Home

image/svg+xml
The Beckman
Institute is a barrier-busting,
interdisciplinary
research facility
and community
of innovation.
The Beckman Institute is a barrier-busting, collaborative
research facility
and community of innovation.

We Break Barriers.

The Beckman Institute was created to support interdisciplinary research among University of Illinois faculty. We foster scientific advances that couldn’t be done in any other way.
Our founder, Arnold Beckman, was an inventor and philanthropist who knew firsthand the power of interdisciplinary work.
The Beckman Institute is a barrier-busting, collaborative
research facility
and community of innovation.

We Propel Science and Technology.

The Beckman Institute is a unique engine for research. We're making incredible advances while helping ordinary people.
Beckman researchers have developed a new polymer-curing process that could reduce the cost, time, and energy needed.
The Beckman Institute is a barrier-busting, collaborative
research facility
and community of innovation.

We Help You Connect.

We offer a café with drinks and daily specials, events from concerts to research lectures, and plenty of study and meeting spaces.
The Beckman Institute was built to help people connect. Learn more about exploring Beckman.

Latest news

Upcoming events

Beckman Institute Blood Drive

Urbana ImpactLife Donor Center, 1408 W. University Ave., Urbana

Contact name: Meg Dickinson
Contact email: megd@illinois.edu

Join the Beckman community in giving blood at ImpactLife Donor Center. Schedule in advance (using code #71263) and receive a voucher for a 20-can cooler or a $10 gift card. Appointments are required and you must sign in at the front desk upon arrival. Please eat before donating and bring a photo ID.

Read more

Gather in the Atrium

Center atrium during fall and winter months

Contact name: Stacy Olson
Contact email: srolson@illinois.edu
Contact phone: 217-244-8373

Join Director Nadya Mason and your colleagues this fall for informal conversation and coffee in the Beckman atrium.

This Gather in the Atrium Series will be from 10-10:30 a.m. every Tuesday through the spring semester. When the nice weather returns in the coming months, we will move these coffee sessions outside to the Beckman west garden.

Read more

Yoga at Beckman

Beckman Institute Room 5269-5th Floor Tower

Contact name: Elena Romanova
Contact email: romanova@illinois.edu

Join us at noon on Wednesdays this spring for restorative yoga with a view! All sessions are free and will be held in Beckman's fifth-floor tower room. All are welcome bring your own mat! 

Atomic Imaging of Polymers Lecture: Giovanni Costantini

Beckman Institute Room 3269

Contact name: Laura Thurlwell
Contact email: thurlwel@illinois.edu

Title: "Beyond nice pictures: high-resolution molecular imaging as a tool to characterize the microstructure of conjugated polymers."

In this talk, Dr. Costantini will demonstrate that high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is capable of delivering crucial information that cannot be achieved by other current analytical methods about “real world” electronic and energy materials. Specifically, he will show that by combining vacuum electrospray deposition (ESD) and high-resolution STM, it is possible to image conjugated polymers used in organic (bio)electronics and photovoltaic devices with unprecedented details.

Based on this, it becomes possible to sequence the polymers by visual inspection and to determine their molecular mass distribution by simply counting the repeat units. He will further show that we can precisely establish the nature and frequency of synthetic defects in the polymer backbone and determine the polymer assembly motifs with sub-molecular spatial resolution. By benchmarking the results of ESD-STM against NMR, XRD, and mass spectrometry, Dr. Costantini will demonstrate that his new technique successfully reproduces and extends the analytical power of traditional characterization methods.

Read more

2023 Beckman Institute Open House

Beckman Institute, 405 N. Mathews Ave

Contact name: Lexie Kesler
Contact email: lkesler@illinois.edu

The Beckman Institute Open House is scheduled for 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday, March 31 and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, April 1. 

Community members of all ages are invited to do interactive demos and activities, solve the science scavenger hunt, and learn about the institute’s diverse research portfolio, which includes human health and medical imaging; clean energy and green plastics; and even artificial intelligence and insect-inspired robots. 

Guests can travel to locations throughout the building to:

Take a selfie with the first-ever human MRI scanner.

Learn how advanced medical imaging transforms cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Tour an inclusive maker space where assistive technologies are developed by and for athletes with disabilities.

Construct molecules from scratch with the Digital Molecule Maker.

Engage with molecules like DNA in virtual reality.

Each experience brings guests one step closer to solving the science scavenger hunt, which can be completed by downloading the Beckman app or with a pen-and-paper kit that visitors will receive upon their arrival.

Read more

Gather in the Atrium

Center atrium during fall and winter months

Contact name: Stacy Olson
Contact email: srolson@illinois.edu
Contact phone: 217-244-8373

Join Director Nadya Mason and your colleagues this fall for informal conversation and coffee in the Beckman atrium.

This Gather in the Atrium Series will be from 10-10:30 a.m. every Tuesday through the spring semester. When the nice weather returns in the coming months, we will move these coffee sessions outside to the Beckman west garden.

Read more

Graduate Student Seminar: Kou, Wang

1005 Beckman Institute and Zoom

Contact name: Chaimongkol Saengow
Contact email: saengow@illinois.edu

Two graduate students will present their research at the fourth Beckman Graduate Student Seminar of the spring 2023 semester: Zhengchang Kou, electrical and computer engineering; and Zepeng Wang, bioengineering.

The event takes place Wednesday, Apr. 5 at noon in 1005 Beckman Institute and on Zoom. Register in advance to attend in person or on Zoom.

Read more

Yoga at Beckman

Beckman Institute Room 5269-5th Floor Tower

Contact name: Elena Romanova
Contact email: romanova@illinois.edu

Join us at noon on Wednesdays this spring for restorative yoga with a view! All sessions are free and will be held in Beckman's fifth-floor tower room. All are welcome bring your own mat! 

Access Illinois

Beckman Institute Room 1025-Auditorium

Contact name: Leslie Sherman
Contact email: leslies@illinois.edu

Access Illinois is a hybrid event celebrating accessibility and inclusion at the University of Illinois. An optional lunch will be provided to in-person attendees. 

Keynote Speaker: Nizam Arain, Associate Vice Chancellor for Access and Equity, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.

 

Read more

New-to-Beckman tour

MRI Exhibit

Contact name: Lexie Kesler
Contact email: lkesler@illinois.edu

Come find out more about the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology! Learn about the barrier-busting interdisciplinary research facility and community of innovation. Tours will be offered the first Thursday of the month from 10-10:30 a.m.

Read more

Inclusive Lab Leaders

Beckman Institute Room 4269

Contact name: Elahe Ganji
Contact email: elaganji@illinois.edu

The Inclusive Lab Leaders is a program to help those in STEM and beyond develop the skills and strategies to effectively communicate with mentors, students, and peers. This program offers a justice-oriented approach to learning how to navigate issues of power and conflict, through a mix of preventive strategies and just-in-time approaches. Racism, sexism, and more are continuing challenges rather than relics of the past, and ILL is designed to give you the introductory tools to become more aware of how they show up in science, and how you can imagine and implement a more just future. 

Session 3: Recognizing and navigating power dynamics in research. Friday, April 7

th

from 9-11am. 

Facilitators: Katy Heath and Kate Clancy

This session will address the different types of power and how they can manifest in a research team, from positional power by way of one’s academic rank, to systemic power from one’s identity groups, gender, race, and/or ethnicity. All members of a lab need to recognize the situations where they have coercive power and protect others from it; conversely nearly everyone also experiences low power moments where they need to protect themselves or solicit help.

During this session you will learn to:

Own the power you do have, and take responsibility for it.

Practice navigating challenging conversations with people who have power over you.

Seek solidarity when addressing more intractable power imbalances.

Read more

Gather in the Atrium

Center atrium during fall and winter months

Contact name: Stacy Olson
Contact email: srolson@illinois.edu
Contact phone: 217-244-8373

Join Director Nadya Mason and your colleagues this fall for informal conversation and coffee in the Beckman atrium.

This Gather in the Atrium Series will be from 10-10:30 a.m. every Tuesday through the spring semester. When the nice weather returns in the coming months, we will move these coffee sessions outside to the Beckman west garden.

Read more

Yoga at Beckman

Beckman Institute Room 5269-5th Floor Tower

Contact name: Elena Romanova
Contact email: romanova@illinois.edu

Join us at noon on Wednesdays this spring for restorative yoga with a view! All sessions are free and will be held in Beckman's fifth-floor tower room. All are welcome bring your own mat! 

Gather in the Atrium

Center atrium during fall and winter months

Contact name: Stacy Olson
Contact email: srolson@illinois.edu
Contact phone: 217-244-8373

Join Director Nadya Mason and your colleagues this fall for informal conversation and coffee in the Beckman atrium.

This Gather in the Atrium Series will be from 10-10:30 a.m. every Tuesday through the spring semester. When the nice weather returns in the coming months, we will move these coffee sessions outside to the Beckman west garden.

Read more

Beckman Institute SmithGroup Lecture: Light, materials, interfaces: The complex dance that allows CLIP-based 3D printing.

Beckman Institute Auditorium, Room 1025

Contact name: Stacy Olson
Contact email: srolson@illinois.edu

Joseph DeSimone, a professor at Standford University and Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, Professor of Translational Medicine and Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, will present "Light, materials, and interfaces: The complex dance that allows CLIP-based 3D printing." For more information, visit 

https://desimonegroup.stanford.edu/.

The production of polymer products relies largely on age-old molding techniques. A major reason for this is that additive methods have not delivered meaningful alternatives to traditional processes—until now. In this talk, I will describe Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) technology, which embodies a convergence of advances in software, hardware, and materials to bring the digital revolution to polymer additive manufacturing. CLIP uses software-controlled chemistry to produce commercial quality parts rapidly and at scale by capitalizing on the principle of oxygen-inhibited photopolymerization to generate a continual liquid interface of uncured resin between a forming part and a printer’s exposure window. Instead of printing layer-by-layer, this allows layerless parts to ‘grow’ from a pool of resin, formed by light. Compatible with a wide range of polymers, CLIP opens major opportunities for innovative products across diverse industries. Previously unmakeable products are already manufactured at scale with CLIP, including the large-scale production of running shoes by Adidas (Futurecraft 4D); masscustomized football helmets by Riddell; the world’s first FDA-approved 3D printed dentures; and numerous parts in automotive, consumer electronics, and medicine. At Stanford, we are pursuing new advances including digital therapeutic devices in pediatric medicine, new multi-materials printing approaches, recyclable materials, and the design of a high-resolution printer to advance technologies in the microelectronics and drug/vaccine delivery areas, including novel microneedle designs as a potent vaccine delivery platform.

Read more

Yoga at Beckman

Beckman Institute Room 5269-5th Floor Tower

Contact name: Elena Romanova
Contact email: romanova@illinois.edu

Join us at noon on Wednesdays this spring for restorative yoga with a view! All sessions are free and will be held in Beckman's fifth-floor tower room. All are welcome bring your own mat! 

New Discoveries in Extracellular Vesicle Therapies

5602 Beckman Institute

Contact name: Marni Boppart
Contact email: mboppart@illinois.edu

Extracellular vesicles represent an important mechanism for cellular communication, yet our understanding of the biosynthesis, detection, and delivery of EVs is just starting to emerge. The 

mission

of the Beckman Institute EVIT Working Group is to bring together our university community focused on the investigation of EVs in the context of both disease and health. Our 

goal

 

is to introduce 

innovation

into the traditional workflow of isolating and characterizing EVs, which requires synergistic efforts from faculty in multiple disciplines.

This workshop will provide the opportunity to learn more about EVs while becoming acquainted with innovative research currently underway at UIUC. The poster session will provide an informal venue for exploring collaborative efforts with colleagues. All faculty, staff, postdoctoral students, and graduate students are welcome to join us for this half-day workshop.

See the registration form for full agenda and speaker bios. Registration deadline is April 14.

Read more

Gather in the Atrium

Center atrium during fall and winter months

Contact name: Stacy Olson
Contact email: srolson@illinois.edu
Contact phone: 217-244-8373

Join Director Nadya Mason and your colleagues this fall for informal conversation and coffee in the Beckman atrium.

This Gather in the Atrium Series will be from 10-10:30 a.m. every Tuesday through the spring semester. When the nice weather returns in the coming months, we will move these coffee sessions outside to the Beckman west garden.

Read more