Stephen Long, a professor of plant biology, will deliver the lecture “Feeding and Fueling the World from Crops: Will it be possible by 2050?” at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Knight Auditorium in Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana.
The lecture is a featured event each fall for the Center for Advanced Study. The center chooses one of its permanent faculty members to deliver the annual lecture. The lecture is an opportunity for those on campus and those in the community to learn more about the research of distinguished scholars in a presentation targeted to a general audience rather than a specialist in that field, said Tamer Basar, director of the Center for Advanced Study.
Long will talk about the increasing demand for major crops for food and fuel. While approaches to increase yields have nearly reached their limits, Long suggests bioengineering and more innovative use of land resources can help solve the anticipated shortfall in food, feed and biofuel supply.
The Center for Advanced Study is unique in that it recognizes excellence among faculty members across all disciplines on campus, Basar said. Since the center was established in 1959, it has designated 82 professors as permanent members. Each year, it also chooses about two dozen faculty members for its associates and fellows program, which provides a semester of release time for research and work on projects.
