URBANA, Ill. — Thirteen University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign students and young alumni, including two from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, were offered student Fulbright grants to pursue international educational, research, and teaching experiences across the globe this coming year, and another seven Illinois students were named Fulbright alternates.

By invitation from the World Bank, Dr. Craig Gundersen, ACES Distinguished Professor in the department of agricultural and consumer economics in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES), recently presented on America’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to Egyptian governmental officials.  

“Egypt is thinking about a new approach to food assistance, and they are interested in SNAP as a model,” Gundersen explained.  

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — If current climate and crop-improvement trends continue into the future, Midwestern corn growers who today rely on rainfall to water their crops will need to irrigate their fields, a new study finds. This could draw down aquifers, disrupt streams and rivers, and set up conflicts between agricultural and other human and ecological needs for water, scientists say.

Read more from the Illinois News Bureau.

URBANA, Ill. — For some athletes, intense workouts can send them running to the bathroom rather than the finish line – if they’re able to exercise at all, that is. A recent study by researchers at the University of Illinois suggests that many of these athletes may have undiagnosed irritable bowel syndrome. Read more.

URBANA, Ill. – We’ve all heard about bacteria that are becoming resistant to multiple types of antibiotics. These are the so-called superbugs perplexing and panicking medical science. The plant analogue may just be waterhemp, a broadleaf weed common to corn and soybean fields across the Midwest. With resistance to multiple common herbicides, waterhemp is getting much harder to kill.  

When poor households in developing countries receive assistance in the form of livestock, they experience an infusion of assets that may bring them out of poverty in the short term. But do these effects last over time, changing the households’ likelihood of being poor in the future? 

URBANA, Ill. - Leann L. Birch, a former head of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) at University of Illinois, and internationally renowned pioneer in the study of children’s eating behaviors, passed away on May 26, in Durham, North Carolina. She was 72 years old.

URBANA, Ill. – With less than half the corn crop and less than a fourth of the soybean crop planted by June 1 this year, Illinois farmers are facing some difficult decisions. Emerson Nafziger, of the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois, answers critical questions.

Q: How serious is the problem?

Hyperspectral data comprises the full light spectrum; this dataset of continuous spectral information has many applications from understanding the health of the Great Barrier Reef to picking out more productive crop cultivars.

URBANA, Ill. – Having a crummy day at work or feeling overwhelmed at home? Your gut microbes may be related to those negative emotions, a new University of Illinois study suggests.

In the study, published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience, nutirition researchers looked at associations between diet, bacteria in the gut microbiota, and symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression in otherwise healthy adults.