The Federal Updates Steering Group launched a weekly newsletter to provide updated news and information regarding the impact of federal changes on the university. In addition, the federal updates website houses information, resources and answers to frequently asked questions related to new federal directives. For additional questions, please contact federalupdates@illinois.edu. 

Incorporate our iconic Block I logo, wordmark and signature IlliniBlue and IlliniOrange colors into your materials to leverage 150+ years of reputation and excellence. These visual elements serve as powerful shortcuts connecting your work to our university's prestige. Download official logos and color guidelines.

Three revised policies have been posted to the CAM website: Export Control, Obtaining Permanent Residence for International Staff Members and Sponsorship for Work Authorization.

Notification of CAM HR-79 Policy Update: Title IX regulations that led to policy and procedure revisions in 2024 were recently vacated in State of Tennessee, et al v. Miguel Cardona, et al. Accordingly, the Aug. 1, 2024, updates have been withdrawn, and the Sexual Misconduct policies and procedures that were in place July 31, 2024, have been restored. Two policies also have been redirected from the CAM Website: Employment Agencies and Pre-Employment Physical Examination

On Saturday, April 12, thousands of middle and high school students, coaches and families will be on campus for the 2025 Illinois Science Olympiad Tournament for middle and high school teams. Many helping hands are needed to be sure that this event runs smoothly. Sign up today to support young STEM interests and talents by going to https://illinoisolympiad.ivolunteer.com/state_illinois_2025.

Chuck Thompson, director of Illinois Computes, is seeking researchers' feedback to help further shape what the program can do to support the campus research community! The Illinois Computes mission is described by two phrases: computing for all and democratizing access. To achieve this, we must be able to provide every researcher on campus with computing technology resources and support that are meaningful to them. Your feedback is essential in shaping the future of computing resources that support research at Illinois. Read more from Chuck here and sign up for Illinois Computes Connections!

Additional sessions for Mental Health First Aid Certification training have been added to the schedule in May and June. To see a complete list of courses and to register, please go to: https://wellness.illinois.edu/mhfa  Courses are offered at no cost to attendees, but you must register and complete all portions of the training to receive certification. Mental Health First Aid training is available on campus through funding provided by the Mental Health Early Action on Campus Act and sponsored by Student Affairs.

ACES Online is thrilled to announce a new course on Coursera, Advancing Dairy Management with Artificial Intelligence. Discover AI's role in dairy systems, identify key data types and explore AI applications in dairy analytics. Led by Dr. Isabella Condotta, this course covers AI models for health monitoring, sensor technologies and predictive models. Learn about biomarker profiling and a systems approach to nutritional management. Enroll now to enhance your dairy management skills with cutting-edge AI insights.

University High School, located on the U. of I. campus, is looking for a head swimming coach and assistant coach for the girls swim team for the fall 2025 season. These are paid positions; must be available 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Email athletic director Kyle Hummel, KHummel@illinois.edu, if interested.  

The final version of the Fall 2024 List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students is now available at go.illinois.edu/lotrae.

We are thrilled to announce the launch of a new Coursera course U.S. Nutrition Policies and Implications. Explore federal food assistance programs like WIC, SNAP and CACFP, and their impact on food security and public health. This course, led by Dr. Saima Hasnin and Dr. Krystal Hodge, covers nutrition policies in various settings, including schools, workplaces and healthcare. Join expert guest lecturers and gain insights into policy gaps and challenges. Enroll now on Coursera and enhance your understanding of U.S. nutrition policy.

The clock is ticking on an important opportunity. Nominate a world-changing humanitarian and share about the Shin Humanitarian Award with others inside and outside the University of Illinois System who may do the same. Your nomination could lead to a program or department receiving $50,000. Nominations are due April 11. For more information, contact Gretchen Lohman at glohm2@uillinois.edu. 

We are pleased to offer new awards supporting and rewarding general education course instructors to demonstrate the importance of general education to the undergraduate experience. The Gen-Ed Professional Development Award offers eligible faculty up to $5,000 for professional development to attend national/international conferences focused on general education. The Gen Ed Innovation Award provides faculty with $7,500 to develop and implement educational innovations within a gen-ed course to enhance the General Education Program and improve students' learning experiences.

The 2025 Campus Space Survey reporting period will be Monday, May 5, to Thursday, July 3. Once the survey opens, facility liaisons and business managers can complete the annual required inventory through the ARCHIBUS Web Central portal. Please update departmental floor plans and occupancy/room usage data to enable an efficient survey process. More Web Central user accounts may be requested.

You are invited to the Career Services Conference 2025: Collaboration, Community and Career Belonging from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. May 21, hosted at the Gies College of Business. Join colleagues to explore ways to create a welcoming and inclusive career experience for students, partners and employers through roundtable discussions, breakout sessions and panel discussions featuring students and employers. Click here to learn more and to register.

Save the date for Allerton Park’s upcoming Concert Series! It kicks off with LOVE FOR ALLerton (June 6), and will also include Reds, Whites and the Blues (July 11), Irish Fest (Aug. 1) and Summer’s End (Sept. 5). Each concert will begin at 6 p.m. on the Gatehouse Lawn. Band info to be announced soon!

The speaker for the India Studies Lecture for 2025 is Vasudha Narayanan. She is a distinguished professor in the Department of Religion at the University of Florida and a past President of the American Academy of Religion. Her lecture will be on "Tamil Culture: More sweet than celestial nectar, more precious than one’s breath." It will be held at the Spurlock Museum on at 8 p.m. April 3. A reception with mini-desserts and fruits will follow the talk.

Applications for the SPaRC'Ed Research Administrator Certification Series are open through Friday, May 30! While all are welcome to apply, priority will be given to staff involved in sponsored programs, research administration or related work. The program runs from August 2025 to April 2026. Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your expertise — apply today!

The 40th YMCA International Dinner will be held on Friday, April 4 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the University YMCA, featuring lively performances and delicious foods. Celebrate global cultures, connect with our diverse local communities and enjoy a night of great food and performance! Tickets are required for this event and can be purchased here. Tickets cost $10 and can be picked up at the University YMCA Main Office. This event is open to all campus and community members.

Join us on Thursday, April 3, for a Panel on Gender and the Economy: Environment, Work, and Care, featuring Mary Arends-Kuenning, “Government Policies and Their Impacts on Women’s Empowerment.;”  Vernita Pearl Fort, "Forging a Human Rights Economy within Planetary Boundaries: A Response to unprecedented ‘Glocal’ Crises and Opportunities;" McKenzie Johnson, “The Work of Women Environmental Defenders in Extractive Economies” and Elizabeth T. Powers, “Deportations and the Care Economy." The panel will be moderated by CSGGE director Min Zhan.

Join us on Friday, April 4, for a Graduate Student Lunch and Learn: Publishing on Gender Related Topics. The event will take place from noon to 1 p.m. (Lunch available starting at 11:45 a.m.). Dominque Moore (Illinois Press Acquisitions Editor) and Jeff Mcardle (Illinois Press Journals Manager) will join us for us for a discussion on publishing on gender related topics. Please RSVP at https://go.illinois.edu/GradLunchLearn. 

Make plans to attend an upcoming Cancer Center at Illinois Seminar titled "Extracting Mechanisms of Cell Cross Talk in Pancreatic Cancer Using Big Data" from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 9, at NCSA 1030. This seminar will feature Nina Steele, a professor of cancer biology at Wayne State University. Register here.

Faculty and staff are invited to this free workshop about data science education at Illinois. Explore what we are doing well, what could be improved, how to leverage knowledge and infrastructure in data science to ensure we remain at the forefront of education in AI and more. Lunch provided. RSVP

Are you ready to enhance your intercultural skills? Join us for "Exploring Intercultural Communication Styles," an interactive training session designed to help faculty, staff, scholars and graduate teaching assistants navigate various intercultural communication skills. This session explores key communication styles, including: direct vs. indirect, linear vs. nonlinear, affective vs. neutral and more. Participants will learn how adapting to different communication approaches can lead to more effective interactions. Registration is required.

Join us for a special Intercultural Spotlight on Bangladesh! This engaging program, presented in collaboration with the Bangladeshi Student Association, will take you on a journey into the vibrant culture, history and daily life of Bangladesh. Hear directly from Bangladeshi students as they share personal experiences and insights into their country’s traditions, customs, and identity. Enjoy a lively presentation, enjoy musical performances, see and try on traditional attire and sample delicious Bangladeshi food! This event is free and open to all. No registration required.

Please join the School of Social Work for the final Research Methods event of the semester with Dr. Lonny Avi Brooks, professor of communication and Afrofuturism at California State University, East Bay. For the last two decades, Dr. Brooks has advanced futuristic thinking in communications curriculum and created games to envision social justice futures, including Black and Queer liberation. Lunch will be served and CEUs are available. Please register: visit our webpage. We hope to see you!

Join Alexandre Alahi of Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne as he presents via Zoom at the Spring 2025 Kent Seminar Series from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, April 3. Presentations this semester focus on topics related to autonomy in transportation. Food and soft drinks will be provided beginning at 1:30 p.m. in the Illinois Center for Transportation Classroom.

The Beckman Institute Open House is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Beckman Institute. Stop by for hands-on scientific demonstrations and debut readings of the book, "Questions Led the Way," a children's book about Beckman and scientific inquiry. The readings are scheduled for 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. both Friday and Saturday. Friday afternoon's reading will be given in Spanish, then English. See a full exhibit list.

Help your students stand out from the applicant pool! We CU Community Engaged Scholars and the Career Center are hosting a resume workshop for students engaged in service. Our "Creating Your Powerful Resume" workshop will teach students how to translate their service experiences into resumes that describe their unique qualifications, skills and experiences. The workshop will be held from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. April 8, in the LAS Hub in Lincoln Hall. Space is limited. Please share the registration link with undergraduate and graduate students who may be interested.

Calling all graduate students: how fast can you present your research? Join this event to meet other Illinois graduate students and share your research in three minutes or less. Two people will pair up and hear about each other's research and then switch to new teams every seven minutes. Light lunch available for all registered participants. Registration is required at https://go.illinois.edu/LightningTalk25.

ISSS is excited to host SquILL Game, where you can compete in teams of four to win prizes by playing traditional Korean games as featured in the hit global Netflix show, Squid Game. Join for a fun afternoon of dangerously addictive and outrageously entertaining games  from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 12, at ARC Gym 3. Registration is required. All current affiliates of the U. of I. and dependents are welcome to register. Registration costs $20 per team. This event is co-sponsored by ISSS, Krannert Center for Performing Arts, Kung Fu Tea, Latea, Kajiken, Kyo Matcha/TE’AMO and HMart.

Between the late 1920s and mid-1960s, several Jewish social scientists and humanities scholars laid the theoretical groundwork for ethnic and immigration studies in the United States. They came to the United States at a young age or were children of immigrants from Eastern Europe who later obtained positions at research universities. The concepts these scholars developed – terms such as acculturation, urbanism, assimilation and cultural pluralism – reshaped the understanding of America as a pluralist society of immigrants.

Stop by the Courtyard Café for a Mom's Weekend edition of Friday Funnies featuring Derrick Knopsnyder. Derrick is the youngest comedian to be a regular act at his home club, the Pittsburgh Improv, and has performed on Comedy Central's "New Talent Search," in the Oddball Comedy Festival and won Stand Up to Cancer's Comedy Festival as well as the Cleveland Comedy Festival.  He connects to audiences through crowd-work to keep them laughing through the night. Opening for Derrick is student org, Spicy Clamato Improv. Don't just see the show, be a part of the show!

This session introduces the podcasting equipment and technology available to our campus community from the libraries. In addition to familiarizing ourselves with the equipment for recording, we will cover some beginning recording and audio editing techniques, particularly within the software Audacity.

This will be a conversation with Tobias Brinkmann about his recent book, "Between Borders: The Great Jewish Migration from Eastern Europe." It tells and contextualizes the stories of Jewish migrants and refugees from Eastern and Central Europe before and after the First World War. It explains how immigration laws in countries such as the United States influenced migration routes around the world. 

Join The Program in Jewish Culture and Society and the University Library for the screening of "The Zone of Interest." The film screening will be followed by a discussion led by professor Rachelle Grossman (Comparative and World Literature). This event is tied to ongoing courses in Jewish Studies. All are welcome!

Tens of thousands of Palestinians migrated to the Americas in the final decades of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth. By 1936, an estimated 40,000 Palestinians lived outside geographic Palestine.

The SKY Happiness Retreat is an internationally acclaimed life-skills program that helps participants develop a relaxed, stress-free mind and an energetic, healthy body. The retreat teaches tools such as evidence-based meditation, yoga, breathwork and self-exploration in a fun and an experiential format. Join us on campus for a detox weekend! Fully funded for all U. of I. students. 

Join the Student Sustainability Leadership Council and the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment at the Green Globes + iCAP Reception on April 17! We will celebrate the sustainability efforts of student organizations across campus at an awards ceremony. This will be followed by a reception with Illinois Climate Action Plan teams, who will share updated objectives for iCAP 2025 and collect feedback about how you want to get involved in reaching our climate goals. Snacks and refreshments will be provided! Student organizations can apply for a Green Globes Award here >>>

In honor of 90 years of the Preservation Services Unit, the staff has curated an exhibit that tells the story of our department — come see the exhibit in the Main Gallery and North-South Corridor of the Library during the month of April. An exhibit opening event will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. April 4, in Room 106. The first hour will feature talks by Dean Claire Stewart, Jennifer Hain Teper and our Preservation team. Paula Kaufman, Dean of Libraries and University Librarian from 1999-2013, will be giving our keynote address! Refreshments will be served from 2 to 3 p.m. Hope to see you there!

Join us for a free monthly practice of the Tamarkoz concentration and meditation method, which includes relaxation, breathing exercises, slow meditative movements and visualization. The practice will be led by a licensed clinical psychologist. Sessions will be held the first Saturday of each month from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Wesley Student Center at 1203 W. Green St. in Urbana. The next session is April 5.

Calvin Mackie, founder of STEM NOLA, will give a lecture titled, "Hope in the 21st Century." A kid-friendly reception will follow as will a preview of the Beckman Institute Open House from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, visit the SmithGroup Lecture webpage.

Join University of Illinoi Extension program coordinator Vanessa Jones at The Windsor of Savoy in the Savoy Room from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. April 22, for a free, hands-on class on building a beautiful, balanced charcuterie board. Learn to select wholesome ingredients, arrange a nutritious spread and make your own mini-board to enjoy. Register by April 16 at https://go.illinois.edu/CharcuterieBoard to save your spot!

Train your own LLM and deploy it as a teaching assistant and link it with Canvas. Set it up as a trustworthy tutor that provides instruction yet does not give away answers to homework problems. Have it assist you with a literature review.” Join us for a hands-on beginners’ workshop to learn more about the creation process of a custom LLM for classroom purposes with Illinois.chat created by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Click HERE to register for this hybrid workshop.

Join us for a book discussion at the College of Law. Professor Jill Hasday (University of Minnesota) will discuss her latest book "We the Men: How Forgetting Women’s Struggles for Equality Perpetuates Inequality." Hasday argues that remembering women’s stories more often and more accurately can help the nation advance toward sex equality. Free and open to the public with a limited number of lunches for attendees.

The U. of I. Black Chorus and Dr. Ollie Watts Davis, artistic director and conductor, presents "LOVELY," a concert of faith, fellowship and the rich legacy of Black sacred and secular music traditions. The concert will premiere original music, welcome alumni and invite all attending to enlarge the Chorus with singing and movement in joyful celebration. A special tribute to honor the mothers of graduating seniors in Black Chorus will also be performed. Tickets are available at the Krannert Center.

Joshua Tucker (NYU), co-founder of the Center for Social Media and Politics will give the 2025 Linowes Lecture which will discuss the critical role of social scientists in evaluating online harm mitigation strategies. He will highlight findings from a decade of research, showing that not all interventions work as expected and some have unintended effects. The address will also explore lessons for the future, especially regarding generative AI and the digital information ecosystem.

We welcome you to join us at the iSchool for an in-person panel discussion and informal reception on Tuesday April 8.  Critical data studies takes on one of the most important issues facing society today: how do we build secure, accessible and equitable information infrastructures to support our communities? Join us for a conversation on the concepts, sites of study and methods needed to move critical data studies forward. More details here.

Hear about the artistic process of Allerton artist-in-residence Patrick Neal and view some of his work at Painting the Four Seasons from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, April 17, in the Allerton Mansion. Join us for a presentation from this New York-based painter whose talk will include a question-and-answer period. $5 per person. Register here by April 16. 

Learn about improvisation, including scene creation and team dynamics at Improve Your Improv on from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays, April 17 through May 29, in Allerton’s Music Barn. This course will be jam-packed with improvisational fun that will use both short-form games and long-form scenes. $100 per person for the series or $25 per class. Register here by April 10 or one week before each subsequent class. 

Get ready for gardening season at Allerton’s Plant Sale Fundraiser on May 2-4 on the Gatehouse Lawn. Purchase your annuals, herbs, veggies, perennials, natives, arranged hanging baskets, Allerton Bluebells (limited supply!) and more. It’s also part of our Bluebell Festival, which includes a Spring Market (Saturday), food, drinks, workshops, live music and more! Find details here. Free.

"We Were the Scenery" tells the story of Hoa Thi Le and Hue Nguyen Che and their escape from Vietnam by boat in 1975 as well as their arrival in the Philippines, where they were utilized as background extras during the filming of "Apocalypse Now." Producers Cathy Linh Che and Jess X. Snow join us for an exclusive screening of the award-winning short film and a discussion of the intersection of war, memory and cinema.

On April 9 from 10 a.m. to noon, SCD will host its first “Reflections and Research” event, spotlighting Human-Centered Design in the Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. This event celebrates how HCD has enriched LASS through both practical and theoretical research. Dr. Sofía Bosch Gómez will deliver the keynote, followed by a panel featuring affiliates Andrew Moss, Nikia Brown, Mike Tissenbaum, Shubham Kumar and Carrie James. The event will also include lightning talks on LASS projects. Join us by signing up here! 

A Dialogue Between Community Leaders, Civil and Environmental Engineers and Scientists | This event will bring local community leaders from the Illinois Department of Public Health, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Champaign County Emergency Management and Public Health along with U. of I. faculty and students for a conversation about how we can better cooperate to prepare for, respond to and recover from natural extreme events, such as floods, tornadoes and wildfires. 

Save the Date for an Advanced Packaging seminar with Ganesh Subbarayan, professor of Mechanical Engineering, director of the Institute for Advanced System Integration and Packaging and co-director for the Center for Heterogenous Integration Research in Packaging at Purdue University. All are welcome to attend a reception with a seminar to follow.

The Cancer Center at Illinois is excited to present "Extracting Mechanisms of Cell Cross Talk in Pancreatic Cancer Using Big Data," presented by Dr. Nina Steele, assistant scientist at Henry Ford Hospital, as part of the Cancer Center at Illinois Seminar Series. Find the seminar abstract and Dr. Steele's bio at this official announcement. REGISTER HERE to attend in person or online.

Join the RBML for a hands-on journey through history! Play historical board games that bring the past to life as you roll the dice, make your moves and uncover the stories behind them. Perfect for all ages, this interactive in-person event invites families, students and community members to connect, learn and have fun. Don’t just study history — experience it through play!

The RBML welcomes Justine Murison, editor of a new critical edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel. Murison will discuss the work’s historical and literary contexts, the revolutionary politics with which the novel engages and the enduring questions it asks about American society. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing. This event is free, and all are welcome to attend.

IQUIST will host World Quantum Day Celebration 2025 on April 12 at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Building. The event will feature the Saturday Engineering for Everyone lecture and book signing by Author Nicole Yunger Halpern, "Quantum Steampunk: The Physics of Yesterday's Tomorrow." The World Quantum Day Celebration event will also include hands-on demos, free U. of I. LabEscape tours from April 11-13 and free liquid nitrogen ice cream. This event is open to the public and all U. of I. students.

The Beckman Institute's Visualization Laboratory has a new location! From 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, April 18, join us to celebrate with refreshments, remarks and a ribbon cutting in 2203 Beckman. You'll have a chance to meet new Vis Lab manager Jay Cournoyer and see demonstrations of various services the lab offers from its Graphic Services team. Remarks will begin at 1:30 p.m., followed by a ribbon cutting. Please RSVP by April 11.

Join us for talks by recent CAS Associates. At 11 a.m., Yuguo Chen (Statistics) discusses how statistical network analysis is used to develop methods to account for the complex dependencies in network data; and at noon, Soo Ah Kwon (Asian American Studies) argues for moving beyond simple binaries such as reformist/radical to better understand youth activism.

The 2024-25 Dean's Distinguished Speaker Series aims to facilitate conversation with preeminent scholars in education about the connections between Community, Schools and Identity. As schools face existing and emerging challenges, they weigh shifting opportunities for educating and nurturing the students and communities they serve.

"Hot Stuff" is an AIFIS film award-winning documentary and part of a trio of Indonesian films that delve into energy policies in Indonesia, corporate ties to those policies and their detrimental effects on local environments and populations. Director Dandhy Laksono and producer Cypri Dale will join GETSEA live from the University of Michigan’s Center for Southeast Asia Studies as 20 universities from across North America connect via Zoom followed by a discussion. Pizza provided for Illinois participants starting at 3:55 p.m. Please RSVP!

The TAKEOVER is an annual event put on by all 180+ first-year students of the School of Art and Design. In one day, the exhibition is installed, celebrated for a day and then taken down (leaving no trace). Work is installed and performed all over the School of Art and Design's main building and grounds by participating students.

How can videographic criticism help us understand weird and borderline obsolete artifacts and interfaces from the analog and early digital eras that continue to resurface in the online space? Join film scholars Jiří Anger (Queen Mary University of London) and Veronica Hanáková (Charles University, Prague) for a curated screening of media-archaeological video essays exploring things like outdated video game interfaces, tacky editing transitions and proto-internet news services. The screening will be followed by a Q&A.

The iSchool's Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship will host Marcel Binz, research scientist and deputy head of the Institute for Human-Centered AI at Helmholtz Munich, presenting "Foundation Models of Human Cognition" on Wednesday, April 2, as part of its Generative AI and the Future of Research speaker series.

Join CDA and National Taiwan University for the free "Smart Agriculture in Animals" webinar at 7 p.m. on April 9. This session is part of our "Global Perspectives on Digital/Smart Agriculture" joint seminar series. Attend to learn about lameness detection in gilts and sows using kinetic and kinematic analyses, machine vision application in animal husbandry, precision animal management and more.

A Scoping Review is a type of evidence synthesis that represents an exploration of research literature to assess the depth and breadth of research related to a specific question or topic. A Scoping Review maps concepts from the literature to reveal trends, themes and gaps in the research area to inform and provide context for further exploration or examination. This workshop covers the how and why of Scoping Reviews, including question development, search strategies, screening results and data extraction.

Google Scholar is an incredibly popular and useful tool for research with several features that scholars may not be familiar with. This workshop will elaborate on the difference between searching in Google Scholar and academic databases, demonstrate how to use Google Scholar’s Advanced Search, explain how to connect your library access to Google Scholar and cover some of the other more sophisticated features Google Scholar offers to support your research.

This session provides insight and strategies for getting the most out of Scopus; the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature including scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. This session will highlight how to find literature about a particular topic, tracking citations, author information and evaluating sources. Other features and strategies will also be covered. Audience: Undergraduate or graduate students in any field but particularly STEM fields. 

Are you struggling to keep track of all your sources? Looking for an easier way to cite as you write? Mendeley is a free citation manager that helps you organize your citations, store and annotate your files, and insert formatted citations into papers. You will leave this hands-on workshop with the ability to set up and use your very own Mendeley library!

Web of Science is a large multidisciplinary platform of abstract databases for articles, book chapters and conference proceedings. This session provides insight and strategies for getting the most use out of the platform. We will highlight how to search for literature and authors as well as where to find citation and grant information. 

This week Brian Deal will talk about "A Climate Plan for Illinois Natural and Working Lands Plus: geospatial analysis and modeling." This presentation outlines a statewide approach to leveraging natural and working lands for climate change mitigation in Illinois. The plan aims to establish the current and potential contribution of natural and working lands toward meeting Illinois’ climate commitments under the USCA and Paris Climate Agreement. 

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is an open access digital library of more than 59 million pages. Focused on biodiversity literature, it includes many rare materials containing the original descriptions of plants and animals. The historic, artistic and scientific materials are useful across a wide range of disciplines. Attendees will learn to search the BHL catalog as well as the stunning collection of public domain images in Flickr.

Labs That Work for Everyone is an interactive, asynchronous professional development program designed to promote healthy lab environments and equip lab members with skills to own and manage their careers. Join the pilot and develop vital leadership and communication skills today. Pilots can be fully independent or take place with your lab group.

Join Jennifer McNeilly and Lily Arias ( of LAS) for April’s Art of Teaching Lunchtime Seminar Series, as they share their experience on leading the Merit Program and promoting student-centered learning in chemistry, biology and mathematics. First and second-year courses are often overwhelming for students and can contribute to increased STEM attrition. To enhance the experience for more than 1,200 students, Merit Program sections led by teaching assistants provide a student-centered atmosphere and foster the formation of an academic community. Register here.

PFAS are found in various matrices, including water, soil, humans and wildlife. Reliable analytical methods for multiple media are lacking, making regulation challenging. Current methods limit identification and quantification of PFAS, especially emerging ones. High-resolution LC-MS is key for identifying unknown contaminants, but challenges remain in annotation. This presentation covers PFAS analysis challenges and solutions, including matrix effects, ionization, extraction, separation, quantification and identification, focusing on short-chain PFAS and biodegradation studies. 

In an increasingly tense political landscape, book bans have become a topic of conversation across the country. This talk discusses the history of book bans, why they happen and what people can do to prevent them.

We are looking to conduct in-person interviews with people with Type 2 diabetes who do not have a bachelor's degree. Participation includes a one-time, two-hour session with surveys and interview questions. Participants will be compensated with a $40 Amazon e-code. Contact Willencia at wl30@illinois.edu if interested.

We are looking to interview parents/guardians of at least one child who have experienced or are experiencing uncertainty about having a second child. Please consider participating if you are at least 18 years old, reside in the U.S., are the parent and/or guardian of at least one child and you can recall uncertainties you are having or had about having a second child. You do not need to have a second child to participate. Participation involves an interview of approximately one hour via Zoom. Express interest here or follow the URL: https://illinois.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b7rhvB9yAsrcX30.

Tell Us How Your Household Manages Food! We are seeking participants for our Household Food Management Study. Your participation will help inform future initiatives to improve household food conservation and decrease food waste. Plus, participation will increase your understanding of how your household manages food, including how much food is wasted. Study enrollees will be compensated up to $100 in Amazon gift cards for participating. Learn more at (http://tiny.cc/StudyFlyer). 

Looking for adults ages 40-75 for a study on prolonged sitting and cognition. The study tests interrupting sitting with short, high-intensity exercises and measures brain and cognitive functions before and after. Participants earn $280, with travel expenses covered if living 30-plus miles from Champaign. Interested? Click here to join.

Looking for adults (ages 25-40) who are native speakers of American English and have normal hearing. Participants will listen and respond to speech samples and receive a hearing test during a single 60- to 90-minute visit. Compensation of $15 per hour will be provided at completion. To learn more, fill out our screener or email anex-lab@illinois.edu.

The University of Illinois System and the I-MMAS program, in collaboration with the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, have established a joint seed research grants program for the academic year 2025-2026. This program will fund projects in the areas of Food and Health, Water or Energy. The goal is to contribute towards solutions related to poverty, the environment and sustainable well-being. A proposal can have a budget request of no more than $40,000 dollars jointly. Applicants should submit their proposals by April 15. Download proposal requirements and evaluation criteria.