Southern Illinois University Carbondale
AC-9: Academic Research

We asked colleges to provide a list of faculty engaged in sustainability research. We define sustainability research as the integration of social, economic, environmental, and energy (environmental includes energy) components. It supports innovative and collaborative projects that have impact on future resources, ecosystem health, and human well-being.

1) This year, Ruplal Choudhary, an associate professor in plant, soil and agriculture systems, discovered potential alternatives to carcinogenic preservatives, which there is a growing concern that artificial food preservatives link to cancer, and shoppers should be able to identify ingredients on food labels.This research is important because turmeric can be used as a natural way to delay the expiration process of foods. Their previous research beginning in 2011, revealed that the spice also has antimicrobial qualities. It is powerful enough to potentially prevent E. coli outbreaks in food and lengthen the shelf-life of fresh produce. http://news.siu.edu/2015/12/121515amh15136.html 2) On February 26, 2016, it was reported that David Gibson, professor of plant biology; along with Karla Gage and Joseph Matthews, assistant professor and assistant scientist, were trying to find out how the seed bank and the underground reserve of viable weed seeds might be affected by the glyphosate cropping systems used across a large part of the Midwest. The team was able to identity 139 different species of weeds from 150 sample field sites. They found a large geographic variability, with 79 species unique to a single state. Some of the most troublesome agricultural weeds stored seeds in the soil, including common water hemp and redroot pigweed. http://news.siu.edu/2016/02/022616tjc16006.html#Researchers'%20paper%20earns%20national%20recognition