Kaiyu Guan

Recognized for:
Developing revolutionary technology to enhance our understanding of agricultural production systems and innovating transformative solutions to achieve co-sustainability of agricultural productivity and environmental quality.

Areas of Research Interest and Expertise:
Agroecosystem Modeling, Remote Sensing, Carbon Cycle, Ecohydrology, Biogeochemistry

Previous Positions:

Associate Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University (Advisor: David Lobell & Joe Berry)
PhD, Princeton University (Advisor: Eric Wood)
MA, Princeton University (Advisor: Eric Wood)
BSc, Nanjing University

Research Summary:

Increasing food production and environmental quality is among the greatest challenges for humanity in a changing climate. Kaiyu Guan, PhD uses computational models, satellite data, fieldwork, artificial intelligence, and supercomputers to enable agriculture to adapt to and mitigate climate change. The approaches spearheaded by Dr. Guan enable real-time monitoring of crop growth, water demands, nutrient needs, crop yield forecasts, and environmental impacts of every crop field in the US Midwest and beyond. Dr. Guan’s agricultural prediction platform is used by the government and farming communities to advance climate-smart agriculture policies and has enabled farmers to shift towards sustainable practices. 

“My team develops innovative sensing and modeling technologies aimed at enhancing agricultural land management and policymaking. Our goal is to achieve resource and environmental sustainability for every farmland worldwide.”

Key Publications:

1. K. Guan, Z. Jin, B. Peng, J. Tang, et al. A scalable framework for quantifying field-level agricultural carbon outcomes. Earth-Science Reviews, 2023.
2. S. Wang, K. Guan, et al. Cross-scale sensing of field-level crop residue fraction and tillage intensity: integrating field photos, airborne hyperspectral imaging, and satellite data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 2022.
3. B. Peng, K. Guan, J. Tang, E. A. Ainsworth, et al. Towards a multiscale crop modelling framework for climate change adaptation assessment. Nature Plants, 2020.
4. Z. Qin, K. Guan, et al. Assessing long-term impacts of cover crops on soil organic carbon in the central U.S. Midwestern agroecosystems. Global Change Biology, 2023.

Other Honors:

2023 AGU Macelwane Medal, American Geophysical Union
2023 University Scholar, University of Illinois System
2022 FoodShot Global GroundBreaker Prize, FoodShot Global & Foundation for Food & Ag Research
2022 & 2023 Highly Cited Researchers list, Clarivate
2021 & 2024 Distinguished Promotion Award, University of Illinois Urban- Champaign
2021 Seeding Solution Award, Foundation for Food & Ag Research
2020 High-Performance-Computing Innovation Excellence Awards, Hyperion Research
2019 NSF CAREER Award, National Science Foundation
2018 AGU Global Environmental Change Early Career Award, American Geophysical Union
2016 NASA New Investigator Award, NASA

In the Media:

AgFunderNews – Meet the founder: HabiTerre discusses the importance of credibility before commercialization in agtech

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign News Bureau – Researchers propose a unified, scalable framework to measure agricultural greenhouse gas emissions

The Washington Post – Midwest farms are using more cover crops. Why that's good news

Foundation for Agricultural Research – FFAR and FoodShot Global Announce GroundBreaker Prize Winners

Associated Press News – How the climate deal would help farmers aid the environment

Nova Now – Using Technology to Cope with Drought

Forbes – Study Finds Corn Increasingly Sensitive To Drought

Supercomputing – Food Production & HPC: Understanding Plant Growth From Above & Below