News | Chemistry at Illinois

A black and white head shot photo of Alumnus Dennis Livesay.

Alumnus Dennis Livesay named dean at Michigan Technological University

01/12/2021 - Most recently dean of the College of Engineering and a full professor in both the Department of Chemistry and Department of Biomedical Engineering at Wichita State University, Dennis Livesay (PhD, '...

Photo of Andrew Gewirth in a blue button-down shirt standing next to graduate student Stephanie Chen in an outdoor photo on the UIUC campus

New electrode design more efficiently converts CO2 into fuel

01/11/2021 - Professor Andrew Gewirth and graduate student Stephanie Chen have designed a new kind of copper electrode that more efficiently converts CO2 to ethylene.

Framed prints of winning images in the SCS Science Image Challenge hang on a white wall at Willard Airport in Savoy.

2020 SCS Science Image Challenge highlights research

01/07/2021 - The School of Chemical Sciences has announced results of the 2020 SCS Science Image Challenge that features computer-assisted or traditional scientific images of research with the overall goal of...

Alumnus H.N. Cheng featured in C&EN as 2021 ACS president

01/05/2021 - Cheng (PhD, ’74, Gutowsky), a research chemist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, was elected in October as the 2020 American Chemical Society president-elect by...

Head shot of professor Paul Hergenrother

Hergenrother named a National Academy of Inventors Fellow

12/21/2020 - Program highlights academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life,...

Professor Martin Burke in a blue button-down shirt sitting in a chair in his work space

Antifungal drug improves key cystic fibrosis biomarkers in clinical study

12/18/2020 - A clinical study led by chemistry professor Martin Burke shows that a drug widely used to treat fungal infections improved key biomarkers in lung tissue cultures as well as in the noses of patients...

Graduate students host virtual "Bonding with Chemistry" Day Camp for Girls

12/16/2020 - A group of Illinois chemistry graduate students successfully demonstrated chemistry experiments for 32 Champaign and Urbana middle school students via Zoom during an all-virtual edition of the annual...

Tabitha Miller in a gray sweatshirt and black pants sitting on an adult tricycle at Argonne National Lab where these cycles are used to get around the facility.

Getting to know: Tabitha Miller joins Argonne as postdoctoral researcher

12/15/2020 - A member of professor Alison Fout's research group, Tabitha Miller looks ahead to postdoctoral research at Argonne National Laboratory as she nears completion of her PhD in chemistry in early 2021.

Head shot of Jonathan Sweedler in a button-down collared shirt in the atrium of a building

Computational method provides faster high-resolution mass spectrometry imaging

12/11/2020 - Researchers at the Beckman Institute, including chemistry professor Jonathan Sweedler, have developed a computational strategy that enables faster chemical and spatial characterization of tissues.

Head shot of professor Dana Dlott in a dark blue suit coat, white shirt and red-striped tie against a gray portrait background

Dana Dlott is one of six professors awarded Department of Defense grants

12/11/2020 - The Department of Defense has awarded Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) grants to chemistry research professor Dana Dlott and five other University of Illinois at Urbana-...

Graphic showing an orange sphere with lines passing through it, illustrating a spherical lens that allows light coming into the lens from any direction to be focused into a very small spot on the surface of the lens

Researchers develop new 3D-printed microlenses that are poised to improve imaging, computing, communication

12/08/2020 - Paul Braun, a professor of chemistry and materials science and engineering, led the development of the microlenses that have highly specialized light-focusing abilities, an advancement that is poised...

Portrait of Soumitra Athavale standing on a sidewalk in a dark suit and tie

Alumnus Soumitra Athavale wins international Merck Compound Challenge

12/04/2020 - Recent graduate student who completed his PhD in 2019 finishes first along with a 10-person team from the Max Planck Institute in Mulheim, Germany, in an international 96-hour race to identify the...

Head shot of Marshall Brennan in a light blue collared shirt

Alumnus is new scientific director at Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening

12/01/2020 - Marshall Brennan (PhD, '15, Fout) comes to the Chicago-based SLAS from the American Chemical Society (ACS) where he served as the senior product manager of New Product Innovation.

Head shot of Omar Alshangiti in a collared shirt with trees in the background

Chemistry senior Omar Alshangiti awarded Rhodes Scholarship

11/25/2020 - After graduation from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, senior Omar Alshangiti will continue his academic career at the University of Oxford in England following his selection as a...

Side-by-side head shots of, from left, Rohit Bhargava, Paul Braun and Prashant Jain

Three faculty members elected 2020 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

11/24/2020 - Chemistry professors Rohit Bhargava, Paul Braun and Prashant Jain, along with two other University of Illinois professors, are among the 489 scientists to be awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellow...