This Week in Illinois Research
Solar Farm 2.0 Dedication
On Friday, we celebrated the dedication Solar Farm 2.0, the 54-acre solar array that is powering our campus toward our 2015 Illinois Climate Action Plan goals. Together with Solar Farm 1.0, the installations beat ICAP targets by three years and are now producing 27,000 megawatt-hours per year.
The project is a hotbed of collaboration! Solar Farm 2.0 is a partnership between F&S and the commercial sector, as well as our researchers on campus. Research projects at the facility draw partners from around the state and across the nation. PHASE, which is exploring the ecological and economic impacts of pollinator habitats at utility-scale solar facilities, is a collaboration with our sister institution UIC and with Argonne National Labs. Another project, SCAPES, drills into the agrivoltaics economy to test and identify crops that will grow productively under and between the solar panels at sites across the country, reducing competition for land.
A clean energy future is on the horizon. I am delighted to see how we continue to show the nation a way forward, in research and in practice!
Sincerely,
Susan
Featured Stories
ADM Makes Transformative Investment in Innovation at University of Illinois Research Park
ADM has opened a new Science and Technology Center at the University of Illinois Research Park, quadrupling its footprint and adding capabilities in human nutrition research and development, wet chemistry, sensory science, data science, and more.
The Untold Stories of the Women of France
Tamara Chaplin's upcoming book, "Becoming Lesbian: A Queer History of Modern France,” uncovers a nearly lost chapter of lesbianism through untold stories about French women’s l
University of Illinois Archives Announces Lineup for Fall 2022 Women in Science Lecture Series
The University of Illinois Archives has announced the lineup for its Fall 2022 Women in Science Lecture Series. The virtual event happens on the second Thursday of the month.
Around Campus
University of Illinois and Insper Partnership Supports Research and Education Collaboration
UIUC and the Insper Instituto De Ensino E Pesquisa in Brazil have announced a new partnership to support joint research projects, curriculum development, sabbatical experiences, fellowships, and summer research internships.
OpEd Project Public Voices Fellowship Cohort Announced
The System recently announced the 2022-23 cohort (including eight UIUC faculty members) of the Op-Ed Project's Public Voices Fellowship, while past Public Voices Fellow Jan Erkert recently published…
Register now for the Chancellor's Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Symposium
Register now for the Chancellor's Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Symposium, an inaugural research conference on October 6–7 that will feature a keynote with Ibram X. Kendi and showcase the 22 projects funded during the first year of the program.
FAA Faculty Awarded Prestigious Mellon Grant for Collective Projects
A team from FAA, led by Cynthia Oliver and co-investigators Sandra Ruiz, Christopher Robert Jones, and Liza Sylvestre, has been awarded funding from the Mellon Foundation's …
Cusick Wins NSF CAREER Award
Congratulations to Ro Cusick who has received an NSF CAREER award to advance fundamental understanding of how to recover phosphorous-based minerals from municipal wastewater. The award will also support the development of an outdoor science camp for LGBTQIA+ high school students in central Illinois.
Announcing the Chancellor’s Call to Action Research Projects for 2022-23
Chancellor Jones recently announced 25 new projects supported by the 2022-23 Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program, a $2M annual commitment to prioritize research exploring systemic racial inequities.
National Landscape
Senate Confirms Prabhakar to Lead White House Science Office
The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Arati Prabhakar to lead the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy.
NSF Launched Activate Fellowship
The DOE, Moore Foundation, DARPA, and others have launched the Activate Fellowship, a two-year program to support entrepreneurship among scientists and engineers and help them to turn technology concepts into a product.
Most U.S. Professors Are Trained at Same Few Elite Universities
A whopping 80% of tenure-track faculty members came from just 20% of PhD-granting institutions across the country between 2011 and 2020, according to an analysis published last week in Nature.
Gender Pay Gap Hits University Faculty
A study of more than 2,300 STEM faculty members indicates that, while more women scientists work as professors today than at any time in history, they’re still underpaid relative to their male colleagues with similar publication records.
Who Pays for Public Access to Federally Funded Research Papers?
While many have welcomed the Biden Administration's announcement of free public access to federally funded studies, an Inside Higher Ed article notes that the policy isn't without its critics, with many wondering whether publishers will adapt their business models to comply or if scholars will be left footing the bill.
Reviewers Award Higher Marks When a Paper’s Author Is Famous
A recent study featured in Science found that reviewers award higher marks when a paper’s author is famous. One commentator called it "the largest randomized controlled trial we have seen on publication bias.”