Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of HEnrietta LAcks tells the story of the Lacks family and how their mother’s cells changed medical research.  Skloot’s book fills in details about Henrietta’s life and the cervical cancer that provided science with the first cell line, HeLa.

Without her knowledge, Henrietta Lacks’ (HeLa) cells were collected and used for cervical cancer research.  These immortalized cells – reproducing still today – would eventually be used to generate the first-ever human cell line and distributed world-wide for use in millions of experiments benefiting human health from the polio vaccine to gene mapping.

Continue reading “HeLa, by Elizabeth Sefton”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a great resource of Great Lakes information.

Check out a few of these tid-bits:

Water Surface Area: 95,000 square miles (245,759 square km). Largest surface area of freshwater in the world.

Continue reading “The Great Lakes (in a nutshell)”

Donald Scavia is the Graham Family Professor of Sustainability, Professor of Natural Resources and Environment, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Director of the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute, and Special Counsel to the U-M President for Sustainability.

Continue reading “Climate Change’s Donald Scavia’s Biography”

Group Leader, Heterogeneous Catalysis Research

Chris Marshall is a research chemist with expertise in catalyst formulation and characterization, reactor testing of both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts, catalysis fundamentals, and molecular modeling.

His work is aimed at understanding the workings of current catalysts and improving their activities and selectivities. Research goals are met by a combination of selective synthesis of active catalytic phases; improved understanding of the interrelationships between the active phases, supports and feeds; and the use of computational chemistry to develop first-principle understanding of both catalyst and hydrocarbon feed and products. The unique understanding brought about by these techniques provides new insights into existing and future commercial processes; this research important to both the U.S. Department of Energy and chemical and energy-producing companies.

Continue reading “Future Fuels’ Christopher Marshall Biography”

Section Leader – Process Technology Research

After a postdoctoral fellowship at Argonne in photosynthesis, Seth Snyder worked at Abbott Laboratories in Alzheimer’s and pharmaceutical discovery research.

In 1998, he rejoined Argonne as the associate director of the Chemistry Division where he developed new programs in nanoscience and applied biotechnology.

Continue reading “Future Fuels’ Seth Snyder’s Biography”

Friday, August 27.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hosted the Illinois Green Governments Coordinating Council’s (GGCC) Symposia on Friday.  The mix of workshops, panel discussions, and networking opportunities enabled educational institutions, professors, students, architects and engineers to discuss their challenges and progress in creating more sustainable campuses.

Continue reading “Campus Sustainability Meeting Sees Governor Renewing Commitment”