URBANA, IL (Chambana Today) – Two leaders from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) have received national recognition for their contributions to agricultural research and innovation.
Dean Germán Bollero was awarded the 2025 agInnovation Excellence in Leadership Award, while Professor Kaiyu Guan, director of the Agroecosystem Sustainability Center, received the Research Innovation Award of Excellence for pioneering the use of AI, satellite sensing, and supercomputing in agriculture.
Both honorees stressed the need for stable, long-term investment in agricultural science to maintain innovation pipelines critical to food security and environmental resilience.
“The strength of American agriculture — and our ability to meet future challenges — depends on robust, stable federal investment in research,” Bollero said. “These collaborations deliver measurable results — about $20 in return for every taxpayer dollar invested.”
Guan’s work in real-time crop monitoring and environmental modeling is influencing both policy and practice nationwide. The researchers will be recognized later this year at either the agInnovation Fall Meeting in Milwaukee or the APLU Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
Their awards underscore the role of the land-grant university system in addressing climate change, resource scarcity, and global food demand through research that benefits farmers, consumers, and ecosystems alike.