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Study looking at lighter, cooler equipment to reduce firefighter injuries, deaths

Firefighters battling wildfires like those devastating Southern California, or even a smaller structural fire, have to endure temperatures in the hundreds of degrees. A study at the Illinois Fire Service Institute on the UI's Urbana campus is examining an enhanced version of personal protective equipment that is lighter, less restrictive and uses a firefighter’s exhaled breath to cool the body and help combat heat stress, which researchers believe contributes to many of the on-the-job deaths and injuries firefighters suffer each year. Full story

Committee rosters available online

The annual summary of committee members on the Urbana-Champaign campus can be viewed online. In an effort to provide the most accurate information, Inside Illinois has compiled a list of URLs for units that appoint the committees.

Home computers to help researchers better understand universe

Want to help unravel the mysteries of the universe? A new distributed computing project designed by a University of Illinois researcher allows people around the world to participate in cutting-edge cosmology research by donating their unused computing cycles. Full story

UI professor calls on Congress to close private equity tax loophole

Congress should act quickly on a Senate bill that would plug a loophole allowing publicly traded private equity firms to avoid paying corporate taxes, says a UI law professor who testified before House and Senate panels that reviewed the long-overlooked tax disparity. Full story 

Uranium isotope ratios are not invariant, researchers show

For years, the ratio of uranium’s two long-lived isotopes, U-235 and U-238, has been considered invariant, despite measurements made in the mid-1970s that hinted otherwise. Now, with improved precision from state-of-the-art instrumentation, researchers at the UI unequivocally show this ratio actually does vary significantly in Earth materials. Full story

Parasites a key to the decline of red colobus monkeys in forest fragments

Forest fragmentation threatens biodiversity, often causing declines or local extinctions in a majority of species while enhancing the prospects of a few. A new study from the University of Illinois shows that parasites can play a pivotal role in the decline of species in fragmented forests. This is the first study to look at how forest fragmentation increases the burden of infectious parasites on animals already stressed by disturbances to their habitat. Full story

Researchers posit new ideas about human migration from Asia to Americas

Questions about human migration from Asia to the Americas have perplexed anthropologists for decades, but as scenarios about the peopling of the New World come and go, the big questions have remained. Do the ancestors of Native Americans derive from only a small number of “founders” who trekked to the Americas via the Bering land bridge? How did their migration to the New World proceed? What, if anything, did the climate have to do with their migration? And what took them so long? Full story

New book to offer straightforward legal advice for medical professionals

Doctors save lives, but often don’t have a prescription for legal woes that can plague their businesses and even slice into the bottom line, a UI professor says. Full story

New UI study program seeks to match workers, technology

Clunky typewriters gave way to computers, and space-age robotics now help run assembly lines that once relied on hand tools and elbow grease. But high-tech advances are just part of the equation as American businesses try to keep pace in a rapidly changing global workplace, says the head of a unique study program launched this fall at the UI. Full story

Town hall meeting addresses racial issues on campus

A Bias Incident Investigation Team has been assembled to address incidents of intolerance and insensitivity on campus, and the Student Code of Conduct and campus judicial system are being reviewed, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Renee Romano told about 200 people who packed the Courtyard Café of the Illini Union for a town hall meeting to discuss racial issues on campus. Full story

UI employee donates books to struggling African libraries

An employee of the UI Press is warming the hearts of people in an African country by donating books to its struggling libraries. Dennis Roberts, a book designer at the UI for 12 years, joined a group from the First Presbyterian Church of Urbana on its “Shallow Wells” mission trip to Malawi in August. The church sends workers to Malawi every other year to help dig wells to provide residents around the small rural community of Domasi with clean drinking wate. Full story

‘Everlasting Stream’ PBS documentary based on journalism professor’s memoir

Walt Harrington was a Washington Post reporter, immersed in the “achievement culture” of the capital, when he first went rabbit hunting one Thanksgiving near rural Glasgow, Ky., with his father-in-law and three other men. Harrington, now chair of the UI department of journalism, was a white suburbanite who had never killed an animal himself, and had no real desire to. His father-in-law, Alex, Alex’s brother Bobby, and their lifelong friends Lewis and Carl, were blue-collar African-Americans who had lived in the same community and hunted together for decades. Full story

Latino/a Family Visit Day: better than a ‘whole day of recess’

On a beautiful September Sunday, Daissy Dominguez welcomed three generations of her family to the UI campus for an introduction to all things Illinois – in Spanish – for Latino/a Family Visit Day. Full story

Partnership with East St. Louis reaps many benefits

When a small group of volunteers from the UI pulled into East St. Louis 20 years ago, ready to help residents clean up vacant lots, they were challenged at every turn, literally. The students and faculty members – among the earliest participants in the university’s East St. Louis Action Research Project – had a hard time figuring out where they were because many of the city’s street signs were missing – stolen for their salvage value. Full story

• Mary-Grace Danao, assistant professor of agricultural engineering, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and College of Engineering
• Mohammad Khalil, assistant professor of religious studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Moms, Dads associations: All parents are automatic members

Going away to college can be an extremely confusing time for high school graduates. They suddenly need to move to a new town, make new friends and develop an entirely new comfort zone, after spending 18 years developing one at home. For the first time, perhaps, they’re faced with tasks such as doing laundry, paying bills, managing their time and money, and preparing meals all by themselves. It can be overwhelming. Freshmen, however, are not the only ones who need to adapt to an entirely new world. Parents go through a similar transition. Full story

Legacy

“The Legacy of UI Glass” exhibition honors faculty members and graduates of the glass, ceramics and sculpture program at the UI. Photos

Eleven professors at Illinois elected as 2007 AAAS Fellows

Eleven faculty members of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science: Mark B. David, John A. Gerlt, Gregory S. Girolami, Steven C. Huber, Stephen P. Long, Yi Lu, Ken N. Paige, Edmund G. Seebauer, Scott K. Silverman, Gregory Timp and Donald J. Wuebbles. Full story

New school at Illinois focuses on literatures, cultures and linguistics

The UI has reshaped the study of language, literature and culture on campus by creating a new administrative unit, the School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics. The 11 academic units in the new school are within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Full story

brief notes Pix for Pets fundraiser is Nov. 10 … Scholarly communication to be discussed … 'Visualize Full Text' on display at Library … Foreign language courses offered … Michael Rothe Memorial Concert is Nov. 11 … Uni High students' radio doc features UI research … Autism 'red flags' subject of Nov. 1 talk …User input wanted for UI Web redesign … Looking at India's independence … Buildings to shift from cooling to heating … Multicultural death practices explored …New name signifies broadening of club … Elevator safety being addressed … Interdisciplinary workshop is Nov. 10 … Chancellor to appear in 'Nutcracker' … Asian popular cinema featured … Martirano Award Concert is Nov. 15 … Conference to explore African films … Cline Center dedicated Oct. 29 More

Academic Human Resources maintains listings for academic professional and faculty positions.

Staff Human Resources maintains listings for staff openings.

deaths

Stanley L. “Buck” Appl, 86, died Oct. 19 at Canterbury Ridge in Urbana. He worked as a master mechanic for 40 years at the UI garage. Memorials: St. Joseph VFW Post or Provena Covenant Hospice Care Program.

Dolores “Dee” Berbaum, 72, died Oct. 15 at Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana. She was a secretary in the UI department of animal sciences for more than 10 years. Memorials: American Heart Association or National Kidney Foundation.

Robert Samuel Chamberlin, 98, died Oct. 20 at Clark-Lindsey Village in Urbana. He served as campus landscape architect and director of campus development for 34 years until his retirement in 1971. Memorials: Champaign County Design and Conservation Foundation, 812 Dodds Drive, Champaign, IL 61820; or the Clark-Lindsey Village Grounds Beautification Fund, 101 W. Windsor Road, Urbana, IL 61802.

Bennie Ellis, 79, died Oct. 23 at his home in Champaign. Ellis was a UI police officer, retiring in 1985 as a lieutenant and shift commander. Memorials: American Lung Association or Provena Covenant Hospice Care.

Anna Rita Ferris, 85, died Oct. 23. Ferris worked at the UI for 38 years, retiring in 1982 as a clerk with the Urbana-Champaign Senate. Memorials: St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Urbana.

Ruth E. Cooper Gartner, 85, died Oct. 14 at Swiss Village Retirement Center in Berne, Ind. She was a secretary at the UI for many years. Memorials: Swiss Village, 1350 W. Main St., Berne, IN 46711.

Roderick Macleod, 70, died Sept. 3 in Barvas, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. He taught cell and structural biology at the UI for 43 years, retiring in 2001.

Freddie Lee Rhodes Jr., 50, died Oct. 19. He worked for the UI Assembly Hall for more than 30 years.

Richard Stahl, 68, died Oct. 18 at his home in Ballwin, Mo. Stahl worked in maintenance at the UI for 20 years. Memorials: AmHeart Hospice, 4372 Casa Brazilia Drive, Suite 203, St. Louis, MO 63129.

Willie Sykes, 97, died Oct. 1 at the Carle Arbours, Savoy. Sykes worked at the UI for 30 years as a cook for Housing, retiring in 1979.

death archives