Researchers from the University of Kentucky, Clemson University, and the University of Idaho have teamed up to form the Kentucky/Idaho/Clemson (KIC) plant biomechanics consortium. KIC was formed to establish cross-disciplinary reserch collaboration to advance fundamental science with key questions in food security and genome to phenome relationsips.

This project is a multidisciplinary approach to decrease the incidence of stalk lodging found in corn and sorghum plants. Stalk lodgining (snapping of the plant stalk before harvest) reduces gobal yield up to 20%.  

The KIC Consortium is built around the hypothesis that interdisciplinary teams can create multiphysics modeling frameworks that utilize advanced statistical methods to produce a mechanistic understanding of how complex traits are related to genomic and environmental covariates.

The University of Idaho (UI) will play a key role in the biomechanical aspect of research by developing intermediate phenotyping platforms and testing standards. Researchers at the University of Kentucky (UK) and Clemson University (CU) will use those measurement standards for testing a diverse panel of corn and sorghum grown throughout the United States. Clemson University investigators will also provide computational, modeling and statistical support to the project.

Additional goals for the KIC Consortium include creating STEM workforce development opportunities by increasing the number of students and teachers with STEM based career opportunities. The KIC aims to increase the number of underrepresented groups in the STEM workforce across each jurisdiction.

If you are interesting in getting involved with the project, please reach our to us on the site directory, collaborations are always welcome.