The Bernard Osher Foundation has awarded $1 million to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to endow and support the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the U of I. This is the second $1 million endowment the foundation has given to OLLI, a member-driven program dedicated to the pursuit of lifelong learning.

Several faculty members from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are part of a multi-institutional team that has been selected by the Department of Energy (DOE) for an award of up to $120 million over five years to establish a new Batteries and Energy Storage Hub. Jeffrey Moore, the Murchison-Mallory Professor in the Department of Chemistry and interim head, will serve as principal investigator of one the four major research thrusts of the hub. Argonne National Lab, the project lead, will work together with five universities and four private firms to advance next generation battery and energy storage technologies for electric and hybrid cars and the electricity grid. The goals of the project are to reduce reliance on foreign oil and to reduce energy costs for consumers in the U.S.

Announcing Dan Peterson as the next vice chancellor for institutional advancement

Announcing Illinois's partnership with Coursera (Coursera.org) to offer free courses online for anyone worldwide.

Invitation to join a campus-wide Town Hall Meeting to both hear from and speak to Chancellor Phyllis Wise.