2024-10-24 -   URBANA, Ill. – It’s a blazingly sunny September Saturday afternoon at Riggs Beer Company, a family-friendly brewery located on the edge of Urbana. It’s not surprising to see crowds of families basking in the dog days of summer with their food truck lunches and locally brewed pints of beer. Unexpected, however, are the patrons donning medieval and fantasy garb, accompanied by...

2024-10-07 - When Carl Bernacchi was completing his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois some 20 years ago, Illinois was globally referred to as a “photosynthesis powerhouse.” Today, thanks to Bernacchi and other world-class researchers on Illinois-centric research teams, like the Agroecosystem...

2024-10-01 -  The U.S. National Science Foundation and partner agencies in the U.S., Canada, Finland, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and the United Kingdom announced funding of new international centers of excellence in their Global Centers competition. One of the centers, the Alliance for...

2024-09-02 - Drought stress has long been a limiting factor for crop production around the world, a challenge exacerbated by climate change.For more than a century­, scientists have targeted a key plant trait known as water use efficiency (WUE) to help crops grow with less water and avoid suffering from drought stress. Greater WUE can help plants avoid drought stress — but for most crops it’s also associated...

2024-08-29 - CHAMPAIGN, Ill. —  I can barely hear Esther Ngumbi over the roar of greenhouse fans as she shows me around her rooftop laboratory in Morrill Hall. The benches are full of tomato plants, and the tomatoes don’t look good. Half of the plants are submerged in bins of water. Their leaves are yellow and withering. Some of the dying tomatoes have flowered. I see one or two baby tomatoes on a couple...

2024-06-12 - The College of LAS has honored 17 professors with named scholar and professorship positions in recognition of their contributions to research and education at the University of Illinois.The named positions include the Brad and Karen Smith Scholars, the Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors (LEAP) Scholars, the Lynn M. Martin Professorial Scholars, the Norman P. Jones Professorial Scholars,...

2024-05-31 -  Perhaps at first, it was a case of being in the right place at the right time for Lisa Ainsworth, but in the past 20-plus years, she he has left an indelible mark on the advancement of crop resilience to climate change.In 2001, USDA Scientist Don Ort along...

2024-05-07 - Researchers at the University of Illinois have contributed to a large-scale international study that has reconstructed a comprehensive "tree of life" for flowering plants.  The study offers new light on the evolutionary history of angiosperms, which account for approximately 90 percent of all terrestrial plant species.The study, ...

2024-04-05 -  In January the University of Illinois announced that five College of LAS faculty members have been named university endowed chairs or professors, an honor awarded to highly distinguished scholars for excellence in research, teaching, and service. We asked...

2024-03-19 - New, highly stretchable sensors can monitor and transmit plant growth information without human intervention, report University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers in the journal Device.The polymer sensors are resilient to humidity and temperature, can stretch over 400 percent while remaining attached to a plant as it grows and send a wireless signal to a remote monitoring location, said...

2024-02-23 - Plant biologists report that a species of tree fern found only in Panama reanimates its own dead leaf fronds, converting them into root structures that feed the mother plant. The fern, Cyathea rojasiana, reconfigures these “zombie leaves,” reversing the flow of water to draw nutrients back into the plant.The findings are reported in the journal...

2024-01-12 - Five College of LAS faculty members have been named as university endowed chairs or professors, an honor awarded to the highly distinguished scholars for their excellence and prominence in research, teaching and service. They are among nine professors chosen across campus.“An endowed chair is among the highest honors bestowed to faculty at our university,” said Vice Chancellor for Academic...

2023-12-18 - It has long been known that exposure to pesticide sprays is harmful to honey bees. In a new study, researchers have uncovered the effect of such sprays on the sense of smell in bees, which could disrupt their social signals.Honey bees live in dynamic communities and constantly communicate with each other using chemicals that serve as social cues. For example, nurse bees—that are responsible for...

2023-12-16 - In a newly released TED Talk, Stephen Long, a professor of plant biology and crop sciences, detailed...

2023-11-17 - Six researchers in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences have been named to the 2023 Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers list. The list recognizes research scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated exceptional influence – reflected through their publication of multiple papers frequently cited by their peers during the last decade. The highly cited LAS researchers...