'Mr. January' wears a Nobel medal

This is one pinup calendar you probably won't find in your mechanic's garage. The "Big Brains on Campus" calendar features artistically enhanced MR brain scans of University of Illinois administrators, faculty, staff, and students. It serves as a promotion for the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.

Pierre Wiltzius, Ph.D., the institute's director, was wary when approached with the idea about a year ago.

"It's not exactly the way we promote the work and science we do here," said Wiltzius, whose brain scan appears in May, his birth month.

Proceeds from sales go toward imaging research proposals that need a financial boost, such as helping young faculty who require pilot data to get funding, said Tracey Wszalek, Ph.D., associate director of Beckman's Biomedical Imaging Center and the brainpower behind the idea.

Wszalek expects the project to break even and is recruiting brains for 2007.