CPSC

When Chris Mujjabi found an envelope marked ‘Kitale Synthetic’ in a cold storage room at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the corn breeder knew he had stumbled on something special. He had gone looking for exotic germplasm that could improve yield or weed tolerance in his latest organic hybrids, but instead he found a connection to his past and his community.

Darin Joos, Crop Sciences Research Agronomist, has been named a 2025 Chancellor’s Staff Excellence Award recipient.

Joos began his Illinois career in 1994 as a graduate student and went on to lead the state’s crop variety testing program, which evaluated commercial varieties of corn, wheat, and soybean at 14 sites across Illinois. After nearly three decades in that role, he now manages the Crop Sciences Research and Education Center farms in Champaign.

The College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign announced a gift from Bayer’s Crop Science division to support the revitalization of the Morrow Plots, the oldest experimental agricultural fields in North America. Established in 1876, the plots have become a national symbol of agricultural innovation and remain a National Historic Landmark.

Genes are the building blocks of life, and the genetic code provides the instructions for the complex processes that make organisms function. But how and why did it come to be the way it is? A recent study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign sheds new light on the origin and evolution of the genetic code, providing valuable insights for genetic engineering and bioinformatics.

Looking for a family-friendly event this weekend? Check out the fourth annual Crop Sciences Harvest Open House from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Crop Sciences Research and Education Center south of campus.  

In a decisive new study, crop scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and USDA’s Agricultural Research Service show that soybeans are doubly damaged by drought and ozone pollution, both of which are increasing across the globe due to climate change.  

A few months ago, Greta Hall traveled from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to South Dakota State University and found herself listening to a lecture about SDSU’s invention of cookies and cream ice cream.

Matthew Vann has been named the new associate dean and director of University of Illinois Extension, the flagship public engagement organization housed in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the state’s land-grant university.

Tile drainage is a common practice used in agricultural fields to remove excess water, but it also transports harmful nutrients into water bodies, contributing to algal blooms that deprive aquatic life of oxygen. Woodchip bioreactors are an efficient way to reduce nitrogen pollution by treating the water as it exits the field. However, these denitrifying bioreactors may leach phosphorus from the woodchips into the environment.

Small grains researcher Juan David Arbelaez-Velez knows the secret to making perfect rice — and it’s not about how you cook it. Arbelaez and his team are investigating the genetic blueprint that determines different grain attributes such as appearance, cooking time, and texture. Their paper, published in The Plant Genome, offers a strategy that will help breeders improve grain quality holistically, while cutting costs and saving time.