Our Four Grand Challenges

Plants, their ecosystems, the soils in which they grow, and their associated microbes are foundational to our health and the health of our planet. In the face of a changing climate and growing pressure on natural and agricultural ecosystems, our research, teaching and outreach address these critical Grand Challenges.

Sustainable crop production and food security

Safeguarding future food security for all with sustainably managed nutritious crops in diverse production systems, under a changing climate, with minimal loss to weeds and pathogens.

Plants and ecosystem health

Integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation to secure ecosystem and human health and foster climate justice in diverse environments.

Biodiversity, evolution, and molecular mechanisms

Understanding plant processes from molecular to ecosystem levels, and harnessing fundamental knowledge of plants, their associated microbes, and their relationships with the environment.

Urban plants and ecosystem services

Enhancing food access and ecosystem services for equitable human and ecosystem health in high population areas.

tissue culture plants
measuring chlorophyll
field day

School of Integrative Plant Science News

Learn how our research in plant and soil sciences is advancing our knowledge and securing food security and environmental sustainability. Stories from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences newsroom.

Illustration of three piles of manure with a photo of a gardener with soil in their hands

News

Animal and human waste could slash synthetic fertilizer use in US

Waste could fulfill 102% of nitrogen and 50% of phosphorus needs for the nation’s agriculture, and significant amounts could be distributed locally and sustainably.

  • Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment
  • Global Development Section
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
Mariel Pfeifer landscape

Spotlight

Academic focus: Biology education research/discipline-based science education research Research summary: My lab is called the EQUIP lab, and we study how STEM environments can better support all students and faculty. A major focus of our work is...
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Horticulture
Hannah McMillan Landscape

Spotlight

Academic focus: Plant-microbiome-environment interactions Research summary: Plants interact simultaneously with microbes and their abiotic environment, but molecular studies often focus only on interactions with one or the other. My research...
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section
  • Plants

Land Acknowledgment

Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ people, past and present, to these lands and waters.

This land acknowledgment has been reviewed and approved by the traditional Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ leadership. Learn more from the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program website.