In 2003, two professors from UIUC became instant academic rockstars by winning Nobel Prizes in two different fields! Paul C. Lauterbur, a genius in chemistry and medical information science, and Sir Peter Mansfield, a UK-based professor, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for revolutionizing magnetic resonance imaging…

Martin Gruebele is not your ordinary man. As a professor of Chemistry, Physics, and Computational Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he has made numerous contributions to the fields of quantum mechanics, RNA and protein folding, zebrafish behavioral studies, and more. But beyond the walls of academia, he…

This was originally published here. Buckminster Fuller: Greetings, gentlemen. It’s an honor to be in the presence of such brilliant minds as yourselves. Norbert Wiener: The honor is mine, Mr. Fuller. I’ve been a fan of your work on geodesic domes for some time now. Marshall McLuhan: And I’ve been…

This essay was originally published on my website. I became interested in Steppenwolf because I found this random quote on the internet. Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this…

In a recent interview with The UIUC Talkshow, Stephen Wolfram mentions an interesting conversation that he had with his son and Elon Musk. The conversation apparently took place at a dinner, and during it, Musk revealed that his reason for going to college was to pick up girls. But Wolfram…

In a recent interview with The UIUC Talkshow, Stephen Wolfram argues that studying computer science in college may not be the best path for those interested in pursuing a career in computational fields. He suggests that what people should be interested in is “computational X,” where X can be any…

Let me introduce you to one of the coolest inventors I’ve ever learned about: An inventor who funded himself by creating an amusement ride. He wanted to create a flying machine and he needed money so he “casually” made an amusement ride. This is Hiram Maxim’s story: How do you…

In a parallel world, The Ford Motor Company would have been a pioneer in flying cars. Henry Ford even developed some prototypes. BUT WHAT happened to the “Model T of the Air”? A story of death, war, and the challenge to innovate. This is the Ford Flivver and it was…

Let me introduce you to one of the coolest inventors I’ve ever learned about: An inventor who funded himself by creating an amusement ride. He wanted to create a flying machine and he needed money so he “casually” made an amusement ride. This is Hiram Maxim’s story: How do you…