Dramatic advances in plant-based agriculture are crucial in order to sustainably feed the more than 9 billion people projected to inhabit our planet by 2050. We will need higher-yielding plants that are more nutritious, use water and nutrients more efficiently, and can tolerate variation in the environment. Plant science research today involves many disciplines to develop the tools and processes that will produce these new, more functional crop varieties.
The Institute for Plant Sciences brings together multidisciplinary research and education to move discoveries from the bench to application and commercialization. Our mission is to be a global leader in delivering innovation, technology, and the human capacity necessary to help farming operations of all sizes produce food, fuel, and fiber more efficiently. With more than $40 million invested in the plant sciences initiative since fall of 2013, we are equipped to deliver innovative, forward-looking approaches to crop production to enhance sustainability and improve crop productivity, keeping farmers competitive in the global market.
The Institute for Plant Sciences is a component of Purdue Moves, a series of university initiatives announced by President Mitch Daniels in 2013 to broaden Purdue’s global impact and enhance educational opportunities for its students.
Lead the world in understanding plant biology.
Translate our discoveries to commercially important crops, using automation to assess the crops’ performance under field conditions and moving these improved plants or plant products through a pipeline for commercialization.
Hiring 10 new faculty in basic plant biology to strengthen basic research.
Develop automated field and controlled environment phenotyping facilities. These will position Purdue as a leader in phenotyping using state-of-the-art imaging.
Establish an Internet of Things (IoT) test bed for digital agriculture.
Create a plant commercialization incubator to enhance the value of intellectual property and make Purdue industry’s preferred partner.
Enhance student training by upgrading laboratory facilities and investing in high school and undergraduate students’ research.
Develop student leaders in the plant sciences.
Generated more than $40 million in new grants and gifts on top of Purdue’s original investment of more than $20 million in plant sciences. These have strengthened plant research programs at the University and our ability to deploy discoveries for global impact.
Strengthened the university’s research capacity in plant sciences through the Center for Plant Biology.
Community of 36 faculty members provides a broad base of resources and research in basic plant biology and a dynamic training environment for graduate students.
Faculty members receive a discounted rate when using designated core facilities, have access to internal peer-reviewed funding mechanisms and offer graduate student assistantships.
Welcomed 10 new faculty since 2016 with research foci ranging from ecology to reproductive cell biology.
IoT test bed at the Agronomy Center for Research and Education (ACRE), enabling wireless access across the 1,400-acre farm. Testing of various sensors and signal strength is ongoing with remote towers in the field and real-time measurements of greenhouse gas emissions.
Has welcomed more than 4,000 visitors and hosted more than 40 research teams from the colleges of Agriculture, Engineering, Science and Liberal Arts, and the Purdue Polytechnic Institute.
Is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment: approximately 30 unmanned aerial vehicles, with 12 pilots to fly the UAVs; a phenorover; specialized imaging equipment, including Lidar, thermal, hyper- and multispectral cameras; and RGB imaging. Data is transmitted to campus via fiber optic cable.
Controlled Environment Phenotyping Facility (spring 2018): This center allows the characterization of plants using various imaging technologies under highly uniform growth conditions for precise control and replication of experimental variables that cannot be easily controlled in the field. Researchers are able to study a range of environmental and atmospheric conditions, watering, plant nutrition and soils, all while testing additional variables such as the effects of chemical application.
In 2019, researchers will nondestructively image roots as a result of a $900,000 gift from Ag Alumni Seed, which allowed us to purchase and install a root CT scanner to complement existing imaging systems. This enables imaging all the way from the roots through full-height corn.
18 Extension educators are flying unmanned aerial vehicles around the state to gather data on individual farms to begin making actionable decisions and develop test cases for further training.
Launched Ag-Celerator in December 2015, a $2 million fund to help launch startups and innovations focused on advancing crop traits and higher yields. It supports Purdue innovators who wish to commercialize patented intellectual property or Purdue know-how technologies in plant sciences.
More than 56 projects have moved through Ag-Celerator.
Fifteen new startups have been selected for funding.
The Molecular Agriculture Summer Institute (MASI) began in 2014 to expose high school students and undergraduates to plant sciences and molecular agriculture research. This popular program attracts pre-college students into STEM, promotes undergraduate research in plant biology, stimulates student and faculty collaboration, and trains students for high-tech science careers. Since its inception, 51 undergraduates and 69 pre-college students have completed their respective MASI programs.
Beck’s Molecular Genetics Teaching Lab in Lilly Hall is a student-centered learning facility renovated in fall 2015 that accommodates twice the number of students in genetics laboratory courses each semester. A similar lab was also built in the Biochemistry Building.
In May 2017, Purdue kicked off an 11-week paid internship called ASPIRE (Ag Soy Product Innovation Realization & Entrepreneurship) for student innovators to conduct research, participate in customer delivery activities and advance their innovation toward commercialization.