This week’s 5 Questions Friday features Travis Johnson, TSM alum and current academic advisor and instructor for ETMAS and TSM in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering.

What motivates you in your work?

URBANA, Ill. -- University of Illinois researchers were part of a multi-institutional team that has significantly improved the performance of numerical predictions for agricultural nitrous oxide emissions using novel modeling that combines artificial intelligence and process-based knowledge. 

URBANA, Ill. – Fermentation is a crucial manufacturing step for many industries, including food, feed, cosmetics, and fuel. The fermentation process converts agricultural feedstocks to valuable materials with the use of microorganisms such as yeast and bacteria. It provides ingredients for products ranging from meat and dairy substitutes to cosmetics made without animal proteins.

URBANA, Ill. ­– Plant-covered roofs have become a regular sight in Portland, Oregon. The city is a leader in incorporating green infrastructure for stormwater management, including free street trees, rebates for small residential housing footprints, and green roofs.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Plants release chemical distress signals when under attack from chewing insects. These “911 calls,” as entomologist Esther Ngumbi refers to them, alert other bugs that dinner or a nice place to lay their eggs is available nearby. If predatory or parasitic insects detect the right signal, they swoop in like saviors to make a meal out of – or lay their eggs in – the bodies of the herbivore insects.

Read more from the Illinois News Bureau.

On April 6, the ACES Office of International Programs hosted Jim Suits, a project management officer in USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS).

Suits’ visit provided an opportunity for students and faculty to learn more about how FAS works with the agriculture industry to navigate the ever-changing nature of agriculture across borders.

The U.S. isn’t on the verge of a food crisis or food shortage due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is, however, experiencing food price inflation, which will continue to be a pocketbook issue for consumers, says Scott Irwin, the Laurence J. Norton Chair of Agricultural Marketing. He spoke with Illinois News Bureau's business and law editor Phil Ciciora about the potential for a global food crisis. Read more from the Illinois News Bureau.

URBANA, Ill. – The Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (ACE) honored Maria Teresa Serra Devesa as Thomas A. Hieronymus Distinguished Chair in Futures Markets during an investiture ceremony at the University of Illinois on April 27.

URBANA, Ill. – Sandy Dall’erba, professor of agricultural and consumer economics and co-founder of the Center for Climate, Regional, Environmental and Trade Economics (CREATE) at the University of Illinois, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award for the 2022-2023 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

URBANA, Ill. – Imagine if you had to catch every bite of your dinner with your mouth, while flying, in the dark. You’d be exhausted, and probably pretty hungry. Though some bats go for sedentary insects, most catch their food on the wing every single night. Let that sink in.