U of Illinois renames biology institute for professor

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - The University of Illinois' Institute for Genomic Biology has been renamed in honor of a late microbiology professor who discovered of a major branch of the tree of life.

University officials say Carl Woese served as a university microbiology faculty member for nearly 50 years. He died in late 2012.

Woese and his colleagues in 1977 overturned a universally held assumption about the basic structure of the tree of life, which was used to describe the relationship between organisms. They discovered that there were three distinct branches, not two, as had been previously thought.

Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology director Gene Robinson says changing the name of the institute is honoring an individual who made legendary contributions to science. Robinson says Woese's legacy "is now an indivisible part of our history."