Biography
Dr. Villamil identifies management strategies to improve soil health and productivity in agroecosystems by addressing the societal challenge of sustainable food production. She focuses on how changes in soil health brought about by agronomic practices relate to carbon and nutrient cycling, crop production, and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.
Research Interests
- Soil Health - Metagenomics
- Sustainable Cropping Systems - Agroecology
- Biometry - Statistics
Education
- Ph.D.: Crop Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign — 2005
- M.S.: Agricultural Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign — 2007
- M.S.: Agronomy, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina — 2000
- B.S.: Agronomy, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina — 1995
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor, Crop Sciences
Professor, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Recent Publications
Bhamidi, S., Sunderland, G. R., Southey, B. R., Villamil, M. B., Johnson, R. W., & Rodriguez-Zas, S. L. (2025). Metabolic and Inflammatory Stimuli Impact Vascular Circulation and Cell Proliferation Processes in the Amygdala. Genes, Brain and Behavior, 24(5), Article e70036. https://doi.org/10.1111/gbb.70036
Fabiani, C., Valero, M. V., Basualdo, J., Allegrini, M., Iocoli, G. A., Villamil, M. B., & Zabaloy, M. C. (2025). Exploratory Field Case Study of Microbial and Resistance Genes Dynamics in the Maize Phyllosphere Following Fertigation with Anaerobic Digestate. Agronomy, 15(10), Article 2398. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15102398
Gomez, A. N., Southey, B. R., Villamil, M. B., & Rodriguez-Zas, S. L. (2025). Effects of fasting and inflammatory challenges on the swine hepatic metabolome. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology - Part D: Genomics and Proteomics, 54, Article 101429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbd.2025.101429
Lopez, R. E., Wade, J., Villamil, M. B., Culman, S., Cavigelli, M. A., Fischel, M. H. H., Maul, J. E., Davis, M. P., Aberle, E., & Margenot, A. J. (2025). Water-based enzyme assays are more sensitive than buffer-based assays to tillage and site in the U.S. Corn Belt. Geoderma, 462, Article 117518. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117518
Sunderland, G. R., Southey, B. R., Villamil, M. B., & Rodriguez-Zas, S. L. (2025). Peroxisome, neuropeptide, and inflammation signaling pathways uniquely impacted by opioid exposure in the hypothalamus of males and females. Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, 134, Article 104014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcn.2025.104014