March 27, 2019
Mitigation of ozone pollution in crops to be featured in Elmer G. Heyne Crop Science Lecture
Lisa Ainsworth, USDA-ARS scientist in the Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit and adjunct professor of plant biology at the University of Illinois, will present the 35th Elmer G. Heyne Crop Science Lecture at 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 2, in 1018 Throckmorton Hall on the campus of Kansas State University.
Ainsworth will present "Building Understanding to Mitigate the Damage of Ozone Pollution in Crops." Refreshments will be served at 3:30 p.m. in the first-floor lobby of Throckmorton Hall. The lecture is open to the campus community and public.
Ainsworth earned a doctorate in crop sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a bachelor's degree in biology from UCLA.
Ainsworth's research aims to improve ozone tolerance in major crops, as well as to adapt crops to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. She is lead investigator for the SoyFACE Global Change Research Facility. She is a leader in utilizing functional genomic and metabolomic approaches to understand mechanisms of response to global climate change, and she uses quantitative genetic approaches to dissect plant responses to these changes.
Ainsworth was awarded the Crop Science Society of America 2018 Presidential Award and the 2019 National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agriculture for research and outreach.