Awards

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.

More than a century ago, the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign welcomed Illinois Extension as a vital partner in its mission to deliver research-backed solutions to the people and industries of Illinois.

A team of food science and human nutrition students from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign were the crème de la crème at the Institute of Food Technologists Student Association College Bowl Competition in Chicago on July 14.

Bin Peng, assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, recently received a Conservation Research Award from the Soil and Water Conservation Society, recognizing his excellence in soil, water, and nutrient conservation research.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign research professor John Reid, also executive director of the Center for Digital Agriculture, received the prestigious 2026 Cyrus Hall McCormick-Jerome Increase Case Gold Medal. 

Professor Joseph P. Janzen was formally invested as The Clearing Corporation Foundation Endowed Associate Professor in Derivatives Trading in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on May 12.

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. The recipients were honored at a March 25 ceremony.

Awardees are cited for sustained excellence and innovation in undergraduate and graduate teaching, undergraduate and graduate advising and mentoring, online teaching and research guidance. The Office of the Provost sponsors the awards. 

Paul E. McNamara, a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, and Mia Bonds, an undergraduate student in ACE, are winners of 2026 International Achievement Awards from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Illinois International. These awards recognize outstanding alumni, faculty, and students whose exceptional work, service, and/or scholarship has made a significant, global impact. 

Paul E. McNamara

Madhu Khanna, Alvin H. Baum Family Chair and Director of the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE), has been named a 2025 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the highest honors awarded to U.S. scientists.

A multidisciplinary collaboration at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has received a $2.5 million award from the National Institutes of Health to develop technology for assessing embryo viability for in vitro fertilization.