MIT EECS’ Post

J-WAFS is delighted to announce the recipients of the 2025 J-WAFS Water and Food Grand Challenge Grant! The J-WAFS Grand Challenge grant supports large, interdisciplinary projects that aim to solve the world’s pressing problems in water and/or food for human need. This year’s project, led by Professor Christopher Voigt of MIT Department of Biological Engineering, aims to genetically engineer more robust strains of microbes in the hopes of replacing harmful synthetic agrochemicals used in agriculture. Voigt will lead a team of collaborators from both MIT and Kenyatta University in Kenya to analyze nitrogen production of microbial communities in soil derived from farms in both the U.S. and Kenya.    The team of MIT researchers includes MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering Associate Professor David Des Marais, Associate Professor Tami Lieberman (MIT Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES)), and Assistant Professor Darcy McRose, as well as MIT Sloan School of Management Professor of Applied Economics and co-chair of the Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative at Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) Tavneet Suri, and MIT EECS Assistant Professor Sixian You.    “As the world population grows, farming practices that are both more productive and more sustainable are needed to ensure we can feed the planet without harming the environment. This promising research aims to accomplish that goal.” – J-WAFS Executive Director Renee Robins ’83.    After a rigorous, multi-stage proposal process and intensive review, Voigt’s team was awarded $1.5 million in grant funding to carry out this work over the next three years. Read more about the project here: https://lnkd.in/eCczt7jH