Autonomous Engineer
Dan Williams, ’85 ENG, MS ’87 ENG, realizes the irony: He got into the automotive industry 34 years ago because he loves to drive, but his pioneering work in autonomous automotive technology could take...
Class Notes Profile: Inclusive Curator
For many, COVID-19 meant hunkering down to work from home. Not so for Chicagoan Julie Rodrigues Widholm, ’97 LAS, who was tapped early in the pandemic as the next executive director of the University...
Class Notes Profile: Community Developer
“I never knew this job existed,” says Erica Bauer, PHD ’10 LAS, sounding amazed that she’s the Chicago Bulls’ director of community relations. Her journey to the Bulls started at Illinois, where she wrote her...
Alumni Interview: Lynn Rippelmeyer
What a time to join aviation! The 747 had just been introduced in 1972, and TWA started around-the-world service. A sorority sister persuaded me to join her in New York City in her new...
Optimistic Thriller
Known for his writings about sports and film, Athens, Ga.–based journalist, Will Leitch, ’98 MEDIA, veers into new territory with How Lucky (Harper, 2021), a novel in which a young man with a debilitating...
Tax Guide
The Mexican American family came looking for help—with their taxes. Dad was a maintenance worker. Mom was a homemaker. The eldest of their three children served as their translator. When a helpful volunteer ran...
My Alma Mater: All that Jazz
Ron Fink, ’60 FAA, MS ’61 FAA In the late 1950s, I was a percussion major at the U of I—paradise for a young musician. Not only was our campus the epicenter of a...
“I”s on the World: South African Safari
South Africa was an ideal setting for Don, MS ’70 ENG, PHD ’73 ENG, and Colette Henley, MS ’72 LAS, to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. The couple joined a UIAA EXPLORERS camera safari...
Illini Double Trio
Growing up, O’Brien twins Kevin, ’87 MEDIA, and Kathy, ’87 LAS, and 11-months-older brother Peter, ’87 LAS, always attended the same schools in the same grade. So the trio never even considered splitting up...
Alumni Interview: Newton Cheng
I believe in the power of health and well-being. Corporations have a special opportunity because healthier employees make the business more successful. I believe if we help people at Google, other companies may follow,...
