Stephen P. Long, the Center for Advanced Study Professor of Plant Biology will deliver the 25th Annual CAS Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27 in the Knight Auditorium at Spurlock Museum. Long’s topic is “Feeding and Fueling the World from Crops: Will it be Possible by 2050?”
The center describes the talk as addressing the increasing demand for crops as the world looks to plants for energy as well as food and feed. The demand for major crops is expected to rise 70 percent by 2050. Scientists are looking to bioengineering to solve the anticipated shortfall in food, feed and biofuel supply.
Long, the Gutgsell Endowed Professor of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology and a faculty member in the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, leads a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded project called Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency, which is working to improve photosynthesis and boost yields of major food crops. He also is the director of the project Plants Engineered to Replace Oil in Sugarcane and Sweet Sorghum, funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy within the U.S. Department of Energy. He is editor-in-chief of the journals Global Change Biology and GCB: Bioenergy.
