DEAN'S MESSAGE

Dean Dwight A. McBride

Dear Friends of LAS,

With equal parts pride and humility, I am pleased to present to you the first special awards edition of e-AtLAS, the electronic newsletter of the UIC College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. As I peruse the myriad awards and accolades that our faculty, students, alumni and staff have earned this past academic year, I cannot help but feel great pride at our collective accomplishment. This pride, though, is followed fast by a strong dose of humility; working within and on behalf of such a talented community is an honor and privilege I take very seriously.

In fact, this in part explains what led us to create this special awards issue, to archive in one place our many milestones and strengths. In our day to day efforts to work on our research, navigate the inevitable bureaucracy of higher education or get our reading done for class, we can miss celebrating the college’s greatest assets—its people.

Did you know that LAS faculty are now conducting research that last year earned funding of over 59 million dollars? That they have published books on everything from understanding everyday economics to the history of obsession? That some of our most promising and ambitious students can count Rotary, Fulbright, NSF and Ford Foundation Fellowships amongst their own achievements? This past year, our alumni have also earned accolades that reflect brightly on the college. One now sits on President Obama’s Committee for Science and Technology, contributing to the international conversation on environmental concerns and the global food supply. Another found herself on a whirlwind trip to Nigeria to accept Africa’s Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature.

As you will no doubt begin to see in the months to come, UIC has begun a strategic campaign to demonstrate what makes UIC, “A World-Class Education. A World-Class City.” This edition of e-AtLAS, we hope you will agree, offers testimony to support this tagline.

To be sure, we will have inevitably missed vital news that deserves to appear here. We look to you and your fellow LAS community members to help us fill in these gaps, to keep in touch and to help complete our world-class portrait of the college. I wish you a productive and brilliant year.

With warm regards,

Dwight A. McBride
Dean