U of I researcher honored for his work in making crops more resilient
Stephen Long, the Ikenberry Endowed Chair Emeritus of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences at the U of I, was named a 2025 Top Agri-food Pioneer (TAP) by the World Food Prize Foundation. 39 innovators around the world were chosen, representing 27 countries. Each of the nominees worked to transform food systems, and work in fields related to food or agriculture.
U of I team creates global warming resilient potatoes
Long's research showed that by engineering crops to improve photosynthesis, it leads to better productivity. His work offered solutions to make crops more resilient in the face of climate change. He also led Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project, from 2012 to earlier in 2025.
'The world is running out of food relative to the number of people, and every year more people are starving according to the United Nations' definition,' Long told the College of Agricultural, Consumer & Environmental Sciences. 'Improving photosynthesis is one way to boost the food supply, and it has two main advantages. First, it will enable us to produce more per acre of land. Second, the process is fairly similar across crops. So if you can find a way of improving it in one, you can probably do it in all of them.'
Long said over time, his work has shown that making crops more resilient is possible.
Central Illinois family farms picking, selling corn until sold out
'I've been studying photosynthesis in crops for 50 years, and people used to believe that you can't improve it, or nature would have already done it,' he said. 'We've been able to show that is not the case; our crops probably only achieve about a third of the theoretical efficiency of photosynthesis. This suggests there's quite a lot of room for improvement, and now some of that improvement is being made.'
Long also said that after looking back, one of the things he is most proud of is the time he spent mentoring young researchers who are now carrying on the work.
The 2025 TAP trailblazers will be recognized at the Borlaug Dialogue in Des Moines, Iowa, in October.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
12 minutes ago
- Fox News
Mysterious rare purple shell washes up on shores of beach after long absence
A student was enjoying a sunset stroll on a beach in La Jolla, California, when she came across something very rare. Anya Stajner, a Ph.D. student at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, spotted a tiny, bright purple shell — and recognized its significance. Stajner identified the rare species of pelagic sea snail also known as Janthina. A Scripps Institution of Oceanography spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "These marine snails are known for their vibrant purple shells and their ability to float at the ocean's surface using their natural 'bubble raft.'" The spokesperson added, "Janthina are typically found in subtropical to tropical seas, and their stranding along the Southern California coast is often linked to warmer offshore waters flowing toward the shore." The snail shells have angled whorls and slightly extended apex, according to the World Register of Marine Species. Janthina protect themselves with a "camouflage strategy" known as countershading. They point their front side to the sky while floating, appearing in a darker color to blend in, according to the Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine (TSFM). "They're darker on the top so that a sea bird flying above that might want to eat the Janthina couldn't see it, and they're a lighter purple below so that a fish looking up from below might have a harder time spotting," said Stajner, according to FOX 5. The snails can reach about 1.5 inches in height and, while safe to pick up, they can secrete a purple ink that can leave a stain. La Jolla resident Brooks Whitney had never heard of Janthina, according to FOX 5. "I've heard of them … I've seen them either on the news or social media. It is cool, but it also makes me wonder why they're showing up," Whitney told FOX 5. Stajner believes the snails are washing up on shore due to a patch of warmer water offshore that's made its way into the cove, having not been spotted on San Diego beaches since 2015. "Which is when we had both an El Niño event and a warm blob of water that sort of combined, and it was this massive marine heat wave," said Stajner.
CBS News
12 minutes ago
- CBS News
New technology could help pilots avoid spatial disorientation, improving flight safety. Here's how.
The Federal Aviation Administration says pilot disorientation causes 5% to 10% of all general aviation accidents, and there could be new technology to help make flying safer. "Spatial disorientation is a big deal in aviation and it's basically where the pilot cannot determine which way is up or down or whether the airplane is banking to the left or to the right," former NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt, who is a CBS News transportation safety expert and analyst, explained. Now, a team at the University of Maryland is working on a flight suit that could help pilots avoid disorientation by using vibrations. "It happens when you fly into clouds or bad weather, but especially for helicopters, you can fly at zero speed. Just going up and down, it's easy to get disoriented," said Anubhav Datta. A helicopter pilot and University of Maryland professor, Datta is focused on helicopter design and dynamics. He's helping to test potential life-saving technology being developed at the University of Maryland that could one day be part of a flight suit or built into a pilot's seat. It would be similar to lane departure technology in some cars, using haptic vibration to tell a pilot how to respond if they are showing signs of disorientation. "The pilots typically fly through two primary sensor cues, which are vision and equilibrium," said professor Umberto Saetti, who is leading the research effort. "Basically, the suit provides another sensory cue to try and deconflict the conflicts that may arise from reading their instruments and whatever the pilot is feeling." The research team aims to eventually conduct actual flight tests using sensations they hope will help pilots feel their way towards safer skies. The FAA says that 90% of the aviation accidents caused by pilot disorientation are fatal. Investigators believe pilot disorientation was a factor in the 1999 small plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr. In February 2021, federal officials said the pilot of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others in 2020 was disoriented while flying through thick clouds. The NTSB also said pilot Ara Zobayan ignored his training and violated federal regulations during the flight.
Forbes
12 minutes ago
- Forbes
6 Black Women Astronauts In Space, 5 Fortune 500 CEOs On Earth (Pt. 1)
African American astronaut Mae Jemison, left, smiles as suit technician Sharon McDougle performs an ... More unpressurized and pressurized leak check on her spacesuit prior to the STS-47 Spacelab-J mission on the shuttle Endeavour, at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, September 12, 1992. (Photo by NASA/) The underrepresentation of Black women in leadership roles within corporate America is stark, as highlighted by the surprising statistic that more Black American women have traveled to space as astronauts than have led a Fortune 500 company here on Earth. That is not a misprint. This fact highlights the broader challenge of the underrepresentation of Black females in many aspects of American work life. However, research suggests that while most Americans support equity goals, they may overlook that organizations have made little tangible progress on the issue. This article is the first in a three-part series that will document and analyze the issue, concluding with the third article, which will offer some solutions. The Underrepresentation Of Black Women Fortune 500 CEOs Recently, the media reported that tech billionaire Marc Andreessen, in a WhatsApp chat, said, 'Discrimination was now aimed at us,' apparently referring to the Black Lives Matter advocacy that arose after George Floyd's murder in May 2020. Mr. Andreessen also reportedly said, 'My people are furious and not going to take it anymore.' The main idea he seemed to be communicating was that people who look like him were being victimized, losing out in a zero-sum calculus, by 'DEI and immigration.' Mr. Andreessen's comments, while focused on college admissions and access to tech careers, framed the creation of opportunities for others as both a general threat and a personal threat to him. In doing so, he negated the needs of those who have never had the opportunities that he, and many of those for whom he advocates, already have. Losing something differs from never having had it in the first place. Such objections overlook the historical context of systemic disadvantage and significant underrepresentation faced by Black Americans, particularly Black women, in various sectors of American society. Disparities, rooted in the country's history of Black enslavement, persist in economics, healthcare, political representation, and psychological hurt. Disparities persist even when we narrow our focus to the workplace, and particularly if we focus on leadership roles. Data from 2023 from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that Black workers comprise about 13% of the workforce but hold only 3.3% of executive-level jobs. According to McKinsey, 'At the managerial level, the Black share of the workforce declines to 7 percent. Across the senior manager, VP, and SVP levels, Black representation holds steady at 4 to 5 percent.' Black women, who account for about 7.5% of the workforce, have less than 2% of C-suite roles. And, there are only two Black women on the most recent version of the Fortune 500 CEO list, published in June 2025. 5 Black women Have Made It to the Fortune 500 CEO Role The Fortune 500 ranks U.S. companies by revenue, and leadership roles in these organizations have a significant impact. Since Fortune began compiling the list in 1955, corporate boards have chosen fewer than 30 Black Americans to serve as the permanent CEOs of Fortune 500. In 70 years of the list's existence, only five of the chosen CEOs have been Black women. Table with data about the 5 Black women who have held Fortune 500 CEO roles This disparity serves as a signal of under-representation and highlights the link between diversity in leadership roles and overall organizational diversity, as McKinsey reports. A diverse executive leadership team is more likely to build a diverse workforce. 6 Black Women Have Made It To Outer Space As Astronauts Meanwhile, in an equally elite field, space exploration, Black women have found opportunities sooner. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected only about 360 astronaut candidates since its first class of astronauts in 1959. As of this writing, the active astronaut corps is fewer than 50 people. Given the small number of openings, the high degree of specialized skills required, and the physical risks that accompany these jobs, very few people get to be called an 'astronaut.' However, NASA has selected a higher proportion of Black women astronauts; in comparison, a smaller proportion have been chosen as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Moreover, the first Black woman astronaut, Mae Jemison, went to outer space in 1992. It would be another 17 years before the first Black woman, Ursula Burns, became the CEO of Xerox, a Fortune 500 company, in 2009. A table with data about the 6 Black women astronauts who have gone to outer spaceNote that the Black Americans Gayle King and Aisha Bowe, who were part of the recent Blue Origin private space flight, are part of a new category designated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as 'spaceflight participants or civilian space travelers,' not as 'astronauts.' Black women in corporate America have more ambition, equal qualifications, and, in some cases, outperform their peers; yet they remain underrepresented in top leadership jobs in Fortune 500 companies. While this statement may seem startling, it underscores a broader challenge: understanding the underlying causes of these disparities. The next article in the series, Part 2, will provide the evidence supporting that statement by examining the specific challenges and systemic decisions that contribute to the limited number of Black women reaching the top of corporate America.
