Changing precipitation patterns in the Neotropics, one of Earth’s most biodiverse regions, could threaten two-thirds of the area’s bird species by the year 2100 if climate change goes unchecked, according to new research led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and George Mason University. This would represent a dramatic loss, as the region is home to 30% of all bird species globally. 

What happens to ibuprofen after it eases your throbbing headache? Like many pharmaceuticals, it can remain in an active form when our bodies flush it out. That’s a problem, because although wastewater treatment plants are good at reducing nutrient pollutants in water, they aren’t designed to remove pharmaceuticals and personal care products. So antibiotics, hormones, and other drugs are sent back into streams and onto crop fields.

The foundation for healthy eating behavior starts in infancy. Young children learn to regulate their appetite through a combination of biological, psychological, and sociological factors. In a new paper, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign propose a model that explores these factors and their interactions, providing guidelines for better understanding childhood appetite self-regulation.

The Global Academy, a unique international training program based in College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) has kicked off its sixteenth year.

With the goal of increasing the international impact of the participants’ professional work, the selected faculty and staff will spend the remainder of the academic year exploring the topic of sustainable development for economic and social well-being in a global context culminating in an immersion trip to Sri Lanka. 

The members of the 2024-2025 ACES Global Academy include: 

Forty years and over forty countries later, John Bowman, a 1984 plant pathology doctoral graduate from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, reflects on his worldly career. 

As the world’s native bee populations are declining, crop production requiring pollinators increasingly relies on commercial pollination services. In the U.S., the beekeeping industry is in great demand, and truckloads of bee colonies travel the country to accommodate crop growers.

Maybe you’ve seen the meme. Classic film characters up to their necks in muck, with text reading, “As a kid, I thought quicksand was going to be a much bigger problem in my life.” Quicksand was an uncannily common plot point in the 70s and 80s, but murky wetland depictions in film haven’t gone away. 

Today, the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) and The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, will recognize the achievements of two outstanding alumni at the 2024 ABE Awards reception.

The Division of Nutritional Sciences (DNS), housed within the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has established the “Dr. George C.