Illinois Crop Sciences

08/25/2026

🎙️ Check out The Crop Sciences Podcast Show and listen to our own Dr. Dean Riechers discuss how herbicide resistance, w**d biology, and emerging technologies are shaping modern crop production.

In this episode, Dean explores:
• 🌱 Challenges associated with herbicide resistance
• 🛡️ Crop protection and the role of safeners
• 🤖 Robotics and electrocution technologies
• 🌾 Integrated w**d management

The conversation highlights how combining proven tools with new innovations will be essential for maintaining effective w**d control and supporting crop production in the years ahead.

🎧 Give it a listen!

What does the future of w**d management look like? In this episode of The Crop Science Podcast Show, Dr. Dean E. Riechers, Professor of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois, explores how herbicide resistance, w**d biology, and emerging technologies are influencing modern crop production. Key....

08/22/2026

And just like that, campus is buzzing again! 🧡💙

Look who’s here! Nothing says “welcome to campus” quite like a sunny day, a packed lawn, and lots of new Illini. ☀️

We were excited to welcome our newest and returning Crop Sciences students. We can’t wait to see what’s ahead. 🌱

08/19/2026

🌱 Save the Date! 🌽

Join Crop Sciences for our Harvest Open House on Saturday, September 26 at 10 a.m.!

Come celebrate the harvest season and see what Crop Sciences is all about. We’ll have activities for all ages, demonstrations, and plenty of opportunities to learn, explore, and enjoy a day on the farm. We’ll also have a bounce house and face painting, a kid favorite! 🎉

📅 Saturday, September 26
⏰ 10 a.m.
📍 4202 South 1st Street, Champaign IL

We can’t wait to see you there! 💙🧡

07/31/2026

🌱 Alumni Spotlight: Delaney Kamradt

Growing up on a small corn and soybean farm in central Illinois sparked Delaney Kamradt’s passion for agriculture but she came to Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois wanting to deepen her understanding of the science behind the farm she loved.

After graduating in December 2026, Delaney began her career with Corteva Agriscience as a Field Testing Specialist in Ivesdale, where she focuses on soybean research at the station.

During her time at Illinois, Delaney took advantage of every opportunity to grow her knowledge, network, and experience. Through internships with United Prairie, Corteva Agriscience, and BASF, she gained hands-on experience in w**d management, field research, drone spraying, and chemical studies. She also found valuable connections and mentorship through organizations like Field & Furrow, AFA, SASES, and agriculture study abroad experiences.

Delaney credits these experiences outside the classroom as some of the most impactful parts of her journey, helping her build relationships, discover career opportunities, and grow as both a researcher and an agricultural professional.

Her advice to current students? Get involved, build relationships, and seek experiences that connect you with people and perspectives beyond campus. In agriculture, relationships are at the heart of success and the connections you make today can shape your future tomorrow. 🌽💙

07/28/2026

Research in Crop Sciences doesn’t look the same for every student. One student might be soil sampling, another could be digging up corn roots, studying popcorn, growing pineapple, or using robots to advance plant research. No matter the project, our students are asking big questions, gaining hands-on experience, and helping shape the future of agriculture. We’re proud to showcase the incredible work happening in our labs, greenhouses, and fields every day. Here’s to the students whose curiosity is growing the future! 💙🧡🌱🌽🧪🔬

07/24/2026

A-maize-ing 🌽 things are happening in Crop Sciences! With that said, before you start your weekend, here’s a Friday afternoon pop quiz!

True or False: Every ear of corn has an even number of kernels. Drop your guesses below!

06/30/2026

🌱Graduate Student Spotlight: Peyton Sorensen. Peyton is a PhD candidate in Dr. Tiffany Jamann’s lab. Her work is focusing on detecting and characterizing host resistance to bacterial pathogens of maize. She focuses on understanding corn resistance to two bacterial diseases: Goss’s wilt (Clavibacter nebraskensis) and bacterial leaf streak (Xanthomonas vasicola pv. vasculorum).

In the summer, Peyton inoculates large populations with both bacterial pathogens to help with mapping resistance genes in the maize genome. She also collects leaf tissue and extracts DNA, with the help of her undergraduate technicians, to aid in determining which gene is providing resistance. During the rest of the year, she is in the greenhouse and lab running smaller experiments.

Peyton’s research focuses on understanding what genes are providing bacterial resistance to increase our knowledge of the plant immune system and ultimately lead to resistant corn that can be grown by our farmers.

06/27/2026

🌱 Sustainability Academy at Crop Sciences!

This week, we welcomed eight high school students from across Illinois for our Sustainability Academy! Students had the opportunity to connect with Crop Sciences faculty, explore current research, tour our greenhouses, and learn more about sustainability in agriculture.

Participants also discovered the unique Crop Sciences + Computer Science (CS+CPSC) major and the Sustainability, Energy, and Environment minor, gaining insight into the many ways technology and agriculture work together to address real-world challenges.

Thank you to our faculty, staff, and student ambassadors for making this a great experience, we hope to see these future Illini back on campus soon! 💙🧡

06/26/2026

Graduate Student Spotlight: Meet Vidhi Desai 🌱

Vidhi Desai is working on innovative strategies to strengthen soybean resistance against soybean cyst nematode (SCN), a pest responsible for an estimated $1.5 billion in annual yield losses.

Her research focuses on two key approaches:

🔬 Enhancing plant defense responses
Studying plant growth regulators—Actigard, Ethephon, and Methyl Jasmonate—to better understand and activate soybean defense pathways.

🧬 Reducing SCN reproduction
Exploring microinjection techniques to deliver genes and plasmids into male nematodes with the goal of inducing sterility and limiting the spread of SCN.

Together, her work aims to support more resilient soybean production and long-term pest management solutions.

06/24/2026

🌱 Graduate Student Research Spotlight: Meet Samuel Mintah, whose research is helping advance our understanding of soybean genetics and support the future of sustainable agriculture.

Samuel’s project is developing a soybean pangenome that captures the genetic diversity found in both cultivated and wild soybean lines, creating a more comprehensive resource than a single reference genome.

His work spans every stage of the research process from greenhouse plant care and seed germination to tissue sampling, harvesting, tissue grinding, and DNA/RNA extraction for sequencing. The resulting genomic data are analyzed to identify genetic variation and improve genome annotation, providing valuable insights for soybean researchers.

By expanding our understanding of soybean genetics, Samuel’s research contributes to the development of more productive, resilient, and sustainable soybean varieties for the future. 🌱🧬