ACE

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign each year presents Campus Awards for Excellence in Instruction to exceptional faculty and staff members, graduate teaching assistants and advisers campuswide. This year’s recipients, four of which are from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, were honored at a ceremony on April 15.

2025 ACES award recipients include:

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?

When West Virginia recently banned seven artificial food dyes in products to be sold within their borders, they joined an increasing number of individual U.S. states issuing their own regulations about food manufacturing practices, allowable ingredients, or product labeling. Consequently, food manufacturers must decide how to deal with different requirements in multiple markets.

A College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences alumna will complete her iMBA at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign later this year, and along with it an Agribusiness and Sustainable Food Production Economics Certificate. 

Livestock agriculture is bearing the cost of extreme weather events. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explores how heat stress affects U.S. dairy production, finding that high heat and humidity lead to a 1% decline in annual milk yield. Small farms are hit harder than large farms, which may be able to mitigate some of the effects through management strategies.

Yesterday, faculty from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign spoke as invited witnesses to an Illinois House Agriculture and Conservation Committee hearing on the impacts of the USDA funding freeze, tariffs, and the delayed Farm Bill on Illinois agriculture.

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.

Energy drinks are becoming an increasingly important topic in public health, nutrition and food policy, with global sales more than doubling from 2018-2023 and product selection expanding by 20% since 2021.

The world lost a humble giant on July 30, 2023. Steve Gerdes (ACE, ’77) was a man of boundless dreams and even greater determination. His deep love for farming, family, community, and life itself was evident in everything he did and continues to inspire through the legacy he leaves behind.

Steve grew up in a small farming community in Walnut, Illinois, with his younger sister, Julie, the children of loving parents, Bertie and Herbert Gerdes. He came from a large extended family anchored by German immigrant grandparents on his dad’s side. 

Globally, women’s workforce participation is about 25% lower than men’s, often due to barriers such as domestic responsibilities and cultural norms. Vocational training can increase employment opportunities, but women may not be able to attend training programs that require them to be away from home.