Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences Scott Sakaluk will serve as ISU's new Director of Research and Sponsored Programs. “Scott impressed us with his energy, vision, and commitment to helping ISU move to the next level of scholarship,” said Rod Custer, Associate Vice President for Graduate Studies, Research, and International Education. “The faculty across the entire campus will benefit from his grant writing expertise, research experience, and interest in a variety of creative, scholarly activities. I think this position is going to be good for Scott, and I know it will be good for the Research and Sponsored Programs office and the entire university.” A professor of Zoology, Sakaluk is an internationally renowned scholar and a master teacher who has been on the Illinois State faculty since 1987.  “I applaud Rod Custer and the Search Committee for choosing Professor Scott Sakaluk as the new Director of Research and Sponsored Programs,” said Dean Olson. “The fact that the new director is one of ISU’s most accomplished researchers and a Distinguished Professor shows that the institution is serious about enhancing its profile as a research institution."

Illinois State University is one of eight collaborators in a consortium that will receive $125 million in United States Department of Energy Funding for a new Bioenergy Research Center. The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, based out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will be led by the University of Wisconsin, in close collaboration with Michigan State University. The establishment of bioenergy research centers culminates a six-year effort by DOE’s Office of Science to lay the foundation for breakthroughs in systems biology for the cost-effective production of renewable energy. ISU Professor John Sedbrook, Department of Biological Sciences, participated in efforts to build the Midwest Consortium. “This is a wonderful opportunity for students and faculty at ISU to work synergistically with participants at GLBRC partner institutions,” said Sedbrook.  “Considerable scientific work lies ahead in helping to break the bottlenecks that limit the efficient generation of biofuels from plant biomass.”

This summer the Department of Chemistry is hosting ten Fellows involved in an innovative National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored program. This program, which is providing over $500,000 in grant funding to support activities at the Illinois State campus, is designed to provide budding scientists with hands-on research experiences in chemistry as part of the Undergraduate Research Collaborative (URC) called STEM-ENGINES (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics - Engaging the Next Generation IN Exploring Science). The NSF's Division of Chemistry and the Office of Multidisciplinary Affairs are jointly funding a $2,700,000 award to a multi-institutional team to establish the STEM-ENGINES URC. See the following website for more information: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0629174

John Shields, Distinguished Professor of English, came to Illinois State in 1979 after completing his PhD in English at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He is considered a generous and wide-ranging teacher who has inspired many undergraduate majors to enter the field of literary studies. “I was a student in Dr. Shields’ poetry course during the Fall 2006 semester,” said ISU student Kerri Johnson. “We had to work hard, but the class was fascinating because Dr. Shields taught us how to analyze and find relevance in works of literature.” He has encouraged undergraduates and graduate students to publish in forums beyond the University and to test their ideas with national and international audiences. Shields received the first National Endowment for the Humanities grant given to an Illinois State English faculty member and has served as an NEH Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley, Yale University, and Princeton University. In addition, he has been a Fellow of The Society for the Humanities at Cornell University. Shields and his colleague Eric D. Lamore are in the process of establishing The Center for Classicism in American Culture at Illinois State University.   Read More...