2025-04-24
- CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists developed a machine-learning tool that can teach itself, with minimal external guidance, to differentiate between aerial images of flowering and nonflowering grasses — an advance that will greatly increase the pace of agricultural field research, they say. The work was conducted using images of thousands of varieties of Miscanthus grasses, each of which has...
2025-04-16 - Dr. Rose Marks, Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Biology has spearheaded a landmark international collaboration to chart the future of desiccation tolerance research. The resulting paper, “Life on the Dry Side: A Roadmap to Understanding Desiccation Tolerance and Accelerating Translational Applications,” was published...
2025-04-12 - The Graduate College and the Media Commons of the University Library recently announced the winners of the 2025 Image of Research competition. This annual competition underscores the extraordinary creativity and intellectual diversity of our graduate students.3RD PRIZEThe Melting Arctic: A Fleeting Beautyby Lijia Guo from Plant Biology "As...
2025-04-07 - Growing up on an arable and livestock farm in Northumberland, the northernmost county in England, Tracy Lawson's childhood experience sparked a lifelong fascination with plants, setting the stage for her impressive career as a leading biologist.Now, as a globally recognized expert in plant biology, Lawson has recently joined the plant biology faculty University of...
2025-04-02 - The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign each year presents Campus Awards for Excellence in Instruction to exceptional faculty and staff members, graduate teaching assistants and advisors campuswide. This year’s recipients are being honored at a ceremony on April 15. Awardees are cited for sustained excellence and innovation in undergraduate and graduate teaching, undergraduate and...
2025-03-31 - We are thrilled to announce that five graduate students from the School of Integrative Biology (SIB) have been named semifinalists in this year’s Image of Research competition! Each year, this exhibition showcases the stunning diversity and creativity of graduate student research. We invite you to explore the online exhibition and cast your votes for your three SIB favorite entries. Your votes...
2025-03-24 - A team from the University of Illinois has determined that improving a key component of soybean photosynthesis is unlikely to come from traditional breeding methods, and that gene editing is likely the key to unlocking soybean potential.“There’s not a huge amount of room to improve the light-harvesting efficiency of soybean photosynthesis at a cellular level...
2025-03-17 - A new research initiative is investigating how maize and rice use light, water, and nutrients more efficiently, with the goal of developing higher-yield, more resilient crops. The Strategic Interventions for Sustainable Yield Increase in Maize and Rice (SUYIMAR) project, backed by Gates Agricultural Innovations (Gates Ag One), brings together...
2025-03-10 - Plant Biology Professor James Dalling is one of the key authors in a recent groundbreaking study published in Science, shedding light on how tropical forests in the Americas are adapting too slowly to keep pace with climate change. This research suggests that these forests, vital to global biodiversity and climate regulation, may be struggling to respond to rapidly shifting...
2025-02-18 - CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Lisa Ainsworth has been named Director of the internationally acclaimed Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency project, which is led by the University of Illinois. "Lisa is pre-eminent in the fields of crop sciences and plant biology, continually leading IGB's research...
2025-02-03 - After decades of impactful and prolific research, two photosynthesis trailblazers are passing the torch, Stephen Long and Donald Ort are retiring from their leadership roles for the Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) project at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They have created a legacy...
2025-01-27 - A University of Illinois team recently published new research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences based on their ongoing work on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), a key research site in the Panama Canal's Gatun Lake. Their new paper discusses the important question of how tropical...
2025-01-25 - Nitrous oxide (N2O) has long been agriculture’s sustainability Achilles heel. While only making up 6% of U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, N2O has 300 times the heat-trapping ability ofcarbon dioxide (CO2) and stays in the atmosphere for about 100 years. This greenhouse gas is produced by soil microbes whose activity depends on ...
2024-12-18 - The Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has appointed seven new members to its permanent faculty. CAS professors are selected based on their outstanding scholarship, and the appointments are one of the highest forms of campus recognition at...
2024-12-17 - As global food demand continues to grow, researchers are exploring multiple strategies to boost crop productivity. While engineering plant enzymes and biochemical pathways that are more efficient remains a transformative goal, this review highlights another promising approach: increasing Rubisco content. Rubisco is the plant enzyme that captures atmospheric CO2 and converts it into organic...