Kaiyu Guan
2025 National Award Finalist — Faculty
Current Position:
Levenick Endowed Professor
Institution:
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Discipline:
Agriculture & Animal Sciences
Recognized for: Developing breakthrough technologies of remote sensing, modeling and AI to drive sustainable farming, shape national policies, and power industry decarbonization in agriculture.
Areas of Research Interest and Expertise:
Agriculture Modeling, Remote Sensing, Terrestrial Carbon Cycle, Biogeochemistry, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
Previous Positions:
Levenick Endowed Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
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 while reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint is one of humanity’s greatest challenges in a changing climate. Kaiyu Guan, PhD meets this challenge by combining satellite data, sensing technologies, advanced modeling, and AI to monitor crop productivity, water use, nutrient needs, and environmental stress from field to global scale. His SYMFONI platform supports U.S. agricultural policy, including the national conservation and crop insurance program and food security initiatives. Through his startup HabiTerre, Dr. Guan has brought greenhouse gas tracking to millions of acres both domestic and international. His innovations empower farmers, inform national policy, and drive sustainable agriculture.
“From one farm to every farm on Earth, my team pioneers AI-powered sensing and modeling to transform agriculture—boosting yield, cutting emission, and shaping bold climate solutions—so farmers and ecosystem can thrive together in a sustainable future.”
Key Publications:
- K. Guan, Z. Jin, B. Peng, J. Tang, et al. A scalable framework for quantifying field-level agricultural carbon outcomes. Earth-Science Reviews, 2023.
- K.Guan, J. Berry, et al. Improving the monitoring of crop productivity using spaceborne solar-induced fluorescence. Global Change Biology, 2015.
- 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.
- L. Liu, W. Zhou, K. Guan, et al. Knowledge-based artificial intelligence significantly improved agroecosystem carbon cycle quantification Nature Communications, 2024.
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
2022-2024 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