Illinois psychology professor Daniel Simons and graduate student Katherine Wood used a series of experiments to see if increasing the length of time a new visual cue is in someone’s field of view can break through inattentional blindness. The research — featured on the NewScientist website — had surprising results. “The most natural thing to assume is that the longer it’s there, the more opportunity you have to notice it, so we were quite surprised when it turned out that it seems not to help you very much,” Wood says.

Dallas Trinkle, a professor of materials science and engineering, has joined the Beckman Institute as a part-time faculty member. He also is associate head of the department and a Willett Faculty Scholar. Trinkle joins Beckman's Molecular Design and Engineering Research Group within the Molecular Science and Engineering research theme. His research interests include atomistic modeling of mechanical behavior of materials, defects, and defect interactions; and development of computational coupling techniques to extend applicability of electronic-structure methods.

Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan – Chemistry Professor Martin D. Burke is a recipient of the 2019 Mukaiyama Award from the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan. The award was established in 2005 and is awarded annually to individuals 45 years old or younger, who have made outstanding contributions to synthetic organic chemistry. Burke is being recognized for pioneering the field of molecular prosthetics and for the development of an automated Lego-like platform for democratizing small molecule synthesis.

Baxter Healthcare – Baxter Healthcare Corporation recently presented Bioengineering Ph.D. Student Jungeun "Jenny" Won with a 2019 Young Investigator Award. Her research is titled “Middle Ear Imaging Device for Non-invasive, Real-time Diagnosis and Monitoring of Middle Ear Infections.” As part of the Biophotonics Imaging Lab, her adviser is Stephen Boppart. Fourteen graduate students received the award this year for "research that is challenging, applicable to critical care therapies, and that helps Baxter save and sustain human lives," said the Baxter award committee in its notification to Won.