Campus Highlights

According to Scott Daigle, a graduate student in mechanical science and engineering (MechSE), there are 2.2 million Americans in wheelchairs and 73 percent of them develop shoulder problems as a result. To combat this, Daigle designed a prototype wheelchair that uses the gear-shifting technology similar to that of a bicyclean idea good enough to earn this years $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Illinois Student Prize.

Illinois Poet Laureate Kevin Stein will be among the writers featured at the Early Spring Literary Festival at the University of Illinois March 13-16. Events, free and open to the public, are in the Authors Corner of the Illini Union Bookstore, 809 S. Wright St., Champaign, unless otherwise noted. The festival is a part of the Carr Reading Series, sponsored by the creative writing program in the department of English.

NCSA will celebrate its first 25 years with a celebration on March 2. The celebration begins at 3 p.m. with a brief history of NCSA, followed at 3:30 p.m. by a panel discussion on the importance of supercomputing in modern research with panelists Jian Ma (Bioengineering), Shaowen Wang (Geography), Brian Jewett (Atmospheric Sciences), Guy Garnett (Illinois Informatics Institute and eDream), and Kevin Hofstetter (Caterpillar Inc.). A reception will follow.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has recognized Lynford L. Goddard as the first recipient of the newly established AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science.

University of Illinois animal sciences professor Harris Lewin is a recipient of the 2011 Wolf Prize in Agriculture. He shares the prize with James R. Cook, of Washington State University. The $100,000 Wolf Prizes are awarded each year, with recipients in agriculture, chemistry, physics, mathematics, medicine and the arts. The prize committee selected Lewin for his highly significant discoveries in the field of animal agriculture.

TRiO derives its name from the group of federal college-focused educational programs initially created by the Educational Opportunity Act in 1964. The intent of the programs was to remove social and financial barriers and expand educational opportunities to students who otherwise might not be aware of, consider, experience, or have access to higher education. TRiO Week sheds light on the programs and their value to students, and it reminds us of the 1986 battle that was waged and won to sustain them, a struggle that continues. The ultimate goal of each year's TRiO Week is to celebrate, educate, and make the TRiO name more widely known.

Professor John A. Rogers is among 68 new members elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Anjali Forber-Pratt, a graduate student at the University of Illinois, won the gold medal in the 200-meter race Tuesday, the fourth day of the 2011 International Paralympic Committee Athletics World Championships, in Christchurch, New Zealand. Forber-Pratt set a new world record in the event with a time of 29.83 seconds. Her victory, as well as the silver medal that she won in the 100-meter race, qualifies her to compete in the 2012 Summer Olympics, to be held in London.

Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) announced Wednesday a $10 million grant to establish the ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss at the University of Illinois. The global institute will work with farmers in the developing world to help preserve millions of metric tons of grains and oilseeds lost each year to pests, disease, mishandling, and other factors.

A newly engineered yeast strain can simultaneously consume two types of sugar from plants to produce ethanol, researchers report. The sugars are glucose, a six-carbon sugar that is relatively easy to ferment; and xylose, a five-carbon sugar that has been much more difficult to utilize in ethanol production. The new strain, made by combining, optimizing and adding to earlier advances, reduces or eliminates several major inefficiencies associated with current biofuel production methods.

Latino faculty at the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) are taking the lead to mentor the next generation of Latino scientists through a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant recently awarded to Gustavo Caetano-Anolls, Sandra Rodriguez Zas, Maria Villamil, and Jesse Thompson. "We are fortunate to be selected as part of the Undergraduate Research and Mentoring program of NSF. Illinois has one of the fastest-growing Latino populations, and this population is highly underrepresented in science and research," said Gustavo Caetano-Anolls, co-principal investigator and professor in the Department of Crop Sciences.

The campus offers a number of 'freebies' that are fun for students, alumni, and all friends of Illinois, including desktop and cell phone wallpapers, ring tones and much more.

University of Illinois alumna Josephine (Josie) Chambers, of Champaign, has been named a Marshall Scholar. Each year, about 40 students from the United States are selected as Marshall Scholars to study at a university in the United Kingdom for two years. Chambers is the first U. of I. Marshall Scholar since 2007.

The University of Illinois seeks a new Chancellor for the Urbana campus.

Eric Pop, an assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering (ECE), is one of 85 researches named by President Obama as a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

The Illini Union staff and One Book, One Campus Committee are pleased to announce that Illinois alumnus, journalist, best-selling author and publisher Dave Eggers will return to the University of Illinois to give the 2010 One Book, One Campus keynote lecture based on his book, Zeitoun. The lecture is free and open to the public. Three years in the making, Zeitoun, originally published in 2009 by McSweeneys, is a nonfiction account of a New Orleans married couple named Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun and their family, whose lives took compelling and very nearly tragic turns in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The Asian Media Education Service at Illinois presents the Asian Film Festival, November 2 - 7.

Please join the Students for Environmental Concerns, Office of Sustainability, the Student Affairs Green Team and other campus units as we explore ways to reduce our collective carbon-footprint in a big way on campus. We're offering a week-long schedule of tours, workshops, presentations, handout, raffle drawing and events all geared to help our campus become more "green." You may be surprised to see how much is already being done. But we need everyone to help us make our campus more eco-friendly.

University of Illinois physics professor Benjamin Lev has been named a Packard Fellow in science and engineering. He is among 17 early career researchers honored by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation in 2010 for outstanding creative research.