Through the innovative Global Food Security Internship program, selected undergraduates in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) are working with faculty mentors on specific projects towards global food and nutrition security in low- and middle-income countries.

Wendy Dorman is determined to map a brighter future for grassland birds. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign doctoral student will use a $150,000 investment from NASA to develop robust maps of grassland habitat across the Midwest and beyond. Her goal is to understand the species-specific habitat factors that matter most to imperiled birds and optimize strategies for their conservation.  

A team from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has engineered potato to be more resilient to global warming, showing 30% increases in tuber mass under heatwave conditions. This adaptation may provide greater food security for families dependent on potatoes, as these are often the same areas where the changing climate has already affected multiple crop seasons.

A new greenhouse custom-designed to support research at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) is now open at the University of Illinois Research Park.

In the upper reaches of a Minnesota watershed, the water is so full of dissolved nitrous oxide that University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign hydrologist Zhongjie Yu likens it to a soda can. 

Globally recognized as one of the most influential modern scientists, Elizabeth “Lisa” Ainsworth has been named Professor and C.A. Ewing Chair of Crop Physiology in the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She also holds a joint professorship in the Department of Plant Biology at Illinois.

Elizabeth Brooks Bruns’ journey from a farm girl to a civil engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was not without its challenges. Diagnosed with cancer at age 13, and facing several recurrences, Elizabeth had to pause her education multiple times in her teens and early twenties. “It gave me space to think about what I liked to do and took away the pressure to pick a career too quickly,” she recalls.

If you’re a crayfish, location is everything. Here in North America, times are tough for the mini crustaceans. Habitat destruction, damming, and pollution have decimated local populations, such that many species are in dire need of help. But when some of the same species were exported to Europe, they found a much more favorable environment and are thriving. A little too much — American expats bully European crayfish and spread disease, driving many local species to the brink.