Faculty

Join astronomy student Shreya as she interviews professor Leslie Looney on the Main Quad at the University of Illinois.This video is part of the 940 Feet series, where College of LAS students and professors give...

Scientists have been able to detect the presence of gravitational waves since 2015, when the first instruments capable of doing so were set up. However, these instruments capture many other signals as well. Sometimes these signals’ sources are easy to identify—perhaps there was a small earthquake,...

An international team of astronomers led by Dr. Thato Manamela at the University of Pretoria has identified the most distant hydroxyl (OH) megamaser ever detected — a powerful...

The College of LAS has selected 19 professors, graduate students, lecturers, and advisors as the recipients of this year’s teaching and advising awards. “It is a privilege to celebrate these remarkable educators and advisors who fulfill our educational mission within the College of LAS,” said...

Astronomy professor Leslie Looney recently appeared on The UIUC  Talkshow for a wide-ranging conversation about what astronomy really is—and what it means to explore a universe that’...

 As one might expect on a bitterly cold Thursday evening, the bar fills up early. Conversations overlap, beer is served, glasses clink. Then things get interesting. Someone sets up a projector. As the crowd jockeys for a good view, in walks ...

The universe is vast, but astronomers don’t have to look too far to find something genuinely new. Researchers at the Center for AstroPhysical Surveys (CAPS) used the South Pole Telescope to probe one of the most complex regions of the sky, the crowded...

 When Jiayin Dong walks across the University of Illinois campus this fall, it will feel familiar and entirely new.Dong, an incoming assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy, is returning to Illinois as a faculty...

When Decker French learned she had been named a Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors Scholar, it was a complete surprise.“I didn’t know that I was nominated,” she said. “So it was a very pleasant surprise! It is incredibly...

It began with a problem of scale. Modern telescopes like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, set to begin operations in October 2025, are poised to revolutionize astronomy by capturing unprecedented volumes of data—millions of time-variable astrophysical events across the sky each night. But with...