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.
NIU’s federally funded Institute for NanoScience, Engineering and Technology collaborates with Argonne National Laboratory on basic research in nanotechnology, an emerging field that many scientists believe 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 over $4.6 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.
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 serves as spokesman for the project, which involves more than 600 researchers from 40 universities around the world.
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.
