Research and Honors is a monthly column of the Illinois State Report newsletter, celebrating recent Honors, Publications, and Presentations of faculty and staff.

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Honors

Phil West, Facilities Services, was selected to represent Illinois State University at the Great Plains LIFE Foundation's 2026 - 20 Stars for LIFE.

Isaac Chang, TEC, received the 2026 Annual Conference Division Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Award for his article titled "Navigating the Unseen: Readiness on Hands-On Labs for Visually Impaired Students."

Publications

Jason Whitesel, WGS/SOA, published a book chapter titled "Storying and Restorying the Fat Body: Disrupting the Medicalized Master Narrative with Fat-Activist Counternarratives" in Narrative Knows No Boundaries, July 2026.

Jan-Ulrik Dahl, BSC, co-authored "Implications of bacterial exposure to reactive oxygen and chlorine species" in Infection and Immunity.

Chang Su-Russell, FCS, co-authored a book chapter "Enhancing Autonomy, Relatedness, and Competence in Cross-Cultural Mentorship: Insights from Social Learning and Self-Determination Theories" published by Springer in May 2026.

Samantha McDonald, KNR, co-authored an article "Supervised and Unsupervised Physical Activity Programs in Pregnancy-There Is a Benefit for Both" in Journal of Diabetes Research, April 2026.

Yeunook Bae, HSC, authored an article "Comment on Hu et al. (2026): Interpreting the role of pipeline sediments in microbial risk within drinking water distribution systems" in Environmental Research.

Christopher Brewer, CJS, co-authored an article "'… it's Google that's big brother': The symbiosis between ICAC investigators and the private sector regarding encryption and privacy" in May 2026.

Jaby Mohammed, TEC, authored an article titled "Exploring the Capstone Journey: Student Perspectives" in the 2026 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings in June 2026.

Jessie Krienert, CJS, co-authored an article titled "Innocence Interrupted: A 25-Year Study of Reported Filicide Incidents in the United States, 1999 to 2023" in Journal of Interpersonal Violence in May 2026.

Wolfgang Stein and Allison Harris, both BSC, co-authored "Whole brain fluorescence imaging in Drosophila reveals spreading depolarization and its initiation, propagation, and resilience dynamics" in iScience, Volume 29, Issue 7.

Kara J. Andres, BSC, co-authored "A unified analysis of global riverine eDNA reveals common associations of fish biodiversity with drainage characteristics" in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

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