Research Seminars @ Illinois
Tailored for undergraduate researchers, this calendar is a curated list of research seminars at the University of Illinois. Explore the diverse world of research and expand your knowledge through engaging sessions designed to inspire and enlighten.
To have your events added or removed from this calendar, please contact OUR at ugresearch@illinois.edu
Thursday, November 12, 2026
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This event will highlight the collaborative project involving Emblematica Online (U of I), a digital library of emblem books, and Compositor (U of Birmingham), a database of printers’ ornaments. Dr. Hazel Wilkinson hypothesizes that “emblem-literacy” caused historical readers to engage with ornamented books in ways previously unaccounted-for in scholarship.
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Title: Counting minimal Lagrangians via Mirzakhani’s function.
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Drawing on lessons from a career spanning health literacy, patient safety, human factors, risk communication, patient engagement and regulatory science, James (Jay) Duhig presents a lecture on Navigating Complexity: Health Literacy as a Foundation for Health Equity.
Friday, November 13, 2026
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This talk will focus on modern exposure science approaches to characterize exposures to air pollution, natural disasters, and urban exposome as well as to incorporate them in health research to understand potential biological mechanisms.
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Human-Robot Collaborations in Surgery: Measuring Skills, Demands, and Safety
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This presentation explores how Tribal Relations Administrators bridge Tribal Nations and higher education institutions. Grounded in Indigenous methodologies, it examines reciprocity, accountability, and resistance to settler colonial practices, offering guidance for policies that center Indigenous knowledge and support Indigenous futurity. Lunch will be provided at noon.
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Structure-Preserving Learning for Autonomy in Complex Physical Environments by M. Ani Hsieh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania
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Food systems for healthy people and a healthy planet
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Dr. Tiffani Kelly will share culturally grounded practices from the University of Oklahoma’s CS-INCLUDES scholarship program, which supports Indigenous Computer Science students through graduation. She will highlight program resources, structured support, and insights to inform efforts to increase Native and Indigenous representation in Computer Science and STEM.
Sunday, November 15, 2026
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Join us in art making to reflect on the various mythologies that feature serpents, as well as their personal meaning to you. Please come design and paint your own movable wooden snake or paper puppet!
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Professor Olha Khometa and MFA Candidate Malina Infante will be leading a joint lecture on Ukrainian Modernists Pavlo Tychyna, Lesya Ukraïnka, and Olha Kobylianska. Malina will finish the lecture with a reading of her poetry inspired by the Ukrainian modernist movement. A reception will follow after the event.
Monday, November 16, 2026
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"Computational development of novel therapeutics for precision oncology" Daniel P. Wickland, PhD Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics Senior Associate Consultant in the Division of Computational Biology Mayo Clinic
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"Elizabeth Vartkessian works with criminal defense teams as a mitigation specialist. She isn't part of the Innocence Project; her clients are often legally guilty, and often of terrible crimes. Rather, her job is to spend hundreds of hours per case talking to the parents, siblings, teachers, and neighbors of a defendant, situating their crimes in context.
Tuesday, November 17, 2026
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Dr. Lawrence David, PhD Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology; Duke University "Decoding Diet Using Genomics"
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Janos Englander (U Colorado, Boulder) talks about "TBA".
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Drawing on more than a decade of Truth Hounds' Work in Ukraine, Dr. Dmytro Koval of Kyiv Mohyla Academy will examine how documentation can be transformed into investigations, legal analysis, case-building, and engagement with national and international justice mechanisms.
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Please join the Unit for Criticism for a Modern Critical Theory lecture by Thomas Davis (English, Ohio State) on Environmental Humanities.
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Join Dr. Worl via Zoom as she shares insights from decades of collaboration with Indigenous communities in Alaska and the Arctic. Drawing on Tlingit culture, subsistence lifeways, and industrial development, she will explore how Indigenous knowledge sustains Native cultures, communities, and relationships with the land.
Wednesday, November 18, 2026
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Join us for our weekly FACS Seminars, given by graduate students, staff, and other ACE Affiliates! Take the opportunity for an excellent meeting to learn about ACE topics, and to meet like-minded peers.
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“Using the Axioscan and ImageJ to Examine How Dietary Fiber Influences Stress-Induced HPA Axis and Microglial Activation” Jordan Rindels, Ph.D Student Gut-Microbiota Communication Lab, Division of Nutritional Sciences University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
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Dr. Prodanovic from the University of Belgrade will speak at the department in the Kaler Classroom (room 134).
Thursday, November 19, 2026
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This Faculty-Graduate seminar, hosted by Prof. Melamed, will explore the idea that to truly and effectively call capital into question, we need approaches outside the liberal epistemologies that dominate Western and scholarly modes of understanding and analysis. Register now (required) to gain access to the texts.
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The 2026 Stewart Young Humanitarian Speaker Series features esteemed guest is Luis Jaimes-Illanes, co-founder of Conecta Mentora, a program that brings together youth from urban, rural, and Indigenous communities with world-class mentors and institutions, and a Senior Network Engineer at Altaeros. In his fireside chat, he will share how his involvement on campus helped pre
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Dr. DeLisa Fairweather, MD, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, will speak on "The Yin and Yang of EVs in Myocardial Inflammation"
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Please join us for a talk by Prof. Melamed. The talk will argue that the repressive strategies used by Marc Rowan and others against Palestine on the UPenn campus serve to institute pro-power pedagogies at U.S. universities and beyond.
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Join the Department of Philosophy for a lecture in the Illinois Forum on Human Flourishing in a Digital Age Speaker Series with Agnes Callard. Her talk, titled "Welcome to the Unicontext" explores how we increasingly expect one set of norms to govern all situations and all people.
Friday, November 20, 2026
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PRESENTER Karen Tabb Dina, PhD Professor and Mark Brandt Faculty Scholar School of Social Work University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign TITLE Maternal Mental Health and Maternal-Infant Outcomes DATE Nov. 20, 2026 TIME 11 a.m. LOCATION 180 Bevier Hall
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The last straw and foam food container? The effect of restaurant foodware policies on litter
Monday, November 30, 2026
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Participants will learn about AISES programs, membership, scholarships, conferences, and pathways for becoming involved in an Indigenous STEM community rooted in relationships, knowledge, and collective success.
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Graduate and Undergraduate Indigenous scholars are invited to meet with Dr. Johnny Poolaw to learn how AISES can support your academic, professional, and personal journey in STEM.
Tuesday, December 1, 2026
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Speaker: Charlotte Bottcher
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"Engineering stomata for improved water use efficiency" Tracy Lawson, PhD Department of Plant Biology, School of Integrative Biology Co-leader, IGB Photosynthesis & Food Security Research Theme University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Wednesday, December 2, 2026
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Join us for our weekly FACS Seminars, given by graduate students, staff, and other ACE Affiliates! Take the opportunity for an excellent meeting to learn about ACE topics, and to meet like-minded peers.
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Join us as we highlight the incredible work of each of Humanities Without Walls' Reciprocity and Redistribution Grand Research Challenge projects in four virtual showcases over the 2026-27 academic year. During each event, 2-3 teams will present their projects and share a bit about the centrality of reciprocal and redistributive methods to their work.
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“Vision and plans for the Advanced Microscopy and Diagnostics Facility” Subha Srinivasan Associate Director for Research & Operations Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Thursday, December 3, 2026
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Join us for our December Town Hall with special Guest Speaker Shad Bradbury, Animator with Pixar Animations Studios. Shad Bradbury has worked in animation for over 20 years at studios like Pixar, Sony, Tippet, and Rhythm and Hues. His credits include, "Elio", "Coco", "Finding Dory", "Inside Out", "Hotel Transylvania", and "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2".
Friday, December 4, 2026
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Moving Lifelines: Fixed Sites or Mobile Fleets for Volunteer-Enabled Emergency Medical Device Delivery?
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Territorialization, (trans-)national organized criminal groups, and violence against social activists
Monday, December 7, 2026
Tuesday, December 8, 2026
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Terence Capellini, PhD Professor and Chair of Human Evolutionary Biology; Harvard University “The Regulation of Human Skeletal Development and Musculoskeletal Disease Risk”
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Zipei Nie (UIUC) talks about "Feige’s Conjecture, Samuels’ Conjecture, and Beyond".
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Lectures and discussions on current work in research and development in nuclear engineering and related fields by staff, advanced students, and visiting speakers.
Wednesday, December 9, 2026
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Join us for our weekly FACS Seminars, given by graduate students, staff, and other ACE Affiliates! Take the opportunity for an excellent meeting to learn about ACE topics, and to meet like-minded peers.
