As the fall semester approaches and I prepare to begin my fourth and final year at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I’ve found myself reflecting on the very beginning of my college journey. It was the summer in between junior and senior years of high school, and I was the first of my siblings to go to college, so this whole process was very foreign to me and my family.
Jack Mason, an undergraduate student in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, won a hackathon competition at Plant Biology 2024, a yearly conference held by the American Society of Plant Biologists.
Every summer, alumni of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are invited back to campus with their kids or grandkids for ACES Family Academies. The two-day event introduces kids ages 8–13 to ACES majors, programs, and research through fun interactive classes and gives them a taste of campus life with meals in dining halls and a night in the dorms.
Creating fertilizers from organic waste can help reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and promote sustainable production. One way of doing this is through hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL), which converts biomass into biocrude oil through a high-temperature, high-pressure process. Two studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explore the use of a fungal treatment to convert the leftover wastewater into fertilizer for agricultural crops.
The world is your classroom at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, College of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental Sciences. While our campus buzzes with diverse connections and innovative ideas, our education abroad programs take learning across oceans and to new heights, from mountain tops to jungles.
Urban agriculture has the potential to improve food security through local, efficient, and sustainable food production. Examples of urban food systems include hydroponics, where plants grow in a nutrient solution without soil, and aquaponics, which combines hydroponics with raising fish in tanks.
This April, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students were among 25 teams participating in the National Collegiate Soil Judging Contest hosted by Iowa State University near Ames, Iowa. The Illinois team earned first place in the team-judging category and 13th in the competition overall. The team was led by Liz Miernicki and assistant coach Scott Wiesbrook, both soil scientists at the Illinois Natural History Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute.
Students in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are often drawn to careers enhancing the well-being of animals. However, veterinary careers aren’t without stress, and mental health care is often lacking for professionals in the field.
COVID-19 vaccination rates remain low in many African countries, often because providing access to vaccines is difficult in remote areas. A new international research project showed that intervention with mobile vaccination teams in Sierra Leone is an effective way of reaching rural populations to increase vaccination uptake.
Each year, the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign honors high-achieving juniors and seniors who demonstrate leadership, academic excellence, and a commitment to the ACES mission. This year, the Hugh P. Morrison Award and Warren K. Wessels Award went to seniors Olivia Messerges and Emma Kuhns, respectively. Junior Carmen Trotta received the Robert M. Harrison Leadership Award.
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