Division of Nutritional Sciences at University of Illinois

🎓 Congratulations to our May 2026 graduates! We are so proud of all you have accomplished and can’t wait to see the impact you make in the world. 🎓✨

Sean Evans Gives 2026 University of Illinois Commencement Speech “Hot Ones” host Sean Evans was the 2026 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Commencement speaker. Evans, an Illinois alumnus, delivered the speech at Gie...

As the semester comes to a close, our Illini community celebrates what brings us together.🧡💙

I hope you’ll take a few moments to watch this video that shows our university community coming together to sing our favorite song: https://youtu.be/CdEZRhqiA5I?si=58eXwI0VvTQTlPb-

Illini Pride in Every Voice As the semester comes to a close, our University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign community comes together to sing a favorite campus song and celebrate what brin...

Research, recognition, and a room full of ideas. ✨

The 2026 Nutrition Symposium brought together the DNS community for an engaging day of learning, connection, and celebration. This year’s program featured a keynote lecture by Rachel A. Ross, MD, PhD, along with dynamic speaker presentations, student oral presentations, and a poster session showcasing the depth and impact of research across nutritional sciences.

We were proud to recognize outstanding achievements throughout the day, including honoring Dr. Hans H. Stein with the Outstanding Faculty Award and celebrating our poster competition winners. 🏆

Congratulations to all presenters, awardees, participants, and everyone who helped make this year’s symposium a meaningful and memorable success!👏

✨ Congratulations to DNS doctoral student Stephanie Okoye on presenting her exit seminar, “Dietary Habits in Relation to Sweet Taste Perception, Eating Behaviors, and Metabolic Response.”

Stephanie shared her research on the connections between dietary habits, sweet taste perception, eating behaviors, and metabolic health. We’re proud to celebrate this important milestone and her contributions to nutrition science. 👏🎓

Thank you to her committee members and everyone who joined in support!

✨ A special afternoon at DNS ✨

We were pleased to host the Inaugural Sharon M. Donovan Pediatric Nutrition Seminar, bringing our community together for an afternoon of learning, reflection, and connection.

The event opened with remarks from Dr. Kelly Swanson and featured a seminar by Dr. Michelle (Shelley) McGuire of the University of Idaho, Building Health from the First Drop: Human Milk and Pediatric Nutrition. 🥛🧡

It was a meaningful way to recognize Dr. Sharon Donovan’s lasting impact on pediatric nutrition, research, and mentorship. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this memorable occasion. 💙

DNS Faculty in the News 📰👏

Dr. Zeynep Madak-Erdogan and collaborators are helping answer that question through innovative research that combines spatial mapping and gene expression analysis to reveal tumor architecture in new ways. Their work opens exciting possibilities for understanding cancer progression and treatment response.

Read more about how University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers are advancing cancer discovery through GIS-ROTA and spatial transcriptomics at teh link below.

https://cancer.illinois.edu/spatial-mapping-technique-allows-researchers-to-understand-tumor-architecture/

Happy Graduate Student Appreciation Week to our DNS grad students! 🧡

We see you - your ahrdwork, your breakthroughs and the relentless curiosity that keeps pushing this field forward. What you do each day matters, and we are endlessly grateful and proud to have you.💙

The future of Nutritional Science is being written right here, right now - by you. 💙🧡

The Division of Nutritional Sciences at University of Illinois celebrated student excellence at the 2026 Endowed Awards Ceremony on February 11.🎉

These awards recognize DNS students whose work and leadership make meaningful contributions to our division, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign community, and the broader field of nutrition.

Congratulations to all of this year’s recipients!

Frank W. Kari Memorial Award recipients:
- Amparo Blanco Cirer
- Daniel Renshaw
- Asma Yahya
- Nicole Southey

Toshiro Nishida Research Award recipients:
- Elizabeth Brandley, MS, CHES
- Stephanie Okoye, PharmD

William C. Rose Endowment Award recipients:
- Jordan Rindels
- Akriti Shrestha
- Fan Yang
- Ruijie Zhang

James L. Robinson Nutrition Impact Award recipient:
- Benjamin Levine

David H. Baker Nutrition Scholar Award recipient:
- Andrea Mallea Ortiz

👏 We are proud to celebrate these outstanding students and their achievements.