Keynote Speaker

Dr. Fred E. Below

Professor of Crop Physiology in the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois.

Dr. Fred E. Below is a Professor of Crop Physiology in the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois. He received his B.S, M.S, and Ph.D. degrees in Agronomy all from the University of Illinois, and he has been in his current position since 1985. His research is focused on understanding factors limiting crop productivity, particularly corn and soybean. He is author or coauthor on more than 90 peer-reviewed manuscripts, numerous abstracts, book and proceedings chapters, and he has trained more than 60 graduate and postdoctoral students. He has taught introductory crops courses to undergraduates, as well as advanced courses to graduate students, and given numerous presentations at international and national conferences, and at local meetings. He has received numerous awards for his teaching excellence and he is a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy. He developed the ‘Seven Wonders of The Corn Yield World’ and the ‘Six Secrets of Soybean Success’ as tools to teach farmers and agricultural professionals the value of their individual crop management decisions, and he is actively using these concepts to develop systems capable of sustainably producing high corn and soybean yields. He has three daughters and he and his wife live on a small farm just outside Champaign, Illinois.