Founded in 2012, the Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency project is changing leadership after the retirements of Steve Long and Don Ort. Lisa Ainsworth has been promoted to Director and Elizabete Carmo-Silva has been chosen as Deputy Director.

"RIPE is a pre-eminent project at the IGB, leading research efforts in crop sciences and plant biology to improve food security,” said Gene Robinson, Director of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, where RIPE is headquartered. “Under this new leadership, we will continue to see the important efforts of this research project thrive."

RIPE is an international research project, led by the University of Illinois, that aims to increase global food production by developing food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently with support from Gates Agricultural Innovations (Gates Ag One).

”RIPE’s approach to research has always been that the best work is done through collaboration and team effort,” said Ainsworth. “Our advancements in each objective are moving full steam ahead, and I am honored to lead these efforts.”

Ainsworth had been Deputy Director for RIPE for the last three years and leads the project’s work looking into optimizing canopies. She was recently named the Charles Adlai Ewing Endowed Chair of Crop Physiology in the Department of Crop Sciences as well as being a Professor of Plant Biology at Illinois. She received her bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her doctorate in crop sciences from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Carmo-Silva is a Professor of Crop Physiology at Lancaster University in the UK. She is an internationally recognized expert on Rubisco and leads the projects’ efforts to improve the enzyme. Carmo-Silva received her Licentiate (bachelor’s) degree in applied plant biology and her Ph.D. in physiology and biochemistry from the University of Lisbon. She joined the RIPE team as a postdoctoral researcher in 2012, becoming a principal investigator in 2015, and an objective lead in 2019.

“I am privileged to have been with RIPE since the beginning,” said Carmo-Silva. “I am excited and thankful for the opportunity to join the directorate and look forward to supporting the RIPE team to do our best work.”

Ainsworth and Carmo-Silva began their new roles in January 2025. The leadership roles were open because of the retirements of former Director, Ikenberry Endowed University Chair of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology Steve Long, and former Deputy Director, Robert Emerson Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences Don Ort. Two of the original founding members of RIPE, both will remain principal investigators on the project.

“I am grateful for Steve and Don’s vision for the last decade. RIPE would not have grown into what it is today without their leadership” said Ainsworth. “Although change brings uncertainties, these are exciting times for the RIPE project. I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together.