NIU is a member of the Universities Research Association, a prestigious consortium of universities across the country that supports the work of important national laboratories such as Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory.
Lincoln/Net – a project spearheaded by NIU University Libraries and located on the World Wide Web – is a virtual library of Abraham Lincoln’s Illinois years. Drew VandeCreek, the project’s creator, was awarded the 2007 Electronic Lincoln Prize. Presented by Gettysburg College, the $10,000 cash award recognizes significant contribution in new media to scholarship about Abraham Lincoln or the Civil War era.
Northern Illinois University’s prize-winning historian David Kyvig is being praised for his new book, “The Age of Impeachment: American Constitutional Culture Since 1960” (University of Kansas Press). The work chronicles the rise of a culture of impeachment that extends well beyond the infamous scandals surrounding Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. Kyvig, a Distinguished Research Professor at NIU, snagged some high profile interview subjects for the book. They included Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward; John Dean, former counsel to President Nixon and the star witness in the Watergate proceedings; and journalists Daniel Schorr and Nina Totenberg of National Public Radio.
Northern Illinois University’s Department of Physics is now offering a Ph.D. specialization in nanoscience, an exciting new field that is developing materials, electronics and machines so small they approach atomic scale. NIU’s federally funded Institute of Nanoscience & Engineering Technology collaborates with Argonne National Laboratory on basic research in nanotechnology. Many scientists believe the field will spur the next technological revolution.
NIU is home to the unique USOAR (Undergraduate Special Opportunities in Artistry and Research) program, which allows undergraduate students to apply for dollars that fund research trips to other states or nations.
NIU’s Geology Department received $2.5 million in recent years to boost research into worldwide climate changes, including global warming. NIU scientists are using a remotely operated submarine to look for causes of global warming under rapidly-melting glaciers in Antarctica.
NIU Geology Professor Ross Powell is one of the lead researchers on a $30 million drilling project known as ANDRILL, an international effort to recover geologic records buried beneath the Antarctic sea in order to gain a better understanding of contemporary global warming trends. The project was featured in a front-page story in the Chicago Tribune as well as in several top academic journals.
Two NIU psychology professors are using a $1.5 million federal grant to develop an automated online test for reading comprehension. The test will measure not only how well college and high school students understood the text they read, but will also pinpoint areas where comprehension breaks down.
NIU physicists are playing key roles in the world’s most ambitious physics experiment: The “D-Zero” project at Fermilab explores the subatomic universe using the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. NIU professor Gerald Blazey has served as spokesman for the project, which involves more than 600 researchers from 40 universities around the world.
Scientists at the Northern Illinois Center for Accelerator and Detector Development (NICADD) have developed a prototype sub-detector for the proposed International Linear Collider (ILC). The new technology is so sensitive that it can detect single photons of light with high efficiency. The proposed linear, or straight-line, collider represents the next generation of particle accelerators, which smash together tiny bits of invisible matter to produce new particles. The experiments help researchers identify and understand the most basic building blocks of nature and the structure of the microscopic universe.
A team of researchers at Argonne National Laboratory led by NIU physicist Zhili Xiao has developed an ultra-fast hydrogen sensor that will greatly increase safety for future hydrogen-powered buses, cars and space applications. The sensor was tapped as one of the world’s top 200 scientific and technological innovations for 2005, as judged by R&D Magazine.
NIU President John Peters is serving on a blue-ribbon task force created by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to support Argonne National Laboratory in its bid for a $1 billion accelerator project. Landing the proposed Rare Isotope Accelerator would create thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent high-tech research positions.
The U.S. Department of Education awarded the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University with a $1.7 million grant for its continued program and worldwide outreach efforts. The award is a renewal of the Center’s Title VI Undergraduate National Resource Center Grant, supporting efforts to increase the national capacity of trained specialists in world languages and cultures. With 45 faculty associates and staff specialists, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies is recognized internationally for its scholarship and resources.
