Plant Biology

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A vital agricultural partnership in peril: USDA lab and Illinois at a crossroads

For over five decades, the partnership between the University of Illinois and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) has driven some of the most important advancements in crop science, food security, and sustainable...

In memoriam: Dr. Amy Marshall-Colón, Plant Biology innovator

  The Department of Plant Biology and the School of Integrative Biology mourns the loss of Dr. Amy Marshall-Colón, an Associate Professor of Plant Biology, who passed away on July 26, 2025. A researcher in systems biology and...

Celebrating 25 years of SIB: A legacy of growth and vision

As SIB marks its 25th anniversary, the occasion offers an opportunity to reflect on how far the School has come and how much SIB has shaped biology education and research at Illinois. SIB was formally recognized by the university on July 1, 2000, after emerging from a pivotal reorganization of the...

Team tracks vegetation recovery from sudden permafrost collapse

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Some Arctic regions regain their “greenness” within a decade of a sudden permafrost collapse, while others can take a century or more to recover, researchers report in a new study. The difference is directly related to each site’s gross primary productivity, a measure of its...

Tuning in to fluorescence to farm smarter: monitoring plant light use saves indoor farm energy costs

Plant owners with a so-called green thumb often seem to have a more finely tuned sense of what their plants need than the rest of us. A new “smart lighting” system for indoor vertical farms grants this ability on a facility-wide scale, responsively meeting plants’ needs while reducing energy...

Splitting hairs to keep the public safe

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Counting the marginal dorsal hairs on blacklegged tick larvae would probably be a tedious affair for most people. But it is a normal day for me in the Medical Entomology Laboratory of the...

IGB Director Steps Down, Interim Director Named

After nearly 15 years of dedicated leadership, Gene Robinson has stepped down as IGB Director to assume the role of Executive Director and CEO of the Discovery Partners Institute. Lisa Ainsworth, Charles Adlai Ewing Chair of Crop Physiology in the Department of Crop Sciences and the Department of...

Top seven photosynthesis researchers include three Plant Biology faculty members

Plant biology professor Tracy Lawson, plant biology professor emeritus Govindjee Govindjee, and the late plant biology emeritus professor...

Plant Biology Professor Andrew Leakey Featured in Chicago Tribune

Research by Plant Biology Professor Andrew Leakey was recently highlighted in the Chicago Tribune in a feature story examining the promise of miscanthus, a fast-growing perennial...