Dr. Leakey is the Michael Aiken Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he has worked since 2002. He is Director of the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation and was Head of the Department of Plant Biology from 2019 to 2024. CABBI is a nation-wide collaborative research enterprise involving >300 scientists and students. They work together to develop the scientific understanding and technological innovations necessary to support development of a bioeconomy that is both economically profitable and environmentally beneficial. These aims are being met through development of next-generation C4 grass crop feedstocks and non-model yeasts to produce sustainable oils and high-value platform chemicals. Dr. Leakey's research group focuses on studying the integrative physiology, genetics and genomics of plant water use efficiency, with the aim of developing crops that can produce large amounts of feedstock and food in locations where water supply is currently insufficient. Dr. Leakey has >115 research publications. For this work he has received a Fulbright Scholarship, the Calvin-Benson Prize from the International Society for Photosynthesis Research, the Kettering Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists, and the Woolhouse Lecture Award from the Society for Experimental Biology. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2019.
Recent Awards
2023- Michael Aiken Endowed Chair, UIUC
2023- Tsujimoto Lecture, UC Berkeley, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology
2022- President’s Executive Leadership Program Fellow, University of Illinois System
2021- Arnold O. Beckman Research Award
2020- Teacher Ranked Excellent by Students (Plants & Global Change)
2020 - Martin & Ruth Massengale Lecturer, Crop Science Society of America Annual Meeting.
2019 - Elected Fellow of the American Associationfor the Advancement of Science
2017 - University Scholar (Office of the President, University of Illinois System)
2016 - Calvin-Benson Award (Outstanding early career research, International Soc of Photosynthesis Res)
2020, 2018, 2015, 2013, 2011, 2009, 2008, 2007 - List of Teachers Ranked Excellent by Students (UIUC)
2013 - Arnold O. Beckman Research Award (UIUC)
2013 - I.C. Gunsalus Fellow (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, UIUC)
2011 - Beckman Fellow (Center for Advanced Studies, UIUC)
2010 - Faculty Fellow (Environmental Change Institute, UIUC)
2008 - Dean's Teaching Fellow (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, UIUC)
2006 - College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences Team Award for Research Excellence (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
2002 - Fulbright Scholar