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A century of progress
Advances in technology and crop genetics mark 100 years of agronomy
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New fields of discovery
New and enhanced facilities will provide lab space for department research that has the potential to affect more than just agriculture. Cliff Weil, who researches genetic improvement of economic crops, is working with starch biosynthesis to help solve the nation’s obesity problem. He’s searching for a slowly digestible starch that will leave people feeling full longer and cut down the craving to eat more food. Weil is also studying plant materials that have a quickly digestible starch that releases glucose more quickly for less expensive conversion to ethanol.
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| Agronomy students learn through hands-on activities at stations in the Soils Resource Center |
Agronomists are also among the leading scientists on a Purdue nanotechnology research team. Nanotechnology is an emerging science that creates materials at the near-atomic level. Professor of Agronomy Ron Turco studies what happens to these nanoparticles when they enter the environment. In a study published earlier this year, Turco’s research team showed that the nanosized particles had no adverse effect on soil microorganisms.
“Bacteria in the soil are the basis of the food chain, so you don’t want to change them because then you affect everything up the food chain—plants, animals, people” says Turco, who is also director of the Indiana Water Resources Research Center.
"Agronomy is not just planting a seed, fertilizing it and watching it grow,” Beyrouty says. “It has morphed into something much larger. Agronomy deals with sustainable agriculture, climate change, animal feed, human health, and water, soil and air quality on both the nano and atmospheric scales. Our agronomic scientists are being sought after to answer some of the nation’s greatest challenges in agriculture and life sciences. Contact Julie Douglas
at douglakj@purdue.edu
Visit www.agry.purdue.edu/100/ for more information on the Agronomy Centennial.
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