Campus Highlights

The University of Illinois announced plans to build a Center that will provide educationally integrated services to student veterans of recent conflicts who have sustained severe and multiple injuries. Tanya Gallagher, the dean of the College of Applied Health Sciences, announced that a $6-million gift commitment toward the establishment of the Center for Wounded Veterans in Higher Education had been received from the Chez Family Foundation.

James J. Coleman was cited for his work in semiconductor lasers and photonic materials. Coleman is among 66 new members and 10 foreign associates announced by the National Academy of Engineering on February 9.

Craig Koslofsky, a professor of history, was named the winner of this years Longman-History Today Book of the Year Award for his book Evenings Empire: A History of the Night in Early Modern Europe. The award, announced at a ceremony in London Jan. 11, goes to the best first or second history book, as determined by a panel of judges.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded a grant of $3.5 million to a multi-university consortium led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to establish a rail transportation and engineering research center.

In 1977, Carl Woese and George Fox published a brief paper in PNAS that established, for the first time, that the overall phylogenetic structure of the living world is tripartite. We describe the way in which this monumental discovery was made, its context within the historical development of evolutionary thought, and how it has impacted our understanding of the emergence of life and the characterization of the evolutionary process in its most general form.

Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, with the American Veterinary Medical Association, has produced a Public Service Announcement that is airing in Times Square on the CBS JumboTron. It initially aired on New Year's Eve.

Thirty second promo for "Marching Illini: March to Homecoming," which debuts on the Big Ten Network at 8:30 a.m. (CDT), December 31. A must see for all alumni.

Abbott and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have established the first-ever multi-disciplinary nutrition and cognition research center, which will be located on the Urbana campus. The Center for Nutrition, Learning, and Memory will lead directed and solicited research on the impact of nutrition on learning and memory in the human brain.

Marianna Tax Choldin is the recipient of the 2011 Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award given by the faculty of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Choldin is being honored for her extensive contributions to intellectual freedom over the span of her professional career.

Eight Illinois researchers are among 539 new fellows chosen by their peers for their efforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished. The new fellows will be honored at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February.

The Association of University Research Parks (AURP) named the Research Park at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign the 2011 Outstanding Research Park during its annual Awards of Excellence ceremony on Dec. 1. The awards were presented at the AURP 2011 International Conference in New Orleans.

The University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) has finalized a contract with Cray Inc. (Nasdaq: CRAY), to provide the supercomputer for the National Science Foundation's Blue Waters project. Blue Waters is expected to deliver sustained performance, on average, of more than one petaflops on a set of benchmark codes that represent those applications and domains.

University of Illinois professor Gang Logan Liu is among the 94 researchers to receive the 2011 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor the U.S. government confers upon young investigators establishing their independent research careers.

Nick Holonyak Jr., the Bardeen professor of electrical and computer engineering, will be inducted into the Engineering and Science Hall of Fame for his development of the first practical light-emitting diode (LED).

University of Illinois chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Charles Schroeder has been named a Packard Fellow in science and engineering. He is among 16 early career researchers honored by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation in 2011 for outstanding creative research.

Several activities are planned to educate and motivate students, staff, and faculty toward sustainable practices. Highlights for this year include a Recyclables Costume Contest (with great prizes!), Quad Walk with the Chancellor, Green Career Panel, and featured speaker Chris Pyke, Vice President Research, US Green Building Council.

Shahid Khan, president of Flex-N-Gate Corporation in Urbana, Illinois, and his wife Ann Carlson Khan, have continued their generous support of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by making a gift of $10 million to fund the new north addition of Huff Hall. The addition, known as the Khan Annex, houses programs of the College of Applied Health Sciences, including the Center on Health, Aging, and Disability and the Master of Public Health program. The Khan Annex will be formally dedicated at an event on Thursday, September 22, at 3:00 p.m. on the northwest side of Huff Hall.

University of Illinois alumna and Chicago-based architect Jeanne Gang has won a 2011 MacArthur Fellowship. Gang is a 1986 graduate of the Illinois School of Architecture and participated in the 1984 Versailles study abroad program, which helped solidify her decision to become an architect. Gang is the founder and principal of the rapidly growing Studio Gang Architects, the first female-led firm to commission a sky scraper in Chicago. Her imaginative design of the Aqua Tower, named the 2009 Emporis Skyscraper of the Year, changed the look of that citys skyline forever. She is also known for her work with the Northerly Island framework plan, Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo, and Columbia College Chicagos Media Production Center.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign warmly invites you to return to Alma Mater each year for Homecoming. Typically held in October, Homecoming at the U of I is the longest continuously running such collegiate event, beginning in 1910 and marking its 100th anniversary in 2010.

that Phyllis M. Wise, Ph.D., provost and executive vice president at the University of Washington, has been selected to serve as the next Vice President of the University of Illinois and Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. Dr. Wise will join Urbana-Champaign effective October 1, pending Board of Trustees approval. Dr. Wise will be introduced to our community on Tuesday, August 9, at 3 p.m. in the South Lounge of the Illini Union.