Profiles & Podcasts

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...

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’...

 Patrick Aleo (PhD, astronomy ’24) still remembers the first time he looked through a telescope. He was in elementary school when his parents bought one for his brother, and one night, he took a turn at the eyepiece.“I looked at the full moon and...

 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...

From flunking physics to commanding sailors and scanning the stars, Illinois alumnus Grant Miller’s journey is anything but ordinary. What started as a childhood fascination with the cosmos and a rocky freshman year at the U of I eventually led to a thriving dual career as an astronomy professor...

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...

The University of Illinois Department of Astronomy welcomed students, faculty, and alumni to its annual Astrofest event on April 25. Hosted at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the day-long celebration of research and discovery featured a mix of poster sessions, lightning talks,...

The UIUC Talkshow recently interview Professor Charles Gammie, who was recently endowed the Ikenberry Chair.