The historic Morrow Plots on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus have provided a site for agricultural research and experimentation for 150 years. It is the longest-running agricultural experiment in the U.S. and the second-longest in the world, and the University Archives holds records that show that scientific history.

Majestic African antelopes known as gemsbok have been roaming the U.S. southwest since their introduction in the 1960s and 1970s. Brought to New Mexico as game species for hunting, gemsbok quickly settled in, expanding more than 100 kilometers from their introduction point. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers say that’s due to their exceptional adaptations to arid conditions, which they predict will dramatically expand under climate change.

Tucked among cornfields and country roads just outside Champaign, Pear Tree Estate has hosted hundreds of weddings and events.

The facility, built in 2013, is clad in wood and nestled next to a little pond beyond which lies the familiar, flat horizon of central Illinois. Floor-to-ceiling windows allow light to flood the room and perfectly frame the picturesque corn growing right outside. 

The Department of Crop Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences has opened a new student collaboration space, located on the first floor of Turner Hall at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

Peyton Sorensen, a third-year doctoral student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has earned a predoctoral fellowship from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to fund her research. 

Kaiyu Guan, Levenick Professor of Sustainability in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, has been named a 2026 MacArthur Fellow, receiving what is commonly known as a “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Two students from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences were selected for the 2026 Homecoming Court at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.