NIU Today

Northern Illinois University particle physicists and thousands of their colleagues across the world are looking forward to fireworks of a different sort on the Fourth of July. Just yesterday, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia announced that scientists there – after more than 10 years of gathering and analyzing data produced by the laboratory’s Tevatron...

NIU’s Mini Baja team, which designs and builds off-road vehicles for competition, recently participated in a Society of Automotive Engineers event at the MGA research facility in Burlington, Wis. Competitions encourage intuitive design to win. Students must use a stock Briggs and Stratton 10-horsepower engine and follow the Mini Baja 71-page rule book. “From start...

Professor Kurt Thurmaier, director of the Division of Public Administration at NIU in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has succeeded in his quest to climb Africa’s highest peak, Mt. Kilimanjaro. Thurmaier and fellow climbers set out to raise money in conjunction with Tanzania Development Support (TDS), a nonprofit organization that he co-founded with...

Paul M. Baker is the new director of the Office of College Relations in the NIU College of Education. The office was created in July 2011 to consolidate COE’s alumni relations, event planning, communications and development activities. Baker, whose 20-year career includes leadership positions in higher education, industry, public relations and journalism, started June 18....

Eighty golfers scrambled to raise more than $18,000 for merit-based scholarships in the NIU College of Engineering andEngineering Technology during the second annual Tee Up Fore Scholarships event. Held June 19, the event is a result of collaboration between CEET and Caterpillar, Inc. One hundred percent of the profits go to scholarships. “As Aristotle said,...

NIU’s College of Law has announced the creation of two new certificate programs: the Certificate in Criminal Practice and Certificate in Civil Advocacy programs. These specialized programs will give NIU Law students the opportunity to focus their legal education toward one of two distinct concentrations that build on existing strengths at NIU Law. The certificates...

When Thomas W. Pavkov takes over July 19 as chair of NIU’s School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences, its programs and students will receive a strong teacher, confident administrator and proven researcher. Pavkov, who will leave his post as director of the Institute for Social and Policy Research and interim head of the Department of Behavioral...

Chances are good that passersby who walked near Davis Hall or the NIU Transportation Center during the week of June 11 did a double take. After all, it’s not every day that 21 NIU students in Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) and Tyvek® suits, practicing the proper handling of hazardous materials and simulating work on...

Angela Grippo, an assistant professor of psychology at NIU, has won a major national award for her research into the association between depression and cardiovascular disease in animal models. The American Psychological Association (APA) will present Grippo with one of its prestigious 2012 APA Distinguished Scientific Awards during the organization’s convention, scheduled from Aug. 2...

A marble-based pen holder sits atop the southwest corner of office manager Pat Siebrasse’s L-shaped desk inside the administrative suite of the School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences. The pen is encircled by, of all things, a small Slinky. The attached plaque indicates that she received the ornament in honor of her 10th anniversary...

The Honorable Lincoln Douglas, who holds a doctorate in adult education from the NIU College of Education, is now the minister of Arts and Multiculturalism in Trinidad and Tobago. Douglas, most recently the minister of state in the Ministry of the People and Social Development, is among several new cabinet appointments Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar...

A True Value Company executive’s experience in a Northern Illinois University class led to a $100,000 gift from his employer to the Northern Illinois Food Bank. John Donigian, vice president of inventory management for True Value, was part of a team of NIU Executive MBA students working on a class project to increase visibility of,...