NIU Today

Jennifer Schmidt and Lee Shumow wrote the book – literally – for teachers seeking the best ways to motivate high school students to learn and love science. Now the educational psychology professors from the NIU College of Education are turning their attention to after-school and summer projects that enroll underserved and underrepresented youth. Schmidt and...

NIU’s PROMISE Scholars Program presented highlights of the program’s progress to a National Science Foundation review team in the spring. All award recipients are required during their third-year review in Washington, D.C., to present their progress. Funded in 2011 by a five-year, $2 million grant from the NSF, the “Providing Resources and Opportunity to Maximize...

NIU anthropology professor Giovanni Bennardo has won a highly competitive Fulbright Scholar grant to teach and conduct research this coming semester in Italy. Bennardo, who was named a Presidential Research Professor this past spring in recognition of his scholarship, is more than a little bit familiar with Italy. He was born and raised in the...

The PROMISE Scholars Program, funded by the National Science Foundation, will offer two opportunities to support students’ interests in NIU research and STEM professional development. From 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, the PROMISE Scholars will host a STEM conference titled, “Advancing STEM Education: Priming the Pump.” Invited companies include Fermi National Accelerator Lab, Lucent-Alcatel,...

NIU mechanical engineering professor Brianno Coller is featured in “Science and Engineering of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games,” a new 10-part video series. The series was created through the collaborative efforts of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NBC Learn, the educational arm of NBC News. The videos are the latest installment in NSF’s and...

Accompanied by their teachers, a dozen high school students visited DeKalb this week to participate in the 2013 QuarkNet Summer Institute hosted by the NIU Department of Physics. QuarkNet, founded in 1995, is a professional teacher development program funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. Its goal is to involve...

Psychology student Christopher J. Budnick came to NIU because it was close to home. But he stayed for entirely different reasons. “Originally, I transferred to NIU out of convenience; it was near my hometown. I finished my B.A. in psychology, and then I chose to remain at Northern for my graduate degree because of the...

Renewable energy is a rapidly growing area of study in today’s world. As the population begins to use up other natural resources such as coal and oil, the future of energy is clean, green and renewable. At the NIU College of Engineering and Engineering Technology, students have the opportunity to experience this field first-hand, thanks...

J. Britt Holbrook, assistant director of the Center for Study of Interdisciplinarity at North Texas University, will visit campus Friday, Dec. 7, as a guest of the PI Academy. Holbrook will speak from 2 to 3:30 p.m. on “Taking a Proactionary Approach to Grant-Writing, Peer Review and Broader Impacts.” The talk will take place in...

NIU professor Tao Xu, who has developed a promising nanoscience research program in solar energy conversion, is now getting a big boost from the National Science Foundation. NSF awarded the chemistry and biochemistry professor with a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant of $400,000 to support his research and teaching efforts. CAREER awards support...

As high school science teachers return to their classrooms to begin a new school year, scholars from NIU are urging them to talk more to girls. Otherwise, the College of Education researchers warn, the United States will struggle to meet its scientific and technological ambitions for the future. Science teachers spend 39 percent more class...

NIU assistant biochemistry professor James Horn is reaping a windfall of grants that will help him and his students study how proteins interact with other molecules—work that could have far reaching benefits from improving our understanding of biological regulation to detecting and treating disease. Horn is receiving $294,000 from the American Heart Association over the...