iSEE Helps U of I Researchers Attract $20.5M in External Funding this Fall!

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The Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) has helped facilitate funding to enable geospatial data-driven scientific discovery at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the resulting research will lead to better understanding of the risks and impacts of climate change and disasters.

The $15 million Institute for Geospatial Understanding through an Integrative Discovery Environment (I-GUIDE) will receive the funding over five years as part of the National Science Foundation’s Harnessing the Data Revolution, which establishes five institutes across the United States to explore questions at the frontiers of science and engineering.

WANG

“The goal of I-GUIDE is to revolutionize theories, concepts, methods, and tools focused on data-intensive geospatial understanding for driving innovative cyberGIS and cyberinfrastructure capabilities to address the most pressing resilience and sustainability challenges of our world, such as biodiversity, food security, and water security,” said Shaowen Wang, Head of the Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science and Founding Director of the CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies (CyberGIS Center), who will lead the institute.

Collaborating scientists and institutions from around the country that are part of I-GUIDE will work with the CyberGIS Center in partnership with iSEE and the U of I System’s Discovery Partners Institute.

I-GUIDE aims to drive transformative advances across many fields — from computer, data, and information sciences to atmospheric sciences, ecology, economics, environmental science and engineering, human-environment and geographical sciences, hydrology and water sciences, industrial engineering, sociology, and statistics. The new institute will bring together about 40 researchers from U of I, Columbia University, Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc., Florida International University, Michigan State University, Open Geospatial Consortium, Purdue University, University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Utah State University, and a variety of other partners.

Said Wang: “I-GUIDE nurtures a diverse and inclusive geospatial discovery community across many disciplines by bridging disciplinary digital data divides with broader impacts amplified through a well-trained and diverse workforce and proactive engagement of minority and underrepresented groups.“

I-GUIDE fits within three of iSEE’s research thrusts: Climate Solutions, Water & Land Stewardship, and Sustainable Infrastructure. Read more about iSEE-affiliated centers >>>

Read the full news release announcing I-GUIDE by David Evenson, Lead Editorial Specialist, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences >>>

 

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Other iSEE funding news from Fall 2021

  • $2.1M in additional five-year funding from the Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation for U of I researchers, led by Evan DeLucia (Emeritus Professor of Plant Biology), Carl Bernacchi (U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service), and new co-PI Lisa Ainsworth (USDA ARS) to extend the campus’s enhanced weathering experiments using basalt rock on farm fields.
  • A $1M, two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to bolster an iSEE 2020 seed-funded project to turn ash into energy. The Rapid AI-based Dissection of Ashes using Raman and XRF Spectroscopy (RADAR-X) Project, led by Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) Assistant Professor Nishant Garg, will develop rapid, real-time analysis of the ashes — then explore numerous composition-dependent end uses.
  • One of iSEE’s original 2018 Campus as a Living Laboratory projects received nearly $1M from DOE and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Led by Agricultural & Biological Engineering Professor Yuanhui Zhang, the Environment-Enhancing Food, Energy, and Water Systems project is testing a livestock waste processing system that can deliver renewable energy as well as clean water and some bonus organic ag fertilizers.
  • Another 2020 iSEE seed-funded project led by Blue Waters and Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences (NRES) Associate Professor Kaiyu Guan to monitor crop nitrogen status was granted $1M from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR).
  • A $518,000 subaward for NRES Professor Jeffrey Brawn and CEE Associate Professor Jeremy Guest from the U.S. Geological Survey for the University of Minnesota-led Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC) consortium. The eight partner institutions will advance scientific research and education in response to climate change impacts in the Midwest.

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  • Eventually change total in headline, change pub date, and update and reorder with AGRIVOLTAICS ($10M), Margenot-Heaton USDA NIFA subaward ($1.7M), Margenot NSF grant ($2.5M), plus Guan Alder energy grant (tiny).

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U of I Part of Midwest Climate Center

Last week, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) finalized an agreement with the University of Minnesota and seven partner organizations — including the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — to form a new Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC). The center will advance scientific research and education in response to climate change impacts in the Midwest.

The Midwest CASC consortium will be hosted at Minnesota and will include the U of I, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the College of Menominee Nation, the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, Michigan State University, Indiana University, and The Nature Conservancy. Member organizations were selected to the newest of nine regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers after an open competition and extensive review by scientific experts.

GUEST
BRAWN

The U of I team, funded at $518,000 over five years, is led by Jeffrey Brawn, Levenick Endowed Chair of Sustainability and Professor of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences, and Jeremy Guest, Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and iSEE Associate Director for Research.

“Our membership in the Midwest CASC consortium opens up a host of collaborative and funding opportunities for researchers campuswide,” Brawn said. “It establishes exciting new partnerships that greatly enhance the U of I’s capacity in a diverse suite of topics in sustainability and climate science.”

Together, the Midwest CASC consortium organizations will work closely with USGS and other federal, state, and tribal entities in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to support management and protection of land, water, and natural resources with actionable climate science, innovation, and decision support tools.

The Midwest CASC will focus on pursuing adaptation — from understanding key vulnerabilities to climate change, to designing adaptation actions in ecologically and culturally appropriate ways. A key aspect of the innovation will include monitoring approaches to review and update actions. To this end, the CASC will fund individual research projects and work collaboratively across the consortium on key issues in the region that also involve adaptation practitioners.

Read the full USGS release >>>

The DOI release >>>

Sam Sun: Gathering Smarter Cropland Data

Xiangmin Sun

Xiangmin “Sam” Sun is a postdoc focusing on field observation of greenhouse gas fluxes for biofuel crops, and has interests in eco-hydrology and data sciences in general.

Sun graduated from Lanzhou University in China with a bachelor’s degree in Hydrology. He then earned his master’s degree in Environmental Engineering at the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011. In 2013, he moved to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in Ecosystem Science and Management at Texas A&M University. And in April 2020, he joined iSEE’s SMARTFARM project as a postdoctoral researcher, focusing on ecosystem-level gas flux measurements using eddy covariance systems.

SMARTFARM is a two-phase project that aims to develop a precise system for measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from commercial bioenergy crops grown in central Illinois. Phase I began in April 2020 and consisted of installing flux and plant sensors and other equipment at maize and soybean field sites peppered throughout Central Illinois and subsequently collecting data on GHG emissions in relation to crop production and management practices. Phase II recently began; it will focus on data processing and sharing, remote sensing, and ecosystem modeling.

Sun describes his role in the SMARTFARM project as an “in situ (on site) quantification of GHG over biofuel croplands.” The overarching goal of the project is to measure GHG emissions from agricultural lands and make the comprehensive emissions data publicly accessible and user-friendly. It will endow farmers with the knowledge to cultivate crops in the most sustainable way possible — and policymakers with the foundation to incentivize “smart” biofuel crop systems.

As climate patterns become increasingly extreme and unpredictable, the agricultural sector must adapt to many changes in the coming years. SMARTFARM is essential to help farmers and policymakers make well-informed decisions on how to cultivate healthy, resilient agricultural lands that do not exacerbate climate change.

SMARTFARM equipment out in the field. Credit: Xiangmin Sun.

As a member of the SMARTFARM project, Sun installs and maintains much of the team’s in situ equipment. One machine Sun curates is the eddy covariance system. This system observes carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, air temperature, solar radiation, and soil moisture. It can be found at all of SMARTFARM’s field sites.

Sun grew up in the Loess Plateau near the Gobi Desert in western China, where water is scarce and drought is common. He learned by early childhood that freshwater is an invaluable resource for farmlands, society, and all life. Therefore, its use must be efficient and sustainable. This line of thought grew into his strong interest in ecohydrology and environmental research.

Sun chose to move to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for both its prestige in agricultural studies and its thriving Chinese community.

“I have a really good support system here: I can go to Chinese restaurants and sing karaoke with friends,” Sun said. “(Illinois) has famous research programs and really good social support for Asian students.”

Sun attributes his drive to his supervisor, SMARTFARM Co-PI Carl Bernacchi, a Plant Physiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Carl has been a very good teacher to me,” Sun said. “He has helped me develop a comprehensive and accessible design protocol. He taught me that thoughtful designs are essential to smooth, successful fieldwork.”

In his free time, Sun enjoys cooking and reading about history. He usually jogs for an hour every afternoon. Sun is also an unsung volleyball star, and he boasts a bronze medal from his undergraduate years!

After his time with the SMARTFARM project ends, he hopes to become an expert in his field and contribute to the conservation of fragile dryland ecosystems, like his hometown.

“I don’t have a clear long-term plan, to be honest. But I know I can contribute to society, thanks to my studies. I want to continue my research and answer important questions about water resource problems and ecosystem problems,” Sun said. “I hope to become an expert in ecohydrology. Then, I think I will go back to my home country. I am excited about opportunities to develop ecological civilization in China.”

— Article by iSEE Communications Intern Maria Maring

Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment
350 National Soybean Research Center
1101 W. Peabody
Urbana, IL 61801
217-333-4178
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