Principal Investigator

Lisa Ainsworth is the Charles Adlai Ewing Chair of Crop Physiology in the Department of Crop Sciences and the Department of Plant Biology. She received her BS in Biology at UCLA, PhD in Crop Sciences from the University of Illinois, and was an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Germany. Before joining the University of Illinois faculty in October 2024, Lisa was the Research Leader for the USDA Agricultural Research Service Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit. Her research addresses crop responses to climate change and tests potential solutions for mitigation of climate change through agriculture. Lisa has held leadership positions in the American Society of Plant Biologists and the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. She is a fellow of AAAS, received the National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agricultural Sciences in 2019, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2020.

Contact: ainswort@illinois.edu