Dr. Greg Lowry
Hamreschlag University Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University

Abstact: Resilient & Sustainable Agriculture using Nano-enabled Precision Delivery of Active Agents in Plants
Current agricultural practices are resource intensive, notoriously inefficient, and unsustainable. Moreover, crop productivity is threatened by climate change. Approaches adapted from precision nanomedicine can precisely deliver active agents, nutrients, and genetic materials into crop plants to improve agrochemical utilization efficiency and increase their resilience to climate change. However, greater understanding of how nanocarriers used to deliver active agents interact with plant surfaces and biomolecules is needed, and viable targeting approaches in plants are needed to improve nanocarrier design for efficiency and efficacy. This talk will discuss progress made towards these goals, providing illustrative examples of targeted delivery and approaches to mitigate climate induced plant stress. The key scientific and technical barriers that must be addressed to realize the benefits of plant nanobiotechnology will be presented and discussed.

Bio: Dr. Lowry is the Hamershlag University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, and an executive and associate editor of the ACS Journal Environmental Science & Technology. His research area is broadly environmental chemistry, with an emphasis on interactions of metals, organics, and nanomaterials at mineral-water and biological-water surfaces. His research aims to improve the efficiency and efficacy of agriculture, environmental remediation and water treatment. Dr. Lowry is a Fellow of the AAAS and AEESP. He has published over 220 scientific articles and is a “highly cited” scientist (top 1%) in the area of ecology and environment. He has received awards for his research from the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (Science Award), American Society of Civil Engineers (Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Award), Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (Malcolm Pirnie/AEESP Frontiers in Research Award), American Academy of Environmental Engineers & Scientists (Science Award), and from his University (Casasent Outstanding Research Award, 2024).