Areas of Exploration

Agricultural and environmental research is foundational in the land-grant university mission – education for everyone, research for scientifically based decisions and extension outreach to help ensure scientifically based agriculture in practiced in America.

Agricultural and environmental research has three parts:

  • basic, which provides the discoveries for solution to the unknown problems of tomorrow;
  • applied, which uses the solutions of past basic research to address the problems of today; and 
  • directed, which delivers immediate actions to improve our agricultural systems.

We need all three for a healthy agriculture industry and to sustain the environment. At the University of Georgia, we excel at all three, and deliver a $144.4 million boost to Georgia’s economy.


CAES research at UGA delivers a $144.4 million boost to Georgia's economy.
Discover Our Impact

Research News

Young pecan trees CAES News
CAES horticulture professor among eight UGA faculty named NAI Senior Members
The National Academy of Inventors has selected eight University of Georgia researchers as 2025 NAI Senior Members, surpassing its own record of five inductees set last year. UGA now has 24 Senior Members overall. “We are thrilled to celebrate these latest UGA elections to the country’s leading organization for groundbreaking inventors and innovators,” said Chris King, interim vice president for research. “Their dedication to translating research into tangible impact embodies the university’s land-grant mission and our commitment to serving society through innovation.”
Horticulture doctoral student Rebekah Maynard inspects the development stage of chamomile inflorescences for a study specifically targeting biopharmaceuticals, served to find fast-growing, efficient crops that could be produced on a massive scale, an important consideration for the profitability of controlled-environment agriculture. CAES News
CAES vertical farming research sheds light on producing medicinal compounds
New research on using controlled environment agriculture to grow plants with medicinal properties could lead to production methods that will increase one anti-cancer compound naturally produced by certain species of plants. The study, led by doctoral student Rebekah Maynard, was designed to identify crops used in medical treatments and develop CEA production strategies that will increase the concentration of an anti-cancer compound produced by the plants.
Illustration by Kaiya Plagenhoef/UGA CAES News
Ultrasounds could help process edible flowers as food ingredients
Many of the flowers lining store shelves for Valentine’s Day have been gifted at romantic dinners. But what happens to the flowers that went unsold? A new study from the University of Georgia explores how flowers can be repurposed as food ingredients, offering a more sustainable way to use blooms that might otherwise be discarded. “We are looking at what happens the day after Valentine’s Day to those flowers,” said UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences researcher Anand Mohan.