Shicheng Chen, professor of Medical Laboratory Sciences at NIU, received a $40,0000 Illinois Innovation Network (IIN) Sustaining Illinois Seed grant to support research examining the relationship between mosquitoes and environmental microorganisms. The IIN, a consortium of universities, research institutions and innovation hubs across Illinois, provides seed funding for collaborative research projects that address the state’s...
This past spring, a new internship in the NIU Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) marked the beginning of a promising collaboration between CGS and the NIU Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies (NNGO). An NNGO Studies undergraduate student intern provided support to a team in CGS’s Workforce Policy Lab as they developed a nonprofit capacity...
A fire erupts in your kitchen. Do you know how to react? Can you extinguish the blaze safely and smartly? What if the flames spread before you can snuff them? Most people likely feel capable of managing this situation. Now imagine you can’t see what’s happening. How would that juice your sense of panic in...
For School of Nursing alumni Daniel Pesut, returning to NIU for the Beta Omega Chapter’s 50th Anniversary Induction Ceremony was a homecoming. Pesut, who is a Professor Emeritus from Indiana University and University of Minnesota, was studying to be a nurse in 1975 when he helped found the DeKalb chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International,...
A research area pioneered by NIU communication professors has reached a major milestone on the international stage. At the recent annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) in Cape Town, South Africa, Human-Machine Communication (HMC) was elevated from an interest group to a full research division, formally recognizing it as an established area of...
The distance between NIU’s Engineering Building and Custom Aluminum Products(CAP) in Genoa is 16 miles. But the journey from learning about workplace safety to experiencing it firsthand can be much longer. Thanks to a semester-long partnership between CAP and the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology (CEET), students in our Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS)...
Success in business often begins with the habits built long before entering the professional world. For Michael DeHaan, those habits were developed through years of dedication as a student-athlete and strengthened during his time at NIU’s College of Business. A former member of the Huskie Football program, DeHaan balanced the demands of athletics and academics while discovering...
NIU physics doctoral student Dorcas Joseph has been selected as a 2026–2027 Student Ambassador for the American Physical Society (APS), a prestigious leadership role that connects physics students around the world with professional resources and opportunities. Joseph, a third-year Ph.D. candidate in physics, was chosen through a competitive international application process. APS Student Ambassadors serve...
Celebrating success is routine procedure for Ginger Murphy. Part of one wall in her Eisenhower Middle Schoollanguage arts classroom resembles a beaded door curtain gleaming with magenta, yellow, orange and blue dots that form vertical ribbons sprouting from the top of the display board toward the floor. Each represents a student’s 70% comprehension rate (or...
Alyssa Harris Alyssa Harris, Ph.D. in Health Sciences candidate at Northern Illinois University, was the lead author of “Facility-Based Uptake of Colorectal Cancer Screening in 45- to 49-Year-Olds After US Guideline Changes.” The study, which included NIU Professor M. Courtney Hughes as senior author, was recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association...
Six doctoral students from NIU’s Department of Computer Science recently joined researchers from across the Midwest to explore emerging ideas in artificial intelligence and gain new perspectives on their work. The students took part in Midwest Speech and Language Days 2026 (MSLD 2026), a regional conference focused on speech, language and conversational AI technologies. Held...
Rockford RISE has graduated 18 new teachers. Launched in 2024, the “Rockford Inspiring School and Community Excellence” initiative to turn Rockford Public Schoolsparaprofessionals into licensed teachers is the result of a grant from Grow Your Own Illinois, a long-time nonprofit organization that supports the development of teacher pathways in communities across Illinois. NIU applied for...
