Summer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign means it’s time to welcome future Illini to campus for ACES Family Academies, a beloved three-day experience where fun meets discovery. Hosted by the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, this interactive program runs July 9–11, 2025, and is open to kids ages 8–13 and their ACES alumni relatives.

The Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute has announced their 2025 Community-Academic Scholars. The program offers University of Illinois undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue community-based research projects in Urbana-Champaign over the summer.

Switchgrass has gripped Midwestern soils for millions of years, but soon, the earthbound prairie grass could fly. New studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign identify economic and environmental considerations that make switchgrass a candidate for sustainable aviation fuel.  

Scientists developed a machine-learning tool that can teach itself, with minimal external guidance, to differentiate between aerial images of flowering and nonflowering grasses — an advance that will greatly increase the pace of agricultural field research, they say. The work was conducted using images of thousands of varieties of Miscanthus grasses, each of which has its own flowering traits and timing.

"Agriculture unites us all" was the resounding message as representatives from University of Illinois Extension, the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, and nearly 50 diverse agriculture organizations converged on the state Capitol for the 55th annual Illinois Agriculture Legislative Day.

Farmers apply nitrogen fertilizers to crops to boost yields, feeding more people and livestock. But when there’s more fertilizer than the crop can take up, some of the excess can be converted into gaseous forms, including nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that traps nearly 300 times as much heat in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. About 70% of human-caused nitrous oxide comes from agricultural soils, so it’s vital to find ways to curb those emissions.

Hannah Sundararajan, a junior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was awarded a $30,000 Truman Scholarship. Sundararajan is one of 54 Truman Scholars selected from a pool of 743 nominees from colleges and universities across the country.

Sundararajan, from New Berlin, Wisconsin, and a graduate of New Berlin High School, was selected by the Truman Foundation based on her academic success and leadership accomplishments, as well as her likelihood of becoming a public service leader. 

Jonathan W. Coppess, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, spoke with Illinois News Bureau business and law editor Phil Ciciora about the potential effects of tariffs.

What are tariffs likely to mean to the average U.S. household, and when will consumers start to notice the effects?