than their natural counterparts and may lead to glues far more powerful than Super Glue. ‘We wondered about the connection between nanoscale binding and macroscopic adhesion,’...

2013-05-06 - R. C. Fuson Professor of Chemistry Scott E. Denmark has been named a recipient of a prestigious W. M. Keck Foundation Science and Engineering Program Grant. His $1 million award is part of the Keck Foundation’s December 2012 award cycle. Professor Denmark’s grant will support a highly ambitious and innovative research program in the discovery and development of asymmetric catalysis. The Keck...

2013-04-30 - Three faculty members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been elected 2013 fellows of the National Academy of Sciences. Eduardo Fradkin, Martin Gruebele and Sharon Hammes-Schiffer are among the 84 new members and 21 foreign associates announced by the academy on April 30.

2013-04-29 - There’s hope for patients with myotonic dystrophy. A new small molecule developed by researchers at the University of Illinois has been shown to break up the protein-RNA clusters that cause the disease in living human cells, an important first step toward developing a pharmaceutical treatment for the as-yet untreatable disease. Steven C. Zimmerman, the Roger Adams Professor of Chemistry at the U...

2013-04-24 - Gary Vernon Kaiser, 70, passed away on April 23, 2013. He was born in Peoria, IL on June 10, 1942, to Vernon and Anna Kaiser. Gary went on to receive his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at the University of Illinois in 1964, and graduated with honors. He received his Doctorate of Philosophy in Chemistry at the University of California at Berkley in 1967. Gary started an illustrious 35-year...

2013-04-22 - Robert Harvey Varland, of Newtown Square, PA, died peacefully on April 21, 2013 at age 96. He was born in Artesian, South Dakota, to Harvey and Josephine Varland. His family moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota where Rob completed school, excelling in vocal music and sports. Rob majored in chemistry at the University of North Dakota and the University of Illinois. Upon graduation, Rob reported to...

2013-04-21 - John Edward Schultz, retired professor emeritus of Chemistry of Westminster College, passed away on April 20, 2013 at Boone Hospital Center after a long battle with leukemia. Born March 5, 1936 in Nowata, Oklahoma, He spent his boyhood years in Valley Falls, Kansas and moved to Fulton, Mo in 1951. Graduating from Fulton High School in 1954 with honors, he received a BA with honors from...

2013-04-19 - Students Jie An Yang, Hoa Tri Phan, Shruti Vaidya and Professor Catherine Murphy describe in a Nano Letters article their finding that cells can "vacuum" up gold nanoparticles.

2013-04-16 - Sidney Edward Schnitz, M.D. died on April 15, 2013. Sidney was born December 2, 1926 in Chicago, Illinois. He was the son and only child of Benjamin and Winnie Schnitz. Sid attended elementary and high school in Chicago. He entered the United States Navy in 1944 and was honorably discharged as a Radar Technician in 1946. In 1949 he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the...

2013-04-10 - Dr. Elmer John Rauckman, Ph.D., 67, of Freeburg, Ill., born Dec. 19, 1945, in East St. Louis, Ill., died Tuesday, April 9, 2013, at his residence. Dr. Rauckman received a Bachelor of Science Degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois, Champaign, Ill., and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Duke University, Durham, N.C. He was a professor at Duke University from 1978 to 1983. He worked with the...

2013-04-06 - Loving husband of Marilyn for 59 years, great father to Mary (Larry Eyer) & Robert (Jo Mitchell), proud grandfather of Kelsey & Kevin Eyer; Elizabeth Rose, Roberta Lynn & Virginia May Hutton.

2013-04-04 - Joseph Forman Bunn III, 91, passed away peacefully on April 3, 2013. A dedicated father, grandfather, and husband, Joe lived a full life. He was born August 17, 1921, to Joseph Forman Bunn Jr., and Helen Link Bunn in Springfield, Illinois. He proudly served in the U.S. Army during World War II in Central Europe in Company C, 8th Armed Infantry Division, known as the Liberators. He served from...

2013-04-01 - A record 34 Illinois graduate students were recently selected to receive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships beginning this fall. We are proud to announce that six of our own graduate students are among the recipients. Stephen Ammann (White Group) Brandon Burkhart (Mitchell Group) Jacob Faucheaux (Jain Group) Jessica Pearson (McCall Group) Michelle Richter (Hergenrother...

2013-03-28 - The American Chemical Society's Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry has chosen Professor Prashant K. Jain to receive the 2013 Unilever Award for Outstanding Young Investigator in Colloid and Surfactant Science.