Professor of Crop Science and Plant Biology Stephen Long will be speaking at a public session of the Paris Climate Change Conference tomorrow concerning the research challenges associated with developing a climate-smart agri-food system. http://bit.ly/1MUcTUj
The University of Illinois has been awarded a 3-year, $5 million grant from the DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy as part of its OPEN 2015 funding initiative (ARPA-E OPEN). Under Principal Investigator Andrew Leakey, Associate Professor of Plant Biology, the interdisciplinary and multi-institutional team intends to increase the water use efficiency (WUE) of sorghum, a valuable bioenergy crop.
Ground-level ozone reduces maize and soybean yields (IGB postdoc fellow, Justin McGrath, USDA Agricultural Research Service scientist, Elizabeth Ainsworth, and plant biology and crop sciences professor, Stephen Long)
Dr. Donald R. Ort, Robert Emerson Professor of Plant Biology, named to Agricultural Research Service Science Hall of Fame
Ort, plant physiologist and research leader of the ARS Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit in Urbana, Illinois, has been unraveling how changes in atmospheric composition expected with climate change will affect biochemical processes related to plant development, photosynthesis, water use and crop yields. His ground breaking research made it possible for the first time to conduct field studies on the interactions of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide with drought and rising atmospheric carbon dioxide with warming on crops. He and his group then identified promising ways to improve crops such as soybeans and corn to meet future food production needs under potential changing climatic conditions, ensuring that farmers will be able to maintain the global food supply.
Stephen Moose -Mapping the Miscanthus GenomeEXPLORE »
Chemical & Engineering News (Washington, D.C., Sept. 21) -- A slug-seaweed research project “blows the notion that marine plant-herbivore interactions differ fundamentally from terrestrial associations out of the water,” says May Berenbaum, a chemical ecologist who heads the entomology department at Illinois.
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Popular Science -- the Internet erupted with the news that insects had descended like a plague on Black Rock City in the Nevada desert, where organizers have been hard at work preparing for the descent of an expected 70,000 burners at the upcoming Burning Man Festival. According to May Berenbaum, an entomologist at Illinois, the large green insects in the photographs are likely some sort of stink bug, possibly from the genus Chlorochroa, while the small winged insects are likely seed bugs, from the genus Nysius. read entire article
Increasing Crop Productivity Through More Efficient, and Better Neighbors
Robert Emerson Professor of Plant Biology Donald Ort led a diverse group of researchers who propose a roadmap to achieve global food production goals by redesigning photosynthesis.
University of Illinois Awarded $3.1M Grant from DOE ARPA-E
Illinois will be the lead institution on the Mobile Energy-crop Phenotyping Platform (MEPP), working in partnership with researchers from Cornell University and Signetron Inc.
Report: Photosynthesis hack needed to feed the world by 2050
Professor of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology Stephen Long and colleagues report on advances and challenges in improving plant photosynthesis.
Food and Fuel From Oilcane: A Minute With Agricultural Expert Stephen Long
Plant Biologist and crop scientist Stephen Long discusses making 'oilcane' from sugarcane and the high hopes for this new biofuel.
(2015) Evan DeLucia, Professor of Plant Biology (GEGC) was named a fellow of the Ecological Society of America, which honors members who have made outstanding contributions to a wide range of fields served by the society, including thos that advance or apply ecological knowledge in academics, government, nonprofit organizations and the broader society.
In October 2014, Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise nominated May Berenbaum, Professor and head of the Department of Entomology, to the Directorate for Biological Sciences Advisory Committee (BIO AC) at the National Science Foundation.
Carl Bernacchi, Assistant Professor of Plant Biology has been selected as a 2014-2015 Helen Corley Petit Scholar.
May Berenbaum, Professor and Head of Entomology received the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest honor for achievement and leadership in advancing the fields of science and technology, administered by the NSF and bestowed by the the President of the United States.
Don Ort, Professor of Plant Biology, with Stephen Long, Professor of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology, discuss corn belt yield limits in a recent perspective in Science magazine. Read more.
Plant biology professor and IGB faculty member Andrew Leakey with colleagues report that levels of zinc, iron and protein drop in some key crop plants when grown at elevated CO2 levels. Read the full article.
Stephen Moose received a Faculty Award for Excellence from the College of ACES, recognizing outstanding professional achievement and demonstrated excellence in the areas of teaching, research, and extension. View the video here.
Carl Bernacchi, Assistant Professor of Plant Biology, was selected as a 2014-2015 Helen Corley Petit Scholar. Mrs. Helen Corley Petit was an alumna of the College of Lineral Arts and Sciences, who provided an endowment for the development of The scholarship and teaching of LAS college members early in their career.
Earth can sustain more terrestrial plant growth than previously thought
Plant biology professor Evan DeLucia and colleagues found that land plants have the capacity to produce much more biomass than previously estimated.
Climate relicts may help researchers understand climate change
IGB Fellow Scott Woolbright describes how climate relicts - regions with uncharacteristic qualities - help understand how climate change affects ecological communities.
Securing tomorrow’s food supply by engaging today’s students
Plant biologist Steve Long ponders strategies to recruit the next generation of researchers.
As CO2 levels rise, some crop nutrients will fall
Plant biology professor and IGB faculty member Andrew Leakey with colleagues report that levels of zinc, iron and protein drop in some key crop plants when grown at elevated CO2 levels.
Yield Limits in the Corn Belt Topic of Latest Science Perspective
Don Ort, Professor of Plant Biology, with Stephen Long, Professor of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology, discuss corn belt yield limits in a recent perspective in Science magazine.
Professor Stephen Long was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. The Royal Society is one of the oldest and most eminent honorific scientific academies in the world and election to its ranks is one of the highest awards a scientist can receive. Steve is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology and a faculty member in our Genomic Ecology of Global Change theme. He has done pioneering work on photosynthetic responses to global atmospheric change, and the demonstration that C4 plants can achieve high productivity in temperate climates. His integration of mechanistic models with novel techniques in environmental physiology and innovative large-scale field experiments have changed understanding of how global change affects productivity and physiology scaling from molecular to regional levels, and has informed approaches to improving crop yield. His research has also contributed to the emergence of Miscanthus as a major bioenergy crop and provided a novel framework for increasing crop yield through improved photosynthetic efficiency.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has received a five–year, $25-million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve the photosynthetic properties of key food crops, including rice and cassava. The project, titled “RIPE – Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency,” has the potential to benefit farmers around the world by increasing productivity of staple food crops. Illinois research will take place at the Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB), a state-of-the-art facility whose large shared laboratories accommodate multiple groups and encourage cross-discipline interaction.
“This grant will be game changing,” says Stephen Long, Project Director and Gutgsell Endowed Professor of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology at Illinois. “This project represents a huge effort to determine and apply the mechanisms of photosynthesis that can contribute to the challenge of this century: food security for all.”
Stephen Long (right), will serve as Project Director on a five–year, $25-million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve the photosynthetic properties of key food crops, with Don Ort (left) serving as Associate Director. Illinois research will take place at the Institute for Genomic Biology.
With the support of a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, researchers will take the first steps toward engineering two new oil-rich crops. They aim to boost the natural, oil-producing capabilities of sugarcane and sorghum, increase the crops’ photosynthetic power and – in the case of sugarcane – enhance the plant’s cold tolerance so that it can grow in more northerly climes.
New research aims to convert sugar-rich crops like sorghum and sugarcane into oil-rich crops. Scientists will suppress flowering in sorghum (except in crops used to produce seeds for propagation) to divert more of its energy into oil production. | Photo courtesy Institute for Genomic Biology
The initiative, led by researchers at the University of Illinois (Stephen P. Long and Donald R. Ort) in collaboration with scientists at the University of Florida, the University of Nebraska and the Brookhaven National Laboratory, will make use of recent advances in plant biotechnology and computer modeling to produce high-yielding, cold-tolerant, photosynthetically efficient crops that can be used in the production of biodiesel and jet fuel. Additional information
Thanks to a $5.7 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation, researchers at the University of Illinois plan to screen different lines of corn in the hopes of finding ozone-resistant ones. The team includes principal investigator Lisa Ainsworth, research scientist in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service and associate professor in plant biology at the UI; co-investigators Andrew Leakey, assistant professor in plant biology, and Patrick Brown, an assistant professor in crop sciences; and Lauren McIntyre, a statistician from the University of Florida.
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a five-year, $12.1 million grant to a multi-institutional effort to develop drought-resistant grasses for use in biofuels. The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis will lead the initiative with researchers from the Carnegie Institution for Science, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Minnesota and Washington State University. University of Illinois plant biology professor Andrew Leakey is part of an effort to improve drought tolerance in bioenergy grasses. His lab will receive $1.8 million of the funding.
