When it comes to professional achievement, H. Richard “Dick” McFarland believed that character and leadership development were just as valuable as formalized classroom education. Not only did he model entrepreneurial success, but he also made sure that Illinois youth and College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) students were afforded opportunities to build a similar path. Two gifts provided by McFarland in his estate will continue to perpetuate that investment in young people.

Wyffels Hybrids recently donated used, fully operational research equipment to the University of Illinois. The Department of Crop Sciences received a combine with a three-row corn head, as well as a four-row planter. Spare equipment parts were also donated.

There are several new faces in leadership roles in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.

John and Eunice Campbell have provided support to the College of ACES Jonathan Baldwin Turner Scholarship program for nearly four decades. A former College of ACES dean, John provided the vision to establish the JBT scholarship program in 1978.

Launched in 2001, the International Business Immersion Program (IBIP) has annually taken a group of Illinois undergraduate students with high leadership potential to various countries and continents around the world including Europe, Asia, Brazil, and New Zealand. IBIP is the premier and longest standing program in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics’ suite of experiential learning program offerings.

URBANA, Ill. – Research in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois spans multiple disciplines, from production agriculture to neuroscience. This breadth of expertise is one reason several researchers in the department were recently awarded a $1.62 million, five-year research grant from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Dual Purpose for Dual Benefit” program.

When deciding which sweet corn hybrids to plant, vegetable processors need to consider whether they want their contract growers using a workhorse or a racehorse. Is it better to choose a hybrid with exceptional yields under ideal growing conditions (i.e., the racehorse) or one that performs consistently well across ideal and less-than-ideal conditions (i.e., the workhorse)? New research from the University of Illinois suggests the workhorse is the winner in processing sweet corn.

Handling a poorly timed tantrum from a toddler-such as in the middle of the grocery store-is never an easy task. It could serve as a teachable moment for a mom to help her child learn to manage his own emotions. After all, research shows that how parents react in these types of situations can play an important role in a child's emotional development.

But how does that child's negative behavior-that tantrum in the frozen food aisle-affect a mother's own stress level, and therefore, her ability to parent?

As a PhD student in Agricultural and Consumer Economics advised by Dr. Kathy Baylis, Patrese Anderson is working with a multidisciplinary research team to understand climate change’s effects on smallholder farmers dependent on rain fed agricultural systems.

During the summer of 2017, she used funds provided by the ACES International Graduate Grants program to travel to Zambia to oversee the data collection of 1200 household surveys to be used by this research team to help Zambia ensure livelihoods and attain food security.  

Dennis Humberto Pinto Padilla, a M.S. student in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition advised by Dr. Nicki Engeseth, used funds from an ACES international graduate grant to find optimal conditions for producing chocolate in tropical regions.

Pinto’s research focuses on a problem that plagues tropical regions with chocolate – the temperature of storage is often too high, resulting in rapid bloom formation and melting. His goal is to find low-cost, low energy-requiring strategies for temperature stability and therefore better chocolate production in these regions.