The U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation have appointed Michael Syphers, a senior research professor of physics at NIU, to serve as a member of the national High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP). HEPAP, which meets three times a year, has advised the federal government on the national program in experimental and...

Over the weekend, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator began its second act. After two years of upgrades and repairs, proton beams once again circulated around the Large Hadron Collider, located at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. It’s an important and exciting project for scientists and students in the Northern Illinois University physics department...

Having just returned from a highly successful research expedition in Antarctica, NIU geologists Ross Powell and Reed Scherer appeared as guests during Tuesday evening’s broadcast of Chicago Tonight on WTTW11. The interview and a Q&A with the researchers is available online. Powell led a National Science Foundation-funded science team that became the first ever to...

Having just returned from a highly successful research expedition in Antarctica, NIU geologists Ross Powell and Reed Scherer will appear as guests during Tuesday’s 7 p.m. broadcast of Chicago Tonight on WTTW11. The scientists will be interviewed by popular host Phil Ponce. Powell led a National Science Foundation-funded science team that became the first ever...

Using a specially designed hot-water drill to cleanly bore through a half mile of ice, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded team of researchers, led by NIU’s Ross Powell and including other faculty and students, has become the first ever to reach and investigate the “grounding zone” along the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, where ice, land...

It’s a continent of extremes, boasting arguably the harshest environment on the planet. And it will become a research laboratory for three NIU geology students who will arrive in Antarctica in early January. They’re taking part in an important, collaborative research project that is funded by the National Science Foundation and being led by NIU...

How can you beat the power of the sun? NIU chemistry and biochemistry professor Tao Xu thinks you can’t. He believes solar power will be a big player on the energy scene in the future. “Eventually, we’re going to use up the fossil fuels, which are not recyclable,” Xu says, noting that some predict known...

[vsw id=”oVtlIB-EbXg” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”] The coastline, or grounding zone, where the massive West Antarctic Ice Sheet atop land meets the Ross Sea, is considered an important piece of the puzzle for scientists working to predict the effect of climate change on rising seawaters, which threaten coastal cities worldwide. Yet researchers have never laid...

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...

First, the good news: Five NIU professors this summer snagged three prestigious grants that total nearly $1 million. Now for the better news: the funding also provides cutting-edge research opportunities for NIU students, allowing them to work alongside top scientists in their disciplines. “These are impressive research projects by an extraordinary group of faculty scientists...

Lazy days of summer? Think again. For nearly 30 undergraduate students on campus at NIU this summer, the season provided opportunities to work alongside professors and delve deep into research projects. Shekinah Bergmann, for example, worked with mechanical engineering professor Behrooz Fallahi and several graduate students, designing and building a robot, nicknamed “Nightwing.” It has...