Charles F. Kettering Award

2024 Winner: Andrew Leakey

University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois

Andrew Leakey, Head and Professor, Plant Biology at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is recognized as the 2024 Charles F. Kettering awardee for his numerous contributions to fundamental research on integrative plant physiology, genetics, and genomics – particularly regarding plant responses to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, and abiotic stresses such as drought, temperature, and ozone. With a strong focus on photosynthesis, carbon metabolism, and crop sustainability Andrew’s interdisciplinary research and development of new tools to overcome phenotyping bottlenecks, consistently challenged existing dogma in global change biology concerning high carbon dioxide-mediated effects on photosynthesis and water use efficiency (WUE). His identification of traits, genes, and loci in C4 crops that underpin WUE under field conditions have led to an improved understanding of plant responses to global environmental change. Finally, Andrew’s work, which ranges across scales and includes modelling, innovative machine learning-enabled analysis of cell patterning, and in-field analysis of crop biomass production, has been influential in addressing the needs future global food security.