ASC Hosts Symposium on Agricultural Decarbonization - Agroecosystem Sustainability Center

Dignitaries at the ARPA-E Symposium included Mikaela Algren, Lead Engineer in Systems Analysis and Quantitative Sustainability with Booz Allen Hamilton; John Reid, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Agriculture, Professor of Computer Science and Agricultural Biological Engineering; Wendy Yang, ASC Associate Director and Professor of Plant Biology; Steven Singer, Program Director at ARPA-E; Kaiyu Guan, ASC Director and Professor of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences; Calden Stimpson, Project Coordinator for ARPA-E; and Andrew Leakey, Director of CABBI and Michael Aiken Chair Professor of Plant Biology (Photo credit: Mike Koon)

The University of Illinois and the Agroecosystem Sustainability Center at Illinois are in the forefront of studying agriculture’s effect on the environment. To that end, ASC hosted “A Symposium on Agricultural Decarbonization” on Wednesday, September 18 on the Illinois campus.

The event coincided with a 1.5-day visit by Steven Singer, the Program Director at ARPA-E (The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy). Singer gave an overview on the program’s vision, which intersects with many of the initiatives spearheaded by ASC. Among those is the SMARTFARM program, which measures N₂O and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. ASC and the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment was selected as one of the SMARTFARM sites last year.

**Steven Singer (*left) and Andrew Leakey (right) shared insights as invited speakers at the inaugural Decarbonization Symposium (photos by Mike Koon)***

“I really enjoyed coming to Illinois and hearing about the transformative research occurring in agriculture,” said Singer. “The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a leader in thinking about growing bioenergy crops sustainably, a critical aspect of developing a US bioeconomy.”

ASC Director Kaiyu Guan served as the MC for the event and spoke on “Frontier of agricultural carbon accounting technology.” He pointed to how he and his colleagues have developed a “system of systems” approach and how modeling, cross-scale sensors, and artificial intelligence are instrumental in generating accurate and scalable quantification of GHG and soil carbon change from the field to the national scales.

ASC Associate Director Wendy Yang presented insights on her research on N₂O GHG emission and later moderated a panel featuring many of the speakers. John Reid, newly minted Executive Director of the Center for Digital Agriculture at Illinois, presented remarks on “Circular Bioeconomy.” Andrew Leakey, Director of Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) and Chair Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences, explained how the campus’ biggest research centerCABBI is leading the way in that space.

“We are thrilled to have Dr. Singer of ARPA-E visit Illinois, and we are thankful for all the support from ARPA-E,” said Guan. “Decarbonizing agricultural production to ensure both high productivity and environmental sustainability is an urgent and essential task that requires huge devotion and efforts. We at Illinois aim to lead this effort and welcome all the collaborations worldwide to join us. We expect this agricultural decarbonization symposium will recur in the coming years and aim to make this as a major event to showcase Illinois’s achievements in this space.”