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Science-based innovation for a changing world

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.

Learn more about sustainable crop production and food security

Plants and ecosystem health

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

Learn more about plants and ecosystem health

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.

Learn more about biodiversity, evolution, and molecular mechanisms

Urban plants and ecosystem services

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

Learn more about urban plants and ecosystem services

Make a difference! Study plant and agricultural sciences at Cornell.

Learn more about undergraduate majors in the School of Integrative Plant Science:

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tissue culture plants
Research areas in SIPS
measuring chlorophyll
Graduate studies in SIPS
field day
SIPS extension & outreach

School of Integrative Plant Science sections

You belong here

Cultivating an inclusive community

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.

Louis Longchamps speaking to a group of people at a farm

News

Louis Longchamps’ lab brings scientific tools to farmer-led experimentation
Growers routinely conduct their own on-farm experiments, testing different seeds and management strategies to improve yields and long-term sustainability. But most growers don’t have the time, resources or expertise that scientists have to fully...
  • Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Soil and Crop Sciences Section
NSF logo

News

Thirteen early-career professors win NSF development awards

Researchers studying ribosomes, AI and quantum computing are among 13 early-career professors from Cornell who’ve recently been awarded National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Awards.

  • Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
  • Microbiology
  • School of Integrative Plant Science
Hand watering a small sprout in the ground

News

Soil carbon effectively measured by new, efficient AI model

A new model offers a proof-of-principle for how AI might be used to shed light on obscure biological processes.

  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Soil and Crop Sciences Section
  • Climate Change

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.