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86-523: Carl Richard Woese ( / ˈ w oʊ z / ; July 15, 1928 – December 30, 2012) was an American microbiologist and biophysicist . Woese is famous for defining the Archaea (a new domain of life) in 1977 through a pioneering phylogenetic taxonomy of 16S ribosomal RNA , a technique that has revolutionized microbiology. He also originated the RNA world hypothesis in 1967, although not by that name. Woese held

172-674: A PhD in biophysics at Yale University , where his doctoral research focused on the inactivation of viruses by heat and ionizing radiation . He studied medicine at the University of Rochester for two years. Then he became a postdoctoral researcher in biophysics at Yale University investigating bacterial spores. From 1960 to 1963, he worked as a biophysicist at the General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York . In 1964, Woese joined

258-416: A Digital World, which focuses on how digital tools like internet, smartphone and 3D printers are changing the marketing landscape. In the 2021 U.S. News & World Report "America's Best Colleges" report, UIUC's undergraduate program was ranked tied for 47th among national universities and tied for 15th among public universities, with its undergraduate engineering program ranked tied for 6th in

344-409: A broader purpose than the pursuit of "an engineered environment": What was formally recognized in physics needs now to be recognized in biology: science serves a dual function. On the one hand it is society's servant, attacking the applied problems posed by society. On the other hand, it functions as society's teacher, helping the latter to understand its world and itself. It is the latter function that

430-796: A clinical/Medical Microbiologist in a hospital or medical research centre generally require a Masters in Microbiology along with PhD in any of the life-sciences ( Biochem , Micro, Biotech, Genetics, etc) as well as several years experience as a microbiologist. This often includes time spent as a postdoctoral researcher wherein one leads research projects and prepares to transition to an independent career. Postdoctoral researchers are often evaluated largely based on their record of published academic papers , as well as recommendations from their supervisors and colleagues. In certain sub-fields of microbiology, licenses or certifications are available or required in order to qualify for certain positions. This

516-410: A conference center in nearby Monticello at Allerton Park . The campus is known for its landscape and architecture, as well as distinctive landmarks. It was identified as one of 50 college or university "works of art" by T.A. Gaines in his book The Campus as a Work of Art . The campus also has a number of buildings and sites on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places including Harker Hall ,

602-406: A level of complexity and connectedness that made genes from other organisms much less able to displace an individual's own genes. In later years, Woese's work concentrated on genomic analysis to elucidate the significance of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) for evolution. He worked on detailed analyses of the phylogenies of the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases and on the effect of horizontal gene transfer on

688-429: A lot more to learn, and he's been interpreting the emerging story brilliantly". Microbiologist Microbiologists generally work in some way to increase scientific knowledge or to utilise that knowledge in a way that improves outcomes in medicine or some industry. For many microbiologists, this work includes planning and conducting experimental research projects in some kind of laboratory setting. Others may have

774-541: A more administrative role, supervising scientists and evaluating their results. Microbiologists working in the medical field, such as clinical microbiologists , may see patients or patient samples and do various tests to detect disease-causing organisms . For microbiologists working in academia, duties include performing research in an academic laboratory, writing grant proposals to fund research, as well as some amount of teaching and designing courses. Microbiologists in industry roles may have similar duties except research

860-564: A more sustainable future." In 2022, new solar and geothermal energy projects, a reduction in water use, and wide-ranging sustainability research helped the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign earn its fifth consecutive gold certification in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) . Illinois has consistently achieved gold certification since it began reporting data through STARS in 2013, and

946-495: A news article printed in the journal Science . The growing body of supporting data led the scientific community to accept the Archaea by the mid-1980s. Today, few scientists cling to the idea of a unified Prokarya. Woese's work on Archaea is also significant in its implications for the search for life on other planets. Before the discovery by Woese and Fox, scientists thought that Archaea were extreme organisms that evolved from

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1032-552: A separate identity for the main campus within the University of Illinois System , which today includes separate institutions at the University of Illinois Chicago (formed by the merger of UICC and UIMC) and University of Illinois Springfield . In 1998, the Hallene Gateway Plaza was dedicated. The Plaza features the original sandstone portal of University Hall, which was originally the fourth building on campus. In recent years, state support has declined from 4.5% of

1118-518: A single ancestral cellular organization? The second major direction involves the nature of the global ecosystem. . . . Bacteria are the major organisms on this planet—in numbers, in total mass, in importance to the global balances. Thus, it is microbial ecology that . . . is most in need of development, both in terms of facts needed to understand it, and in terms of the framework in which to interpret them. Woese considered biology to have an "all-important" role in society. In his view, biology should serve

1204-456: A son and daughter. Woese turned his attention to the genetic code while setting up his lab at General Electric 's Knolls Laboratory in the fall of 1960. Interest among physicists and molecular biologists had begun to coalesce around deciphering the correspondence between the twenty amino acids and the four letter alphabet of nucleic acid bases in the decade following James D. Watson , Francis Crick , and Rosalind Franklin 's discovery of

1290-712: Is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area , Illinois, United States. It is the flagship institution of the University of Illinois system and was established in 1867. With over 59,000 students, the University of Illinois is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the United States. The university contains 16 schools and colleges and offers more than 150 undergraduate and over 100 graduate programs of study. The university holds 651 buildings on 6,370 acres (2,578 ha) and its annual operating budget in 2016

1376-633: Is a collaboration between the Technology Entrepreneur Center and EnterpriseWorks, with participation from the Office of Technology Management and IllinoisVentures. The program consists of three workshops over six weeks, where teams work to validate the market size, value propositions, and customer segments of their innovations. SocialFuse is a recurring pitching and networking event where students can pitch ideas, find teammates, and network. The Center for Plasma-Material Interactions

1462-821: Is a week-long workshop, occurring annually in January. Students visit startups and technology companies in the Silicon Valley and network entrepreneurial alumni from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Students are exposed to technology entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership. The trip features corporate leaders, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs in various stages of a startup lifecycle. Illinois I-Corps teaches National Science Foundation grantees how to learn to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research, and gain skills in entrepreneurship through training in customer discovery and guidance from established entrepreneurs. The program

1548-655: Is effectively missing today. Woese was a MacArthur Fellow in 1984, was made a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1988, received the Leeuwenhoek Medal (microbiology's highest honor) in 1992, the Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology in 1995 from the National Academy of Sciences , and was a National Medal of Science recipient in 2000. In 2003, he received the Crafoord Prize from

1634-580: Is led through live sessions, headed by UIUC faculty. Similar to the university's on-campus admission policies, the online master's degrees offered by The University of Illinois through Coursera also has admission requirements. All applicants must hold a bachelor's degree, and have earned a 3.0 GPA or higher in the last two years of study. Additionally, all applicants must prove their proficiency in English. The University of Illinois also offers online courses in partnership with Coursera, such as Marketing in

1720-1065: Is located on campus and is the home of the Illinois Natural History Survey , Illinois State Geological Survey, Illinois State Water Survey, Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, and the Illinois State Archeological Survey. Researchers at the Prairie Research Institute are engaged in research in agriculture and forestry, biodiversity and ecosystem health, atmospheric resources, climate and associated natural hazards, cultural resources and history of human settlements, disease and public health, emerging pests, fisheries and wildlife, energy and industrial technology, mineral resources, pollution prevention and mitigation, and water resources. The Illinois Natural History Survey collections include crustaceans, reptiles and amphibians, birds, mammals, algae, fungi, and vascular plants, with

1806-510: Is one of the most influential in microbiology and arguably, all of biology. It ranks with the works of Watson and Crick and Darwin, providing an evolutionary framework for the incredible diversity of the microbial world". With regard to Woese's work on horizontal gene transfer as a primary evolutionary process, Professor Norman R. Pace of the University of Colorado at Boulder said, "I think Woese has done more for biology writ large than any biologist in history, including Darwin ... There's

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1892-467: Is performed in industrial labs in order to develop or improve commercial products and processes. Industry jobs may also not include some degree of sales and marketing work, as well as regulatory compliance duties. Microbiologists working in government may have a variety of duties, including laboratory research, writing and advising, developing and reviewing regulatory processes, and overseeing grants offered to outside institutions. Some microbiologists work in

1978-446: Is the evolution of (proteinaceous) cellular organization, which includes sub-questions such as the evolution of the translation apparatus and the genetic code, and the origin and nature of the hierarchies of control that fine-tune and precisely interrelate the panoply of cellular processes that constitute cells. It also includes the question of the number of different basic cell types that exist on earth today: did all modern cells come from

2064-469: Is true for clinical microbiologists, as well as those involved in food safety and some aspects of pharmaceutical/medical device development. Microbiologists are expected to be needed to help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies develop new drugs that are produced with the aid of microorganisms. In addition, demand for biofuels production is expected to increase the need for microbiologists to conduct advanced research and development in these areas. In

2150-766: The Astronomical Observatory , Louise Freer Hall , the Main Library , the Experimental Dairy Farm Historic District , and the Morrow Plots . University of Illinois Willard Airport is one of the few airports owned by an educational institution. In 2008, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign became a signatory of the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, binding

2236-676: The Grainger College of Engineering has an admit rate of 22.3%. Certain in-demand majors like Computer Science, including Computer Science + X, of which the program being ranked consistently 5th nationwide can be extremely competitive, with an acceptance rate of less than 6.8% in 2022, and average freshman ACT composite score of 33.7. Computer Science + X admit rate: 18.1% In 2009, an investigation by The Chicago Tribune reported that some applicants "received special consideration " for acceptance between 2005 and 2009, despite having sub-par qualifications. This incident became known as

2322-717: The John Bardeen Quadrangle occupy the center of the Engineering Campus . Boneyard Creek flows through the John Bardeen Quadrangle, parallel to Green Street. The Beckman Quadrangle, named after Arnold Orville Beckman , is primarily composed of research units and laboratories, and features a large solar calendar consisting of an obelisk and several copper fountains. The Main Quadrangle and South Quadrangle follow immediately after

2408-518: The Rose Bowl Game in 1947, 1952, 1964 and a total of five national championships. Illinois athletes have won 29 medals in Olympic events . The alumni, faculty members, or researchers of the university include 30 Nobel laureates, 27 Pulitzer Prize winners, two Fields medalists , and two Turing Award winners. The University of Illinois, originally named "Illinois Industrial University",

2494-711: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences "for his discovery of a third domain of life". He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2004. In 2006, he was made a foreign member of the Royal Society . Many microbial species, such as Pyrococcus woesei , Methanobrevibacter woesei , and Conexibacter woesei , are named in his honor. Microbiologist Justin Sonnenburg of Stanford University said "The 1977 paper

2580-674: The Siebel Center for Design , and $ 50 million to support the renamed Department of Computer Science to become Siebel School of Computing and Data Science. Furthermore, the Grainger Foundation (founded by alumnus W. W. Grainger ) has contributed more than $ 300 million to the university over the last half-century, including donations for the construction of the Grainger Engineering Library . Larry Gies and his wife Beth donated $ 150 million in 2017 to

2666-833: The Stanley O. Ikenberry Chair and was professor of microbiology at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign . Woese was born in Syracuse, New York on July 15, 1928. His family was German American . Woese attended Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts . He received a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from Amherst College in 1950. During his time at Amherst, Woese took only one biology course ( Biochemistry , in his senior year) and had "no scientific interest in plants and animals" until advised by William M. Fairbank , then an assistant professor of physics at Amherst, to pursue biophysics at Yale . In 1953, he completed

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2752-569: The United States , the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that employment of microbiologists will grow 5 percent from 2022 (20,900 employed) to 2032 (22,000 employed). This represents slower growth than the average occupation, as well as slower growth than life scientists as a whole (7 percent projected). University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ( UIUC , U of I , Illinois , or University of Illinois )

2838-585: The Universal Parallel Computing Research Center . The university contracted with Cray to build the National Science Foundation -funded supercomputer Blue Waters . The system also has the largest public online storage system in the world with more than 25 petabytes of usable space. The university celebrated January 12, 1997, as the "birthday" of HAL 9000 , the fictional supercomputer from

2924-468: The University of Illinois after hearing his research goals; at this visit Spiegelman offered Woese a position with immediate tenure beginning in the fall of 1964. With the freedom to patiently pursue more speculative threads of inquiry outside the mainstream of biological research, Woese began to consider the genetic code in evolutionary terms, asking how the codon assignments and their translation into an amino acid sequence might have evolved. For much of

3010-574: The University of Illinois clout scandal . The university offers more than 150 undergraduate and 100 graduate and professional programs in over 15 academic units, among several online specializations such as Digital Marketing and an online MBA program launched in January 2016. In 2015, the university announced its expansion to include an engineering-based medical program, which would be the first new college created in Urbana-Champaign in 60 years. The university also offers undergraduate students

3096-709: The fourth-largest university library in the United States by holdings. The university also hosts the National Center for Supercomputing Applications . Illinois athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Fighting Illini . They are members of the Big Ten Conference and have won the second-most conference titles . Illinois Fighting Illini football won

3182-405: The liberal arts tradition was at odds with many state residents and lawmakers who wanted the university to offer classes based solely around "industrial education". The university opened for classes on March 2, 1868, and had two faculty members and 77 students. The Library, which opened with the school in 1868, started with 1,039 volumes. Subsequently, President Edmund J. James , in a speech to

3268-463: The 2011 fiscal year, Research Park produced an economic output of $ 169.5M for the state of Illinois. The Technology Entrepreneur Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a permanent center established to provide students with resources for their entrepreneurial ideas. The center offers classes, venture and product competitions, and workshops to introduce students to technology innovation and market adoption. Events and programs hosted by

3354-408: The 2022 score was one of its highest to date. Currently, the campus features 27 LEED-certified buildings. As of 2024, 87% of students graduate within 8 years of entering, compared to the national median of 58% for all 4-year universities nationwide. The overall first-year admit rate for 2023 is 43.7%, which differ greatly among UIUC colleges — whereas the overall first-choice admit rate is 34.7%,

3440-463: The 20th century, prokaryotes were regarded as a single group of organisms and classified based on their biochemistry , morphology and metabolism . In a highly influential 1962 paper, Roger Stanier and C. B. van Niel first established the division of cellular organization into prokaryotes and eukaryotes , defining prokaryotes as those organisms lacking a cell nucleus . Adapted from Édouard Chatton 's generalization, Stanier and Van Niel's concept

3526-654: The College of Fine and Applied Arts was ranked 3rd nationally by Planetizen in 2015. The university was also listed as a "Public Ivy" in The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities (2001) by Howard and Matthew Greene. The Princeton Review ranked Illinois 1st in its 2016 list of top party schools. Internationally, UIUC engineering was ranked 13th in the world in 2016 by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and

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3612-509: The Illinois Industrial University officially changed its name to the "University of Illinois", reflecting its agricultural, mechanical, and liberal arts curriculum. According to educational historian Roger L. Geiger , Illinois and a few other public and private universities set the standard for what the research university in the United States would become. During his presidency, Edmund J. James (1904–1920) set

3698-637: The John Bardeen Quad. The former makes up a large part of the Liberal Arts and Sciences portion of the campus, while the latter comprises many of the buildings of the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (ACES) spread across the campus map. Additionally, the research fields of the College of ACES stretch south from Urbana and Champaign into Savoy and Champaign County . The university also maintains formal gardens and

3784-555: The TEC include the Cozad New Venture Challenge, Silicon Valley Entrepreneurship Workshop, Illinois I-Corps, and SocialFuse. The campus-wide Cozad New Venture Challenge has been held annually since 2000. Participants are mentored in the phases of venture creation and attend workshops on idea validation, pitching skills, and customer development. In 2019, teams competed for $ 250,000 in funding. The Silicon Valley Workshop

3870-518: The Top 25 American Research Universities by The Center for Measuring University Performance . Beside annual influx of grants and sponsored projects, the university manages an extensive modern research infrastructure. The university has been a leader in computer based education and hosted the PLATO project, which was a precursor to the internet and resulted in the development of the plasma display . Illinois

3956-548: The Toughest Problems in Computer Science," he mentioned Microsoft hires more graduates from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign than from any other university in the world. Alumnus William M. Holt, a senior vice-president of Intel , also mentioned in a campus talk on September 27, 2007, entitled "R&D to Deliver Practical Results: Extending Moore's Law" that Intel hires more PhD graduates from

4042-615: The U.S. among schools whose highest degree is a doctorate. Washington Monthly ranked UIUC 18th among 389 national universities in the U.S. for 2020, based on its contribution to the public good as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service. Kiplinger's Personal Finance rated Illinois 12th in its 2019 list of 174 Best Values in Public Colleges, which "measures academic quality, cost and financial aid." The Graduate Program in Urban Planning at

4128-644: The basic structure of the tree of life . Woese and Fox discovered a kind of microbial life which they called the “archaebacteria” ( Archaea ). They reported that the archaebacteria comprised "a third kingdom" of life as distinct from bacteria as plants and animals. Having defined Archaea as a new "urkingdom" (later domain ) which were neither bacteria nor eukaryotes, Woese redrew the taxonomic tree. His three-domain system , based on phylogenetic relationships rather than obvious morphological similarities, divided life into 23 main divisions, incorporated within three domains: Bacteria , Archaea , and Eucarya . Acceptance of

4214-546: The board of trustees in 1912, proposed to create a research library. It is now one of the world's largest public academic collections. In 1870, the Mumford House was constructed as a model farmhouse for the school's experimental farm. The Mumford House remains the oldest structure on campus. The original University Hall (1871) was the fourth building built; it stood where the Illini Union stands today. In 1885,

4300-411: The campus to the goal of carbon neutrality as soon as possible. In 2010, the first Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) was written to chart a path to this goal. The iCAP is a strategic framework for meeting the university's Climate Leadership Commitments to be carbon-neutral by 2050 or sooner and build resilience with its local community. Since then, the iCAP has been rewritten every five years to track

4386-469: The distribution of those key enzymes among organisms. The goal of the research was to explain how the primary cell types (the archaeal, eubacterial, and eukaryotic) evolved from an ancestral state in the RNA world . Woese shared his thoughts on the past, present, and future of biology in Current Biology : The "important questions" that 21st century biology faces all stem from a single question,

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4472-536: The field of patent law , either with national patent offices or private law practices. Her duties include research and navigation of intellectual property regulations. Clinical microbiologists tend to work in government or hospital laboratories where their duties include analyzing clinical specimens to detect microorganisms responsible for the disease. Some microbiologists instead work in the field of science outreach , where they develop programs and materials to educate students and non-scientists and encourage interest in

4558-509: The field of microbiology for the younger generation . Entry-level microbiology jobs generally require at least a bachelor's degree in microbiology or a related field. These degree programs frequently include courses in chemistry , physics , statistics , biochemistry , and genetics , followed by more specialized courses in sub-fields of interest. Many of these courses have laboratory components to teach trainees basic and specialized laboratory skills. Higher-level and independent jobs like

4644-407: The history of life. Woese wrote, "My evolutionary concerns center on the bacteria and the archaea, whose evolutions cover most of the planet's 4.5-billion-year history. Using ribosomal RNA sequence as an evolutionary measure, my laboratory has reconstructed the phylogeny of both groups, and thereby provided a phylogenetically valid system of classification for prokaryotes. The discovery of the archaea

4730-406: The iCAP process — especially in the areas of zero waste and conservation of energy, food, water, land, and natural resources — as well as sustainability outreach and immersive educational programs. In her remarks on being named Director of iSEE in 2022, Professor of Agricultural and Consumer Economics Madhu Khanna explained: "We aim to position campus to play a transformative role in moving us all to

4816-601: The insect collection is among the largest in North America. The Illinois State Geological Survey houses the legislatively mandated Illinois Geological Samples Library, a repository for drill-hole samples in Illinois, as well as paleontological collections. ISAS serves as a repository for a large collection of Illinois archaeological artifacts. One of the major collections is from the Cahokia Mounds. Located in

4902-486: The last twenty years state funding for the university has fallen. Private philanthropy increasingly supplements revenue from tuition and state funding, providing about 19% of the annual budget in 2012. Notable among significant donors, alumnus entrepreneur Thomas M. Siebel has committed nearly $ 150 million to the university, including $ 36 million to build the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science , $ 25 million to build

4988-682: The launch of the Master of Computer Science in Data Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. At the time, the university's computer-science graduate program was ranked fifth in the United States by U.S. News & World Report . On March 29, 2017, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign launched their Master's in Accounting (iMSA) program, now called the Master of Science in Accountancy (iMSA) program. The iMSA program

5074-630: The mechanistic basis of protein translation, but in Woese's view, largely overlooked the genetic code's evolutionary origins as an afterthought. In 1962, Woese spent several months as a visiting researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris , a locus of intense activity on the molecular biology of gene expression and gene regulation. While in Paris, he met Sol Spiegelman , who invited Woese to visit

5160-468: The microbiology faculty of the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, where he focused on Archaea, genomics, and molecular evolution as his areas of expertise. He became a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign's Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology , which was renamed in his honor in 2015, after his death. Woese died on December 30, 2012, following complications from pancreatic cancer , leaving as survivors his wife Gabriella and

5246-469: The microorganisms more familiar to us. Now, most believe they are ancient, and may have robust evolutionary connections to the first organisms on Earth. Organisms similar to those archaea that exist in extreme environments may have developed on other planets, some of which harbor conditions conducive to extremophile life. Notably, Woese's elucidation of the tree of life shows the overwhelming diversity of microbial lineages: single-celled organisms represent

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5332-459: The nature and generation of biological organization . . . . Yes, Darwin is back, but in the company of . . . scientists who can see much further into the depths of biology than was possible heretofore. It is no longer a "10,000 species of birds" view of evolution—evolution seen as a procession of forms. The concern is now with the process of evolution itself. I see the question of biological organization taking two prominent directions today. The first

5418-500: The novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey ; in both works, HAL credits "Urbana, Illinois" as his place of operational origin. The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology supports interdisciplinary collaborative research in the broad areas of intelligent systems, neuroscience, molecular science and engineering, and biomedical imaging. The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology supports research in genomics and related areas of biology. The Prairie Research Institute

5504-471: The opportunity for graduation honors. University Honors is an academic distinction awarded to the highest achieving students. To earn the distinction, students must have a cumulative grade point average of a 3.5/4.0 within the academic year of their graduation and rank within the top 3% of their graduating class. Their names are inscribed on a Bronze Tablet that hangs in the Main Library. In addition to

5590-566: The policy of building a massive research library. He also laid the foundation for the large Chinese international student population on campus. James established ties with China through the Chinese Minister to the United States Wu Ting-Fang . Class rivalries and Bob Zuppke's winning football teams contributed to campus morale. Alma Mater , a prominent statue on campus created by alumnus Lorado Taft ,

5676-490: The reverse to refer to the main campus specifically. The university name officially changed to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by 1977 (although the word "at" was later dropped for marketing purposes by all U of I System campuses by 2021). While this was a reversal of the commonly used designation for the metropolitan area ( Champaign-Urbana ), a majority of the campus is located in Urbana. The name change established

5762-465: The shortly thereafter renamed Gies College of Business . The main research and academic facilities are divided almost evenly between the twin cities of Urbana and Champaign , which form part of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area . Some parts are in Urbana Township . Four main quads compose the center of the university and are arranged from north to south. The Beckman Quadrangle and

5848-499: The southwest part of campus, Research Park opened its first building in 2001 and has grown to encompass 13 buildings. Ninety companies have established roots in research park, employing over 1,400 people. Tenants of the Research Park facilities include prominent Fortune 500 companies Capital One, John Deere, State Farm, Caterpillar, and Yahoo, Inc. Companies also employ about 400 total student interns at any given time throughout

5934-607: The specificity of cellular interaction and the size of the genome. This early translation apparatus would have produced a group of structurally similar, functionally equivalent proteins, rather than a single protein. Furthermore, because of this reduced specificity, all cellular components were susceptible to horizontal gene transfer, and rapid evolution occurred at the level of the ecosystem. The transition to modern cells (the " Darwinian Threshold ") occurred when organisms evolved translation mechanisms with modern levels of fidelity: improved performance allowed cellular organization to reach

6020-502: The state's tax appropriations in 1980 to 2.28% in 2011, a nearly 50% decline. As a result, the university's budget has shifted away from relying on state support with nearly 84% of the budget coming from other sources in 2012. On March 12, 2015, the Board of Trustees approved the creation of a medical school, the first college created at Urbana-Champaign in 60 years. The Carle Illinois College of Medicine began classes in 2018. Over

6106-457: The structure of DNA in 1953. Woese published a series of papers on the topic. In one, he deduced a correspondence table between what was then known as "soluble RNA" and DNA based upon their respective base pair ratios. He then re-evaluated experimental data associated with the hypothesis that viruses used one base, rather than a triplet, to encode each amino acid, and suggested 18 codons, correctly predicting one for proline . Other work established

6192-588: The university 38th in 2019; the university was also ranked 48th globally by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings in 2020 and 75th in the world by the QS World University Rankings for 2020. The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) has ranked University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as the 20th best university in the world for 2019–20. UIUC is also ranked 32nd in

6278-434: The university's Illinois Online platform, in 2015 the university entered into a partnership with the Silicon Valley educational technology company Coursera to offer a series of master's degrees, certifications, and specialization courses, currently including more than 70 joint learning classes. In August 2015, the Master of Business Administration program was launched through the platform. On March 31, 2016, Coursera announced

6364-593: The university's progress. In December 2013, the University of Illinois launched the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) on the Urbana-Champaign campus. The institute, under the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, leads an interdisciplinary approach to researching solutions for the world's most pressing sustainability, energy, and environmental needs. In addition, iSEE has engaged students, faculty, staff, and campus leadership in

6450-434: The validity of Woese's phylogenetically valid classification was a slow process. Prominent biologists including Salvador Luria and Ernst Mayr objected to his division of the prokaryotes. Not all criticism of him was restricted to the scientific level. A decade of labor-intensive oligonucleotide cataloging left him with a reputation as "a crank," and Woese would go on to be dubbed as "Microbiology's Scarred Revolutionary" by

6536-410: The vast majority of the biosphere's genetic, metabolic, and ecologic niche diversity. As microbes are crucial for many biogeochemical cycles and to the continued function of the biosphere, Woese's efforts to clarify the evolution and diversity of microbes provided an invaluable service to ecologists and conservationists . It was a major contribution to the theory of evolution and to our knowledge of

6622-511: The world in Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings for 2018. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is often regarded as a world-leading magnet for engineering and sciences (both applied and basic). According to the National Science Foundation , the university spent $ 625 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 37th in the nation. It is also listed as one of

6708-489: The year. The complex is also a center for entrepreneurs, and has over 50 startup companies stationed at its EnterpriseWorks Incubator facility. In 2011, Urbana, Illinois was named number 11 on Popular Mechanics' "14 Best Startup Cities in America" list, in a large part due to the contributions of Research Park's programs. The park has gained recognition from other notable publications, such as inc.com and Forbes magazine. For

6794-514: Was a 2nd-generation ARPAnet site in 1971 and was the first institution to license the UNIX operating system from Bell Labs. The university hosts the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), which created Mosaic , the first graphical web browser , the Apache HTTP server , and NCSA Telnet . The Parallel@Illinois program hosts several programs in parallel computing , including

6880-634: Was also marked by large growth in the Graduate College and increased federal support of scientific and technological research. During the 1950s and 1960s the university experienced the turmoil common on many American campuses. Among these were the water fights of the 1950s and 1960s. By 1967, the University of Illinois system consisted of a main campus in Champaign-Urbana and two Chicago campuses, Chicago Circle (UICC) and Medical Center (UIMC), and people began using "Urbana-Champaign" or

6966-413: Was established in 2004 by Professor David N. Ruzic to research the complex behavior between ions , electrons , and energetic atoms generated in plasmas and the surfaces of materials. CPMI encompasses fusion plasmas in its research. In Bill Gates ' February 24, 2004, talk as part of his Five Campus Tour (Harvard, MIT, Cornell, Carnegie-Mellon and Illinois) titled "Software Breakthroughs: Solving

7052-518: Was in fact a product of these studies". Woese also speculated about an era of rapid evolution in which considerable horizontal gene transfer occurred between organisms. First described by Woese and Fox in a 1977 paper and explored further with microbiologist Jane Gibson in a 1980 paper, these organisms, or progenotes , were imagined as protocells with very low complexity due to their error-prone translation apparatus ("noisy genetic transmission channel"), which produced high mutation rates that limited

7138-401: Was one of the 37 universities created under the first Morrill Land-Grant Act , which provided public land for the creation of agricultural and industrial colleges and universities across the United States. Among several cities, Urbana was selected in 1867 as the site for the new school. From the beginning, President John Milton Gregory 's desire to establish an institution firmly grounded in

7224-554: Was over $ 2 billion. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign also operates a Research Park home to innovation centers for over 90 start-up companies and multinational corporations . The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". In fiscal year 2019, research expenditures at Illinois totaled $ 652 million. The campus library system possesses

7310-506: Was quickly accepted as the most important distinction among organisms; yet they were nevertheless skeptical of microbiologists' attempts to construct a natural phylogenetic classification of bacteria. However, it became generally assumed that all life shared a common prokaryotic (implied by the Greek root πρό (pro-), before, in front of) ancestor. In 1977, Woese and George E. Fox experimentally disproved this universally held hypothesis about

7396-553: Was unveiled on June 11, 1929. It was funded from donations by the Alumni Fund and the classes of 1923–1929. The Great Depression in the United States slowed construction and expansion on the campus. The university replaced the original university hall with Gregory Hall and the Illini Union . After World War II, the university experienced rapid growth. The enrollment doubled and the academic standing improved. This period

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