2022-11-08
- What causes the 78% recurrence rate in patients treated with shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) for calcium oxalate (CaOx) kidney stones?
Shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) is the most commonly applied treatment for human kidney stones globally, yet 78% of patients experience a recurrence in painful stone growth. In order to find out why, Lauren Todorov’s 2022 M.Sc. thesis research applied...
2022-10-31 - By Amber Rose, Grainger College of Engineering University of Illinois researchers Leonardo Chamorro and Jim Best used clear mud in order to study the structure of turbulence in water flows. You might be thinking, "mud isn’t clear!" If so, you would be wrong. Most work done by researchers in the Earth surface community has looked at the dynamics of water flows in the absence of...
2022-08-22 - New Zealand’s Akaroa Volcano has been the focus of decades of research by geologists seeking to understand its eruptive history, which lasted 9-8 Ma. Some of Akaroa’s most intriguing features include a radial dike swarm and several lava domes exposed along the high-topography “crater rim” of the volcano’s eroded central summit region. Using a combination of field and petrographic observations, a...
2022-07-15 - In a new paper published in Nature Communications, Gary Parker, Jim Best and Julia Cisneros (former PhD student) are part of a team that reports on how damming on the Huang He (Yellow) River, China, may increase the risk of flooding from moderate to large floods. The study, led by Hongbo Ma (UC Irvine) and Jeff Nittrouer (Texas Tech; former postdoc at Illinois) involved researchers from...
2022-05-06 - Check out Geology Department Professor Alison Anders talking about her work on how critical zone soils form in glaciated landscapes! Listen to the podcast here! ...
2022-04-29 - The Department of Geology is very pleased to announce that doctoral student Hannah Veldhuizen has been awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate research fellowship! Her research focuses on developing new geochemical methods that can be used to unravel the complex behavior of elements that are toxins in the modern environment and also hold information regarding past...
2022-04-21 - Robby Goldman, NSF Graduate Research Fellow and PhD Candidate in the Department of Geology, recently received an Outstanding Student Presentation Award (OSPA) from the American Geophysical Union for his oral presentation given during the 2021 AGU Fall Meeting, titled “Examining residents’ perceptions and attitudes toward sources and messengers of Kīlauea’s 2018 eruption information.” Robby, who...
2022-01-20 - Associate Professor Druhan received the exciting news that NSF will fund a new 1M collaborative research grant entitled “Collaborative Research: Concentration - Ratio - Discharge (C-R-Q) Relationships of Transient Water-Age Distributions”. UIUC will lead the project, together with PIs at The University of Arizona and Cornell University. The multi-disciplinary research team will combine...
2021-12-20 - In a new paper in Nature Communications, former graduate student Jiashun Hu (now at the Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China), Professor Lijun Liu and California Institute of Technology professor ...
2021-12-17 - Petroleum Experts has renewed a grant of a set of software packages to the Illinois State Geological Survey and Department of Geology to use in research and education. This software enhances the ISGS capabilities in subsurface interpretation and helps students pursue their undergraduate and graduate research. The...
2021-12-13 - Dr. Olivia Thurston (PhD -UIUC, now at U. of Indiana) and her advisor Dr. William Guenthner have been working to explore questions about the timing of the rocks in the Grand Canyon, using their helium isotope technique to date these samples. Check out the story from The College of LAS!
2021-12-13 - The exhibit, In Search of Lost Time, led by Geology Assistant Professor William Guenthner, will explore how the chronology of the Earth was established, with a focus on six themes that gradually led to the consensus view that the Earth is roughly 4.55 billion years of age. This age is so vast that Earth’s history seems to stretch back in time by an almost ...
2021-12-08 - Through a generous gift by Suzanne Mahlburg Kay (BS, ’69; MS, ’72) and Robert W. Kay, an endowment has been established to fund, in perpetuity, an annual award of at least $1,000 to an outstanding graduate student in the department. Sue was inspired to donate in Jim’s honor by their shared experiences as graduate students, long term friendship, and common scientific interests. Many people were...
2021-12-08 - The department is very pleased to announce the creation of the Ralph Langenheim scholarship for undergraduate geology majors. Through the generosity of Michael Bourque (MS, ’78) a $25,000 endowment has been established to fund the scholarship in perpetuity. Mike chose to honor Ralph, his graduate mentor, after reflecting on his experience at Illinois: “In the field, Ralph was generous with his...
2021-11-12 - Congratulations to this years Alumni Achievement Award winner, Dr. Jack Sharp! Dr. Sharp is the Dave P. Carlton Centennial Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a past president of the Geological Society of America and studies hydrogeology, generally in carbonate systems. Dr. Sharp gave a fantastic talk on November 11th (which you can see on our ...