People

In a world hyperfocused on artificial intelligence, assistant professor Christopher Wirz wants to hear human perspectives on advancing technology. His research in risk and science communication in the College of Agricultural, Consumer & Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign aims to understand how artificial intelligence tools might be received by those in agricultural and environmental careers. 

An education from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign means critical thinking and hands-on learning across every major. That gives graduates an edge in the job market, but for Ian Fleming, it also meant becoming an inventor and scoring a deal on the hit TV show Shark Tank.

In the 150 years since the establishment of the Morrow Plots at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, many forward-thinking people have had a hand in their upkeep and management. But in that long line of leaders — from founder Manly Miles to current director Andrew Margenot — it’s recently deceased Robert Dunker whose love and dedication towards the plots may surpass the rest. 

Black parents who experienced higher levels of appropriated racial oppression — defined as shaping one’s behavior and self-concept around dominant cultural norms of whiteness — were less likely to transmit positive, culturally protective messages that affirmed racial pride and self-worth to their adolescent children, a recent study found.

In rural India, having a son is a strong social expectation that puts pressure on women to bear male children. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign examines how a firstborn son affects the well-being of childbearing women and their mothers-in-law, as well as the broader implications for household dynamics and economic outcomes.

Every year, Deborah Katz-Downie honors her sister's memory the same way.

She gives.

For more than three decades, Deborah and her husband, Stephen R. Downie, have made annual gifts to the Child Development Laboratory (CDL) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in memory of Deborah's younger sister, Lauren Beth Katz, who died in 1989 at the age of 27 after a long illness.

Prasanta K. Kalita, professor of agricultural and biological engineering in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences with a joint appointment in The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, died on July 5. 

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. 

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Professor Brian Ogolsky, part of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, was recently one of three people to earn the prestigious Fellow status from the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR).