Biosketch

Steve Long FRS holds the Ikenberry Chair of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences, University of Illinois and is also Distinguished Professor of Crop Sciences at Lancaster University, UK. He is Director of the multinational Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) Project. He is Founding and Cheif Editor of the journals Global Change Biology, GCB Bioenergy, and in silico Plants. He has been listed by Thomson-Reuters/Clarivate as one of the most highly cited authors on Plant & Animal Biology in every year since 2006 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2013.

Research Interests

Bioengineering of photosynthesis in silico and in vivo toward gaining sustainable increases in crop yield potential and adaptation to global change. His mathematically guided engineering of photosynthesis led in November 2016 to a demonstrated on farm 20% increase in crop productivity. Last year his lab also demonstrated the first single gene manipulation that resulted in a 15% increase in crop water use efficiency in the field.

Membership Type

Member

Election Year

2019

Primary Section

Section 25: Plant Biology

Secondary Section

Section 63: Environmental Sciences and Ecology