Campus Highlights

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.

2010 continues the Illinois tradition of creating the next generation of leaders, fostering academic excellence, inspiring innovation, transforming the learning environment, and providing access to higher education.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library has acquired its 12-millionth volume, the manuscript of The Adventures of Tommythe only childrens book written and illustrated by science fiction novelist, H.G. Wells. A generous gift to the University Library from Illinois alumni Jim and Diane Staes of Rancho Palos Verdes, California, made the acquisition of this unique manuscript possible.

Welcome to the Campus Charitable Fund Drive online giving site! Last year you generously contributed more than 1.4 million dollars to help eleven participating organizations in their important work. These agencies help our children fulfill their promise, help our families grow strong, enrich all our lives, and provide a hand up to help individuals achieve self-sufficiency. We are grateful for your generous spirit and hope you will participate in CCFD again this year.

In this months episode of This Old Hall, see the progress made over the summer in renovating Lincoln Hall. Crews have gutted most of the upper floors and removed or protected historical features prior to their restoration. Work has begun on the exterior.

The Third Annual Latin American Film Festival, scheduled from September 17-22, 2010, will feature five films from five different Latin American countries. The film festival is organized by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaigns Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) with the generous support and collaboration of the Art Theatre in Champaign and several departments at Illinois and Parkland College. This year the festival will show films from Bolivia, Uruguay, Cuba, Brazil, and Chile. All of them have been awarded prestigious national and international prizes and have never been shown in commercial movie theaters in the United States.

Diversity on campus is showcased through iUnite, a 13-day event. Come celebrate the variety, but more importantly, the richness of cultures at Illinois as academics and programming combine to bring you closer as a global community.

Ralph Cicerone, the president of the National Academy of Sciences, will give the inaugural lecture Monday (Sept. 13) in a series honoring the late Charles David Keeling, an analytical chemist who measured atmospheric carbon dioxide with great precision.

The Illinois Harp Quartet will perform a 15-minute program beginning at the time the first hijacked plane struck the World Trade Center in 2001.

Steering clear of crocodiles and navigating around massive submerged trees, a team of divers began mapping some of the 25 freshwater pools of Cara Blanca, Belize, which were important to the ancient Maya. In three weeks this May, the divers found fossilized animal remains, bits of pottery and in the largest pool explored an enormous underwater cave.

It's hard to determine which has a greater effect on the soulmusic or nature. Now, through a collaborative effort between the University of Illinois School of Music and the University's Allerton Park & Retreat Center, music and nature will become one with the creation of a world-class music venueset amidst the beauty of an idyllic nine-acre historic farmstead.