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Department of Plant Biology

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Plant Biology

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  • Carl Bernacchi, Stephen Long and Donald Ort headshots.
    Review: Heat-resilient crops are within reach — given enough time and money
    2025-06-12 - CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Laboratory and field experiments have repeatedly shown that modifying the process of photosynthesis or the physical characteristics of plants can make crops more resilient to hotter temperatures. Scientists can now alter the abundance or orientation of leaves, change leaf chemistry to improve heat tolerance and adjust key steps in the process of photosynthesis to overcome...
  • A photo of Stephen Long holding a plant
    Report: ‘Future-proofing’ crops will require urgent, consistent effort
    2025-05-29 - CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — In a review in The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Stephen Long, a professor of crop sciences and of plant biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, describes research efforts...
  • headshot of Amy Marshall-Colon
    Plant Biology Associate Professor Amy Marshall Colon wins ASPB Award for Excellence in Education
    2025-04-30 - The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) has honored Dr. Amy Marshall-Colón, Associate Professor of Plant Biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with the 2025 Excellence in Education Award. This prestigious award recognizes...
  • Andrew Leakey standing in front of a designed background
    New approach makes AI adaptable for computer vision in crop breeding
    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...
  • A man and a woman working in a dry landscape
    Assistant Professor Rose Marks leads global effort to advance desiccation tolerance research
    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...
  • Headshot of Plant Biology Graduate Student Lijia Guo
    Plant Biology Graduate Student Lijia Guo takes third in 2025 Image of Research competition
    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...
  • Tracy smiling while working with lab equipment
    Lawson brings renowned plant science expertise to Illinois
    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...
  • A wide shot photo of students sitting in a room
    Two SIB faculty receive awards honoring excellence in instruction
    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...
  • Headshots of 5 grad students
    Five SIB students semifinalists in the 2025 Graduate Image of Research Exhibition
    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...
  • A field of plants
    Traditional breeding falls short in boosting soybean photosynthesis
    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...
  • a headshot of Plant Biology Associate Professor Li-Qing
    Plant Biology's Li-Qing to serve as Principal Investigator in new global partnernship
    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...
  • Jim Dalling standing next to a tree holding large leaves
    Plant Biology's James Dalling contributes to research on tropical forests and climate change
    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...
  • A woman standing in a field
    Lisa Ainsworth named RIPE Director
    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...
  • two men kneeling in a field
    Long/Ort step back from RIPE leadership roles they helped create
    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...
  • Headshots of James O'Dwyer and Kenneth Jops
    Quantifying life history difference in tropical plant communities can help in predicting changes in population size
    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...

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286 Morrill Hall

505 S. Goodwin Ave.

Urbana, IL 61801

217-333-3044

Email: sib@life.illinois.edu

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  • Entomology
    • 320 Morrill Hall
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    • eeb@life.illinois.edu
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    • 217-333-3261
    • plants@life.illinois.edu

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