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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.
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

Pop-up Beckman apparel store open through Sept. 11

Contact name: Lindy Carlisle
Contact email: mcarlisl@illinois.edu

The Beckman Communications Office has created a pop-up store for purchasing Beckman-branded apparel.

Please order your items by Wednesday, Sept. 11. You can either request direct shipping or pick up your item in the Beckman Director’s Office in early October. If you choose the latter, we’ll email you when your item is ready for pickup.

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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 for yoga with a view! All sessions are free and will be held in Beckman's fifth-floor tower room. All are welcome to bring their own mat! 

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.  Register here.

Read more

Director's Coffee Hour with Steve Maren

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

Beckman Director Steve Maren will be hosting a weekly Director’s Coffee Hour at 9 a.m. on Fridays at one of the nearby coffee shops (the Daily Byte or Espresso Royale) until the Beckman Café reopens. It's a great opportunity to get to know your new director and for him to get to know you and your research. Steve's buying! 

Please contact Stacy for details on meeting Steve.

Read more

Gather in the Garden

Beckman Institute Center Atrium

Contact name: Mollie Stevens
Contact email: mollie@illinois.edu
Contact phone: 217-244-2603

Join members of the Beckman community for informal conversation and coffee in the atrium!

ITG Tech Talk: "Carbon Nanoparticle Combustion in a Shock Tube: Spectroscopy and Microscopy Techniques for Improved Modeling of Optical Signatures"

3269 Beckman Institute and on Zoom

Contact name: Bishop Gonzalez
Contact email: jbgonza2@illinois.edu

Please join us at noon on Tuesday, September 17, in 3269 (third floor tower room) Beckman to learn about Carbon Nanoparticle Combustion in a Shock Tube: Spectroscopy and Microscopy Techniques for Improved Modeling of Optical Signatures presented by Colton Willhardt.

Lunch will be provided to those who register for in-person attendance.  

Please register by Thursday, September 12.

Register here!

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Beckman-Brown Lecture: Professor Steven Chu, Stanford University

Beckman Institute Auditorium, Room 1025

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

Abstract: "Throughout human history, multiple industrial and agricultural revolutions have profoundly transformed the world. However, the unintended consequence of these revolutions is that the greenhouse gas emissions are changing Earth’s climate. Most of our energy sources and many of the materials we use are based on fossil-fuel. The challenges of how to provide clean energy, water, air, and food in a world of over 8 billion people and likely to grow to 11 billion by 2100 are formidable. After a brief summary of our current trajectory, I will discuss the current progress, opportunities and challenges needed to achieve net-zero greenhouse emissions."

Steven Chu is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Physics, of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and of Energy Science and Engineering at Stanford University. From January 2009 to April 2013, Dr. Chu served as U.S. Secretary of Energy under President Barack Obama. During his tenure, he began several initiatives, including ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy), the Energy Innovation Hubs, and the Clean Energy Ministerial meetings. As the first scientist Cabinet member, Chu recruited dozens of outstanding scientists and engineers to the Department of Energy, and was personally tasked by President Obama to help stop the BP oil leak.  

Learn more about the talk and speaker on the Beckman website. A reception will follow the lecture. We hope to see you there!

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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 for yoga with a view! All sessions are free and will be held in Beckman's fifth-floor tower room. All are welcome to bring their own mat! 

Responsible Conduct of Research: Human Subjects Research

Beckman Institute Room 1005

Contact name: Patty Jones
Contact email: pmjones5@illinois.edu

Come to room 1005 to learn from the experts about "Human Subjects Research."

Speaker: Sarah Mumford, director, Office for the Protection of Research Subjects.

Please register in advance.

 

 

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Cookie Collab

Atrium

Contact name: Mollie Stevens
Contact email: mollie@illinois.edu
Contact phone: 12172442603

Join members of the Beckman community for coffee and cookies in the Beckman Atrium. The Cookie Collab is scheduled for 3 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month. 

Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People

Beckman Institute Auditorium

In an era of increased awareness of diversity and inclusion, understanding hidden bias and its impact on educational institutions has become paramount. Professor Mahzarin Banaji is an experimental psychologist who has spent 35 years understanding how the mind works in social contexts. Her presentation will center on a science-based analysis of the hard questions of how to lead in an ever-changing world where who is "us" and who is "them" has significantly changed from what those words meant to our predecessors.

 

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Director's Coffee Hour with Steve Maren

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

Beckman Director Steve Maren will be hosting a weekly Director’s Coffee Hour at 9 a.m. on Fridays at one of the nearby coffee shops (the Daily Byte or Espresso Royale) until the Beckman Café reopens. It's a great opportunity to get to know your new director and for him to get to know you and your research. Steve's buying! 

Please contact Stacy for details on meeting Steve.

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Free professional portraits at the Beckman Institute

Fifth floor tower room (5269 Beckman)

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

The Beckman Institute is hosting a professional photographer all day for free headshots for the Beckman community. The photos will use Beckman's tower room windows and incredible view as a backdrop.

No appointment necessary; you may need to wait in a short line to be photographed. The Beckman Institute will use these portraits for our online directory and may also use them in news stories or for other official communications purposes. We may also share your headshot with your home unit.

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Gather in the Garden

Beckman Institute Center Atrium

Contact name: Mollie Stevens
Contact email: mollie@illinois.edu
Contact phone: 217-244-2603

Join members of the Beckman community for informal conversation and coffee in the atrium!

X-ray Computed Tomography Workshop

Beckman Institute Room 2269 (2nd Floor Tower Room)

Contact name: Josh Gibson
Contact email: jcgibso2@illinois.edu

The Imaging Technology Group and the IGB Core will be co-hosting a half-day X-ray CT workshop. Talks covering theory, the instrumentation available on campus, and current research projects will be presented along with tours of both the ITG and IGB facilities. Workshop agenda: https://www.igb.illinois.edu/corefacilities/news/core-xrayct-workshop-2024

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 for yoga with a view! All sessions are free and will be held in Beckman's fifth-floor tower room. All are welcome to bring their own mat! 

Director's Coffee Hour with Steve Maren

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

Beckman Director Steve Maren will be hosting a weekly Director’s Coffee Hour at 9 a.m. on Fridays at one of the nearby coffee shops (the Daily Byte or Espresso Royale) until the Beckman Café reopens. It's a great opportunity to get to know your new director and for him to get to know you and your research. Steve's buying! 

Please contact Stacy for details on meeting Steve.

Read more

Carle Illinois Advancing Imaging Seminar: Mark Chiew

Beckman Institute Room 5602

Contact name: Aaron Anderson
Contact email: aandrsn3@illinois.edu

Dr. Mark Chiew, Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, will lecture.

 

Gather in the Garden

Beckman Institute Center Atrium

Contact name: Mollie Stevens
Contact email: mollie@illinois.edu
Contact phone: 217-244-2603

Join members of the Beckman community for informal conversation and coffee in the atrium!

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 for yoga with a view! All sessions are free and will be held in Beckman's fifth-floor tower room. All are welcome to bring their own mat! 

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.  Register here.

Read more

Vernon L. Snoeyink Distinguished Lecture

Beckman Auditorium

Contact name: Suzanne Giesler
Contact email: sgiesler@illinois.edu

L. Ruby Leung, Atmospheric, Climate & Earth Sciences Division Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 

Modeling Extreme Events & Their Future Changes 

Some of the most consequential outcomes of global warming for societies and ecosystems are changes in extreme events. Comparing 2000-2019 with 1980-1999, extreme temperature and flood events have more than doubled globally while the number of disastrous storms and droughts has increased by 30-50%. While the nonlinear increase in latent energy with warmer surface air temperature may explain the global increasing trends in weather extremes, credible projections of the regional changes in extreme events remain challenging. In this lecture, I will discuss some recent advances in modeling extreme events and their future changes. Using a combination of modeling approaches, I will provide examples of projections of future changes in flood-producing winter storms and their characteristics, mesoscale convective systems that produce wind damages and floods, the risk of landfalling hurricanes, and changes in heatwaves and wildfires. These projections underscore the need for adaptation planning for a weather and climate resilient society.

Read more

Director's Coffee Hour with Steve Maren

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

Beckman Director Steve Maren will be hosting a weekly Director’s Coffee Hour at 9 a.m. on Fridays at one of the nearby coffee shops (the Daily Byte or Espresso Royale) until the Beckman Café reopens. It's a great opportunity to get to know your new director and for him to get to know you and your research. Steve's buying! 

Please contact Stacy for details on meeting Steve.

Read more

Gather in the Garden

Beckman Institute Center Atrium

Contact name: Mollie Stevens
Contact email: mollie@illinois.edu
Contact phone: 217-244-2603

Join members of the Beckman community for informal conversation and coffee in the atrium!

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 for yoga with a view! All sessions are free and will be held in Beckman's fifth-floor tower room. All are welcome to bring their own mat!