Facilities and Services
Our faculty and students have access to the research facilities and services to achieve their research goals. Across campus, there are experts available to help you develop experiments, learn new techniques, and collect/analyze data. Our students have unparalleled access to resources through our department, the School of Chemical Sciences, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences as well as The Grainger College of Engineering—and beyond. More information about our campus facilities is available from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. Whatever your research goals, we're here to help make your vision a reality.
Center of Research and Educational Support (CORES)
Our department is nested within the School of Chemical Sciences (SCS), which provides unrivaled services and resources to support our students and faculty. This dedicated research infrastructure sets our program apart.
SCS created a Center of Research and Educational Support (CORES) endowment to perpetually provide our researchers with the best equipment and support staff required to achieve the frontier research objectives of our faculty and students.
Characterization facilities
High-throughput Screening Facility
Microanalysis Laboratory
Mass Spectrometry Laboratory
NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) Laboratory
X-Ray Diffraction Laboratory
Services
Cell Media Facility
Computer Applications and Network Services and Computer Electronics Electrical Services
Graphic Services
SCS Human Resources
SCS Business Office
Shops
Campus-wide Resources
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology is a community of scholars and a physical space to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, inspire bold scientific risk-taking, and nurture new ideas and discoveries. The Beckman Institute is home to two core research facilities: the Biomedical Imaging Center and the Imaging Technology Group.
The Biomedical Imaging Center is a state-of-the-art imaging facility that develops and applies cutting-edge techniques using magnetic resonance and molecular imaging tools.
Staff members employ advanced MRI, optical imaging, EEG, PET, SPECT, CT, fluorescence, and bioluminescence techniques to address questions about the structure and function of systems across a variety of disciplines.
CITL Data Analytics Services
The CITL Data Analytics Group provides consulting on statistics and data analytics, data preparation, and survey research. They provide consulting to instructors, researchers, and students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They can help you find data, learn to use statistical software, and determine which statistical procedures to use in your analyses. In addition, they teach workshops each semester on how to use common statistical software and run statistical procedures.
Comparative Biosciences Histology Laboratory
The Comparative Biosciences Histology Laboratory is a laboratory that provides histologic technical services and support for teaching and research projects. The following services are available through the laboratory:
- Tissue processing including fixation and dehydration
- Embedding of tissues in paraffin and plastics
- Sectioning with rotary and motorized microtomes
- Routine and special stains
- Frozen sections
- IHC techniques
- Development of special histologic techniques
Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) is where science meets society—an interdisciplinary institute dedicated to transformative research and technology in life sciences using team-based strategies to tackle grand societal challenges. IGB's Core Facilities—conveniently located in the concourse level of the building—provide a variety of services to the campus community.
Core Facilties is your resource for biological microscopy and image analysis. The facility is meant to encourage innovation—try new techniques and approaches to achieve your research goals without a significant investment in instrumentation or time. The Core Facilities offers high-end equipment, user training, ongoing support (including experimental design and data interpretation), and 24-hour access. The Core is a ZEISS Labs@location partner, enabling us to provide both beta instrumentation and advanced training to the campus. The Core Facilities offers a computer lab with memory and processing power for high-throughput research. The computers are equipped with Amira and Imaris software.
Holonyak Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory
The Holonyak Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory (HMNTL) is one of the country’s largest and most sophisticated university facilities for conducting photonics, microelectronics, biotechnology, and nanotechnology research. HMNTL’s 15 class 100 and 1000 cleanrooms, 46 general purpose labs, and 2,500 square foot biosafety level-2 bionanotechnology complex contain all the tools researchers need to conduct their work.
A shared user facility at the Holonyak Micro & Nanotechnology Lab, the BioNanotechnology Laboratory (BNL) provides engineering researchers 24/7 access to a Biosafety Level 2 facility with all the tools to conduct research experiments at the interface of biology and micro and nanotechnology. The facility is also suitable for research with infectious agents or biological research classified at BSL2.
Materials Research Laboratory
The Materials Research Lab (MRL) fosters interdisciplinary research at the forefront of materials science by bringing together world-class faculty, staff, postdocs, students, and industry in materials science, condensed matter physics, and materials chemistry in a highly-collaborative, progressive research environment. The MRL hosts over 140 instruments valued at over $40 million.
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) is a hub of trans-disciplinary research and digital scholarship. NCSA was the home of Blue Waters—one of the fastest supercomputers in the world—that ended its role as the NFS track 1 supercomputer after 6.75 years of production. At its launch, Delta will be the most performant GPU computing resource in NSF’s portfolio, making it a prime destination for advanced scientific research.
The Blue Waters project at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, brought previously impossible investigations and insights within the reach of researchers from across the U.S. The combination of massive computing power and the intellectual might of pioneering scientists and engineers creates opportunities for us to better understand and shape our world.
Launched in early 2013, the system was capable of 13.3 petaflops of peak performance. Blue Waters was the fastest supercomputer at a university anywhere in the world until the Frontera supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center came online in 2019. NCSA is currently deploying its next supercomputer, Delta, in 2022.
The video below highlights just a sampling of the more than 100 research stories from all areas of science and the breadth of Blue Water’s impact on science, education, and developing the nation’s advanced digital workforce.
Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center
The Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center provides state-of-the-art research infrastructure to investigators. The Carver Center's portfolio includes core research facilities supporting genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics, flow cytometry, and translational medical research. The Carver Center is headquartered in the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and also has space in the Edward R. Madigan Laboratory (pictured).
University of Illinois Webstore
The WebStore has become the primary software distribution source for the University of Illinois, providing site- and volume-license discounted software products to faculty, staff, and students. Offering over 350 software titles for purchase or download, the WebStore strives to provide the software you need at the lowest possible price. In addition to software, the WebStore also offers training to improve technology skills and knowledge. Special events with experts from software manufacturers along with learning options (both instructor-led and online) offer students opportunities for training that fit their schedules and budget. The Webstore provides OriginLab, MATLAB, AutoCAD by Autodesk, and the Adobe Creative Cloud.
University Library
The University Library at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign is one of the largest public university libraries in the world, with 14 million volumes in its 20+ unit libraries. Annually, 53,000,000 people visit its online catalog. Students have access to thousands of computer terminals in classrooms, residence halls, and campus libraries for use in classroom instruction, study, and research.
Chemistry Library
The Chemistry Library is at the heart of the School of Chemical Sciences. It is the go-to resource for chemical engineering books, journals, study spaces, and more. The Chemistry Library is located on the 1st floor of Noyes Lab in the northeast corner.
Grainger Engineering Library Information Center
The Grainger Engineering Library Information Center was designed to be a model for academic libraries. The Grainger Library was made possible by William Wallace Grainger, a 1919 electrical engineering alumnus who founded the Fortune 500 industrial supply company W. W. Grainger. The Grainger Library includes the Center for Academic Resources in Engineering (CARE) that provides tutors and exam study sessions for engineering students, including students in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Other library facilities include:
- Three computer and multi-media labs with over 100 engineering workstations, which are used for CAD, numerical analysis and modeling, and software development.
- A digital imaging lab housing the Digital Library Initiative Projects, which provides access to 62,000 full-text journal articles; an information retrieval laboratory for visitors and researchers utilizing Grainger and campus resources.
- Two instructional services labs, which serve as high-tech classrooms for information literacy instruction and presentations.