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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

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. 

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! 

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

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: Dr. Jon-Fredrik Nielsen

Beckman Institute Room 5602

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

Dr. Jon-Fredrik Nielsen, Research Associate Professor in the fMRI laboratory at University of Michigan, will lecture on, "Harmonizing MRI data acquisition with Pulseq: Why, how, and current state of the field."

 Abstract: A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) experiment is fundamentally very simple: It consists of radiofrequency (RF) and quasi-static magnetic fields that vary in time according to a desired schedule. The hardware to make that happen is ubiquitous and available from several commercial vendors, with nearly identical performance specifications across vendors. Unfortunately, the high degree of harmonization that exists on the hardware side is not matched on the software side: The programming interfaces that allow the sequence designer to control the time-varying magnetic fields are unique to each vendor and difficult to learn, which has (1) resulted in MRI protocols (pulse sequences) that cannot be ported between vendor platforms or even described accurately to a third party, (2) slowed down new pulse sequence development by creating “siloed” developer communities with a high barrier to entry, and (3) made it difficult to know if any observed differences in MRI measurements between sites is due to true biological variation or differences in sequence implementation. Pulseq is both an open file specification for MRI pulse sequences and an associated ecosystem of programming tools and vendor-specific interpreters (drivers) that overcome these barriers. Pulseq has seen significant growth within the pulse sequence developer community in the last 1-2 years, and interpreters for all major MRI vendors are, or will likely soon be, available. In this talk I will describe our role in the Pulseq project including our experience developing a Pulseq interpreter for one of the vendor platforms (GE), and our ongoing efforts to develop and evaluate a Pulseq functional MRI protocol that we hope will enable robust, truly harmonized multi-site and longitudinal functional studies. 

  Bio: Dr. Jon-Fredrik Nielsen is Research Associate Professor in the fMRI laboratory at University of Michigan, specializing in MRI sequence design and implementation. He created and manages the Pulseq interpreter for GE scanners, and is co-PI of the HarmonizedMRI project that seeks to implement and disseminate vendor-agnostic functional and quantitative neuroimaging protocols for more reproducible MRI research. 

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! 

Carle Illinois Advancing Imaging Seminar: Jon-Fredrik Nielsen

Beckman Institute Room 5602

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

Jon-Fredrik Nielsen, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan

Fall 2024 Beckman Institute Town Hall

Beckman Institute, Room 5602

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

Director Maren will provide updates on planning for a spring showcase, strategic planning, new Beckman faculty and staff, and more. After the town hall, stay for an hour of conversation and treats!

Have a question for the director? Submit it in advance here.

Read more

Cookie Collab

Beckman Insitute, 5602

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

Join members of the Beckman community at 3 pm for coffee and cookies in Beckman Institute, 

5602.

Come early at 2 pm for the Fall 2024 Beckman Town Hall. Director Maren will provide updates on planning for a spring showcase, strategic planning, new Beckman faculty and staff, and more. Question for the director? 

Submit it in advance 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!

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!