Brian Cunningham, of the Nanoelectronics and Nanomaterials Group, and John Rogers, of the 3D Micro- and Nanosystems Group, have been elected 2013 Charter Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors. According to NAI, "Election to NAI Fellow status is a high professional distinction accorded to academic inventors who have demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society."
Lav R. Varshney, from electrical and computer engineering, has joined the Beckman Institute as an affiliate faculty member in the Image Formation and Processing Group within the Human-Computer Intelligent Interaction (HCII) Research Theme.
Female engineering graduate students conducting research in medical imaging are invited to apply for the Nadine Barrie Smith Memorial Fellowship. Applications are due March 24.
Colleen Murphy, associate professor of philosophy, has joined the Beckman Institute as an affiliate faculty member in the Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy (SDEP) Strategic Initiative.
Undergraduate students conducting research in neuroscience are invited to apply for the Erik Haferkamp Memorial Award. Applications are due March 24.
Graduate students conducting research in the Human-Computer Intelligent Interaction research theme are invited to apply for the Thomas and Margaret Huang Award. Applications are due March 24.
Jennifer Merritt, an undergraduate researcher in Justin Rhodes's lab, is the first to be awarded a Certificate for Undergraduate Research from the Office of Undergraduate Research at the University of Illinois.
The spring 2014 Director's Seminars will begin on Feb. 6 featuring Tim Bretl, aerospace engineering professor and faculty member of the Artificial Intelligence Group. The presentation will start at noon in Beckman room 1005, and lunch will be provided.
Applications are now being accepted for the Beckman Institute Graduate Fellows Program.
The Winter 2014 issue of Synergy features Mark Hasegawa-Johnson, the new co-chair for Human-Computer Intelligent Interaction (HCII). It also showcases the research of Beckman postdoctoral fellows Choa Ma and Preethi Jyothi, as well as Beckman graduate fellow April Colette. Additionally, you can learn more about Wawryzniec Dobrucki and Iwona Dobrucka and their roles in the Molecular Imaging Laboratory (MIL).
With three years of research before her, postdoctoral fellow Preethi Jyothi is determined to improve automatic speech recognition software and make it accessible to many different languages.
Iwona Dobrucka has taken over as director of the MIL, and former director Wawrzyniec Dobrucki has received a tenure-track position in bioengineering.
Gene Robinson, director of the Institute for Genomic Biology, will provide the keynote address for the 4th Annual Postdoctoral Research Symposium, which will be held at the Beckman Institute on Friday, January 31.
April Colette, a Beckman graduate fellow, studies a city deeply affected by flooding, in an effort to provide better solutions for future natural disasters.
Chao Ma, a 2013 Beckman postdoctoral fellow, embarks on his three years of postdoc research with plans to advance metabolic imaging techniques.
Researchers in Human-Computer Intelligent Interaction (HCII) are constantly working to make all kinds of technology more helpful and powerful for people to use. Mark Hasegawa-Johnson has recently been named HCII co-chair, and he has big plans for the future.
A new 3D imaging technique for live cells uses a conventional microscope to capture image slices throughout the depth of the cell, then computationally renders them into one three-dimensional image. The technique uses no dyes or chemicals, allowing researchers to observe cells in their natural state. The team, led by Beckman full-time faculty member Gabriel Popescu, published their results in Nature Photonics.
John Rogers, full-time faculty member in the 3D Micro- and Nanosystems Group, and his colleagues have constructed flexible energy-harvesting devices that can convert the movement of body parts—such as the heart and lungs—into energy captured by a battery that could be used to power implantable devices like pacemakers.
A team of engineers, led by Beckman affiliate Taher Saif, has developed a class of tiny bio-hybrid machines that swim like sperm, the first synthetic structures that can traverse the viscous fluids of biological environments on their own.
Justin Rhodes, Beckman full-time faculty member, discusses addiction to exercise, as shown in animal studies.
In a study focused on men and their emotions, it was assumed men are easier to study because women's "emotions are more variable than men's." However, assuming men are somehow easier to study is "undercomplicating" their hormones, says Beckman affiliate Kathryn Clancy.
Fatima Husain has spent several years studying the causes and effects of tinnitus, a hearing disorder characterized by a ringing in the ears, and her plans moving forward are to utilize interventions to help those affected by it.
Jennifer Robbennolt, professor in the College of Law at the University of Illinois, has been named a Beckman affiliate in the Human Perception and Performance Group, within the Human-Computer Intelligent Interaction research theme. Robbennolt is a renowned scholar in the area of psychology and law, torts, and dispute resolution.
Brennan Payne, Beckman graduate fellow in the Human Perception and Performance Group, discusses the effects of aging on cognitive function, including investigating age-related changes in sentence and discourse comprehension and examining the efficacy of interventions for improving cognitive plasticity in older adulthood.
John Rogers, faculty member of the 3D Micro- and Nanosystems Group, developed a circuit that dissolves when exposed to water. The animation of this process made Smithsonian Magazine's list of "Coolest Science in 2013, in GIFs."
Molecular simulations of the HIV capsid conducted by Klaus Schulten, full-time Beckman faculty member, and Juan Perilla, postdoc research associate in the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group, have been listed as one of the top supercomputing discoveries of 2013 by HPC Wire magazine.
Justin Rhodes, Beckman faculty member in the Neurotech Group, explains that exercise helps improve not only health but brain function in an article about nonagenarian track star Olga Kotelko.