Ingenious: Molecular Prosthetics
When Martin Burke, M.D., was making his rounds at Harvard Medical School in 1999, he visited a young woman suffering with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that can severely damage
Ingenious: Breaching Molecular Walls
Researchers have long run up against “a wall” in attempting to thwart some of the world’s deadliest bacteria. That’s because antibiotics cannot penetrate the membrane walls of those pathogens, says
Ingenious: Eureka Moment
Salvador E. Luria’s breakthrough research on bacteria and genetics can be traced to a chance encounter on a stalled trolley in Rome during which he struck up a conversation with
Ingenious: Field Guide
Victor E. Shelford has been called “the father of animal ecology” because he was one of the first scientists to study natural environments as communities of complex relationships among animals
Ingenious: A Light on the Prairie
Ollie Watts Davis, MMUS ’82, AMUSD ’88, has been enamored with lighthouses ever since her childhood. Davis says she collects lighthouse statues because “they serve their singular purpose effectively. I
Ingenious: The Joy of Research
Rudolph A. Marcus’ world changed forever when he garnered the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1992. The honor “was an order of magnitude bigger than anything I had experienced—maybe two
Ingenious: Photometry Star
When Joel Stebbins began his astronomical research at the U of I in 1903, his new wife, May Louise, wasn’t happy that her husband spent so many evenings at the
Ingenious: At the quantum level
When University of Illinois physics professor Anthony Leggett was 7 years old, he had a fascination with digging holes in the family garden in Englefield Green on the outskirts of
Ingenious: Old Man River
William Warfield was expecting a long day of recording, as he prepared to sing the iconic song “Old Man River,” for the classic MGM musical, Show Boat, in 1951. But
Ingenious: The father of special education
Samuel A. Kirk recalled that just before a 1963 conference in Chicago, a friend of his said, “We’re going to ask you to give us a term” to describe children
