URBANA, Ill. – When students walk into Anna Dilger’s classroom, they can expect play dough, cartoons, and dancing. But Dilger’s students aren’t kindergartners; they’re college students at the University of Illinois. And they’re learning from one of the best food and agriculture teachers in the country.

URBANA, Ill. – When mothers and their children play together, they instinctively respond to each other’s cues. And positive interactions promote the child’s healthy socioemotional development. A new study from the University of Illinois examines how physiological and behavioral reactions coordinate during mother-child playtime. The findings highlight the importance of responsive communication, and can help provide insights for parents, practitioners, and researchers.

A distinguished delegation of Indonesian officials visited the University of Illinois campus in October to begin discussions towards future student exchanges and faculty research partnerships.

The delegation included representatives from the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment, Del Institute of Technology, Government of North Sumatra, and the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in Chicago.

URBANA, Ill. – How do you like your rice? Sticky, fluffy, brown, or white? These qualities, in addition to grain length, width, appearance, and other traits, are hugely important predictors of rice sales and consumption worldwide. And region matters. Rice preferences in Latin America, for example, are very different from those in West Africa, Japan, India, and elsewhere.

URBANA, Ill. ­– Dried snack foods such as apple chips are a convenient alternative to fresh fruit, providing longer shelf life and easier storage. Consumers increasingly demand product variety, so companies coat such snack foods with fruit and vegetable powders to enhance taste and sensory appeal.

The farmdoc team is pleased to announce that Corteva Agriscience is joining the project as a platinum sponsor, contributing to farmdoc’s commitment to providing farmers with information and resources to make sound management decisions.

URBANA, Ill. – You may not think of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) if you’re aiming for a medical career. But health education is, in fact, a major part of the curriculum in ACES’ Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN) where students can pursue a pre-health track through the human nutrition concentration.

URBANA, Ill. – Many students hear “college is the best four years of your life.” A time for learning and building skills, it’s also a time to meet people, make friends, and be independent.

Some students pack those experiences into a much shorter time frame.

URBANA, Ill. – In January 2020, professor Jeffrey Brawn was named the inaugural Stuart L. and Nancy J. Levenick Chair in Sustainability, the first endowed chair in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES) at the University of Illinois. A pandemic-belated ceremony happened yesterday on the Urbana campus.

URBANA, Ill. -- Millions of people in Asia are dependent on rice as a food source. Believed to have been domesticated as early as 6000 BCE, rice is an important source of calories globally. In a new study from the RIPE project, researchers compared domesticated rice to its wild counterparts to understand the differences in their photosynthetic capabilities. The results can help improve future rice productivity.