In 1909, the German chemist Fritz Haber sparked an agricultural revolution. Using enormous pressures and high temperatures, he had learned how to efficiently transform nitrogen, so abundant in the air, into ammonia. Artificial fertilizer was born.

An international research collaboration led by VIB-UGent Professor Wout Boerjan, and involving the U.S. Department of Energy Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, has opened up new possibilities for stably fine-tuning the amount of lignin in poplar by applying CRISPR/Cas9 technology.

Recently converted farmlands aren’t as productive as traditional food cropping systems, but cultivating bioenergy feedstocks could provide alternative revenue sources for farmers, reduced competition with food production, and better maintenance of water quality due to soil fixation by root systems.

University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers are leading an extensive research effort that aims to enable innovative propulsion technologies for U.S. Army unmanned aircraft systems.

MADISON — A national research initiative announced today will place the University of Wisconsin–Madison at the forefront of a revolution in imaging fostered by cryo-electron microscopy and cryo-electron tomography — technologies that can illuminate life at the atomic scale.

Keegstra Fellow Kyle Kinney is working with Jason Peters and Tim Donohue to develop genetic and synthetic biology tools for several bioenergy-relevant bacteria.

The goal of replacing petroleum-based chemicals and fuels with plant-based products hinges on using as much of the plant matter as possible to keep costs and waste to a minimum.