An international sabbatical promotes professional and personal development and can increase an individual’s value to the university, as demonstrated by several College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) faculty who have pursued such opportunities to study and conduct research in a foreign country. 

The College of ACES supports its faculty taking an international sabbatical in line with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign guidelines and for the purpose of acquiring additional knowledge and competency in their respective fields.

Personalized nutrition (PN) has gained popularity in recent years as a customized approach to health outcomes. PN combines biomedical, genetic, and lifestyle data to provide individualized recommendations, and a plethora of companies offer various forms of health screenings, apps, programs, products, and diet advice.

The advantages of being a student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (ACES) extend well beyond the campus and city limits. The First-Year Experience Study Abroad Programs provide new students a unique opportunity to explore the world, expand their perspectives, and gain a head start on global learning experiences. 

The physical structure of corn plants — including the angle of leaves bending from the stem and the number of pollen-laden tassel branches — makes a big difference for yield. Compact plants can be planted closer together, adding up to more ears per acre. But compact corn didn’t happen by accident; years of hybrid breeding did that. Now, two new genome-based studies are making it possible to precisely adjust corn architecture to meet future demands.

Nanozymes are synthetic materials that have enzyme-like catalytic properties, and they are broadly used for biomedical purposes, such as disease diagnostics. However, inorganic nanozymes are generally toxic, expensive, and complicated to produce, making them unsuitable for the agricultural and food industries.

How do wildlife researchers know when an endangered population is sick? They can detect infectious microbes in animal waste, but the presence of a microbe doesn’t always equate to impactful symptomatic infections. In a new study, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers used advanced molecular tools to survey the health status of endangered Indiana bats, identifying microbiome changes resulting from parasitic infections.

Dr. Bhavani Shankar, an alum from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was recently honored with the prestigious Gates Foundation Goalkeeper Champion Award. Shankar was selected for his work in increasing access and affordability of nutrient dense foods to rural markets.

Weeds like Palmer amaranth make farming harder and less profitable, and available herbicides are becoming less effective. For scientists to find solutions, they first need to know their enemy. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and collaborating institutions reveals complete chromosome-level genomes for Palmer and two other Amaranthus species, smooth and redroot pigweed.

Researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) have developed a sustainable process that has redefined and expanded oilcane’s product portfolio, adding value to this feedstock.

In a traditional biorefinery, sugarcane is used as a feedstock to produce bioethanol fuel. Sugarcane stalks are crushed to extract their juice, and that juice goes on to be processed into fuel. Meanwhile, the dry fibrous material that remains after crushing, called bagasse, is burned.