IIC Research Process & Team

IIC works to identify and support high-quality research to support the irrigation industry and improve water and energy use efficiency. Through its projects, IIC is advancing knowledge and building collaborative capacity involving university, industry, and other partners.

Since 2019, IIC’s competitive call process to select new research projects has been supported by diverse group of academic and industry affiliates who serve on its Research Steering Committee. This group helps design IIC’s competitive call for projects so that it will address critical knowledge and practice gaps in/for the irrigation sector and end users.

Connect with IIC Researchers

California

Charles Hillyer, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Irrigation Technology
California State University-Fresno
His areas of expertise include development of industry data standards, integration of sensors, irrigation controls, data analytics, and decision-support tools for smart irrigation systems.

Shawn Ashkan
Agricultural Engineer, Center for Irrigation Technology
California State University, Fresno
His areas of expertise include irrigating engineering, crop water requirements measurements and irrigation scheduling, crop carbon dioxide enrichment, agricultural air quality dispersion modeling and monitoring techniques.

Florence Cassel, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Science
Assistant Director of Research, Center for Irrigation Technology
California State University, Fresno
Her areas of expertise include irrigation and water management, salinity, remote sensing, and GIS.

Dave Goorahoo, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Plant Science
California State University, Fresno
His areas of expertise include water and nitrogen use efficiency in vegetable cropping systems, evaluating the impact of agriculture on soil, air and water resources.

Timothy Jacobsen
Field Research Manager, Center for Irrigation Technology
California State University, Fresno
His areas of expertise include field agronomy and cultural practices, agricultural management, irrigation technology, and field research.

Sarge Green
Water Management Specialist, California Water Institute
California State University, Fresno
He facilitates a collaborative effort to manage water resources in the San Joaquin Valley through integrated regional water management planning.

Karl Longley, ScD, BCEE
Professor Emeritus, Department of Civil and Geomatics Engineering
Senior Engineer, California Water Institute
California State University, Fresno
His areas of expertise include water and wastewater treatment, environmental policy, and environmental management.

Fayzul Pasha, Ph.D., P.E.
Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Geomatics Engineering
California State University, Fresno
His areas of expertise include modeling and quantitative analysis in water and energy efficiency, irrigation and drainage, and hydro systems planning, design, operations and management using numerical techniques, statistical methods, optimization theories, machine learning approaches, and geospatial techniques (GIS).

Kaomine Vang, Ed.D.
Research Project Manager/Hydraulic Laboratory Manager, Center for Irrigation Technology
California State University, Fresno
His area of expertise include irrigation and water technology, irrigation design, pumps, valve technology, hydraulic standards, ISO standards, ASABE standards, Soil Moisture Sensor technology, Irrigation Controllers, research methodologies.

Dilruba Yeasmin, Ph.D.
Research Scientist, Center for Irrigation Technology
California State University, Fresno
Her areas of expertise include geospatial analysis and modeling (GIS), remote sensing, smart data utilization in agricultural fields, water stress analysis in orchards using UAV, ground penetrating radar (GPR) application for tree root mapping.

Colorado

Allan Andales, Ph.D.
Professor and Extension Specialist- Irrigation and Water Science, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences
Colorado State University
His areas of expertise include irrigation and drainage and models, GIS, and data.

Michael Bartolo, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist, Arkansas Valley Research Center
Colorado State University
His areas of expertise include vegetable production, drip irrigation and drainage.

Troy Bauder
Extension Water Quality Specialist, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences
Colorado State University
His areas of expertise include agriculture, energy, and water quality.

Perry Cabot, Ph.D.
Research Scientist and Extension Water Resources Specialist, CSU Extension
Colorado State University
His areas of expertise include agriculture, energy, and hydrology.

José Chávez, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Colorado State University
His areas of expertise include remote sensing, ET measurement, irrigation and drainage.

Timothy Gates, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Colorado State University
His areas of expertise include hydraulics and irrigation and drainage.

Zach Johnson
Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Colorado State University
His areas of expertise include landscape business, landscape design and contracting.

Andrew Jones, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist, Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere
Colorado State University
His areas of expertise include climate science, big data and data analytics.

Raj Khosla, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences
Colorado State University
His areas of expertise include precision agriculture, precision irrigation, GIS, and big data.

Anthony Koski, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Colorado State University
His areas of expertise include horticulture and landscape irrigation.

Brent Mecham, CAIS, CGIA, CIC, CID, CIT, CLIA, CLWM
Industry Development Director, Irrigation Association
His areas of expertise include research experimental design, product assessments, sprinkler and emitter performance characteristics, and standards development.

Ramchand Oad, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Colorado State University
His areas of expertise include agriculture and irrigation and drainage.

Meagan Schipanski, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences
Colorado State University
Her areas of expertise include irrigated and dryland agroecosystems.

Joel Schneekloth
Regional Water Resource Specialist, CSU Extension
Colorado State University
His areas of expertise include irrigation and drainage and water conservation.

Stephen Smith, Ph.D., FASIC, CLIA, CAIS
Agricultural and Water Resources Engineer, Wade Water LLC
His areas of expertise include western water rights, canal modernization, SCADA, farm operations, irrigation scheduling, and remote sensing.

Kansas

Jonathan Aguilar
Assistant Professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Extension Water Resources Engineer, Southwest Research-Extension Center – Garden City, Kansas State Research and Extension
Kansas State University
His major research is in technology development and management related to irrigated agriculture. He has expertise in crop water allocation, ET-based irrigation scheduling, soil moisture sensors, Mobile Drip Irrigation (MDI), deficit irrigation, groundwater quality and Subsurface Drip Irrigation (SDI).

Jack Fry
Professor, Department of Horticulture and Natural Resources
Kansas State University
His research main focus is turfgrass management and irrigation water efficiency.

Bill Golden
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics
Kansas State University
His expertise includes research in natural resources and farm management issues related to irrigation and the production of agricultural commodities, specifically focusing on evaluating water policy and usage, and the impacts these have on the environment, producers and the regional economy.

Jared Hoyle
Assistant Professor, Department of Horticulture and Natural Resources
Kansas State University
He focuses his turfgrass research program on cultural and chemical weed management in turfgrass systems and managing/establishing turfgrass with limited water resources.

Freddie Lamm
Professor, Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Research Irrigation Engineer, Northwest Kansas Research Center – Colby, Kansas State Research and Extension
Kansas State University
He conducts irrigation research on irrigation systems, crop water productivity and cropping systems to develop and evaluate irrigation technologies that are environmentally sound and economically feasible that will conserve or extend limited water resources.

Cathie Lavis
Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture and Natural Resources
Her research, teaching and extension work is focused on irrigation water use efficiency.

Danny Rogers
Professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Extension Agricultural Engineer, Kansas State Research and Extension
Kansas State University
He research expertise includes irrigation development, irrigation systems, water utilization, water management, irrigation scheduling for full and deficit irrigation crop water management strategy, and energy for irrigation.

Alan Schlegel
Professor, Department of Agronomy
Agronomist-in-Charge, Southwest Research-Extension Center – Tribune, Kansas State Research and Extension
Kansas State University
He conducts irrigation research on irrigation systems, crop water productivity and cropping systems to develop and evaluate irrigation technologies that are environmentally sound and economically feasible that will conserve or extend limited water resources.

Ajay Sharda
Assistant Professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Kansas State University
His research expertise involves the development of thermal infrared imaging systems (TIRIS) and image analysis techniques required for spatial and temporal management of irrigation water. The development of TIRIS would provide spatial and temporal plant water stress knowledge based consumptive-use needs by crop-growth stage under local weather conditions which could significantly impact water-use efficacy, food security, and water sustainability; and applications in areas such as phenotyping research, development of robust irrigation models, and animal health.

P.V. Vara Prasad
Professor, Department of Agronomy
Kansas State University
His conducts research to 1) develop best management practices for efficient use of resources, maximize crop yield and minimizing environmental risk and 2) develop and improve crop growth models to identify yield gaps, evaluate crop management practices, and the impact of environmental, nutrient and biotic stress on crop production.

Nebraska

Dean Eisenhauer, Ph.D.
Professor, Biological Systems Engineering Department
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
His areas of expertise include soil and water resources engineering, hydrologic modeling of small watersheds, and modeling of vadose zone hydrology.

Roch Gaussoin, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Agronomy & Horticulture
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
His areas of expertise include turfgrass phyto-biome, nutraceutical assessment of amenity grass and specialty crop extracts, department liaison for the Nebraska Crop Improvement Association, and supports existing faculty extension programming in turfgrass outreach efforts.

Yufeng Ge, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Biological Systems Engineering Department
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
His areas of expertise include sensor-based plant phenotyping, optoelectronic sensor development in agriculture, VIS/NIR/MIR spectroscopy, agricultural remote sensing and image analysis, and precision agriculture and spatial statistics.

Derek Heeren, Ph.D., P.E.
Assistant Professor, Biological Systems Engineering Department
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
His areas of expertise include irrigation engineering and management, vadose zone hydrology, and variable rate irrigation.

Suat Irmak, Ph.D.
Professor, Biological Systems Engineering Department
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
His areas of expertise include soil and water resources and irrigation engineering, impact(s) of change in climate variables on water resources and agricultural productivity, measurement and modeling of surface energy balance variables for different surfaces, crop water productivity (crop water use efficiency), evapotranspiration (energy balance, water balance, weighing lysimeters, Eddy Correlation System, Bowen Ratio Energy Balance System), measurement and modeling of soil water dynamics, impacts of cover cropping systems on soil quality, surface energy balance and water balance, and fundamentals of variable rate irrigation and fertigation.

Lameck Odhiambo, Ph.D.
Research Associate Professor, Biological Systems Engineering Department
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
His areas of expertise include evapotranspiration measurements and modeling, deficit irrigation strategies, impact of tillage practices on crop water-yield relationships.

Derrel Martin, Ph.D., P.E.
Professor, Biological Systems Engineering Department
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
His areas of expertise include irrigation engineering and management, groundwater quality, water resources engineering, field studies, modeling and optimization research on managing irrigation, and geographic Information Systems (GIS) and decision support systems.

Francisco Muñoz-Arriola, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Biological Systems Engineering Department
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
His areas of expertise include hydroinformatics, integrated hydrology, water resilience, predictability of hydrometeorological and climate extremes risk, nexus water-food-energy in a changing environment, hydroclimatology, and the global water system.

Daran Rudnick, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Biological Systems Engineering Department
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
His areas of expertise include full and deficit irrigation management, soil water monitoring technologies, crop water uptake dynamics, and water and nitrogen fertilizer interactions and their effects on crop performance.

Wayne Woldt, Ph.D., P.E.
Associate Professor, Biological Systems Engineering Department
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
His areas of expertise include groundwater engineering and management, constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment, Neuro-Fuzzy modeling of environmental systems, systems analysis for pollution prevention and risk management, odor measurement, and UAV operations and remote sensing.

Texas

Dana Porter, Ph.D., P.E.
Associate Professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Associate Head for Extension and Irrigation Extension Specialist, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service – Lubbock
Texas A&M University
Her areas of expertise include irrigation engineering design, irrigation system management, soil moisture sensing, wastewater irrigation, and technology transfer.

Thomas Marek, P.E.
Senior Research Engineer, Texas A&M AgriLife Research – Amarillo
Texas A&M University
His areas of expertise include irrigation engineering design, irrigation management, groundwater hydrology, evapotranspiration measurement, lysimetry, and remote sensing.

Jim Bordovsky, P.E.
Senior Research Scientist and Agricultural Engineer, Texas A&M AgriLife Research – Lubbock/Halfway
Texas A&M University
His areas of expertise include irrigation engineering design, irrigation management, soil-water-plant relationships, and automation of irrigation systems.

John Tracy, Ph.D.
Director, Texas Water Resources Institute, Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Service
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering
Texas A&M University
Areas of expertise include water resources engineering and watershed hydrology.

Juan Enciso, Ph.D.,P.E.
Associate Professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Texas A&M AgriLife Research – Weslaco
Texas A&M University
His areas of expertise include optimizing water-management practices for cropping systems and irrigated agriculture; evaluating irrigation best management practices (BMPs); and maintaining regional weather station networks to support irrigation scheduling.

Guy Fipps, Ph.D., P.E.
Professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Irrigation Engineering Extension Specialist, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service – College Station
Texas A&M University
His areas of expertise include irrigation technology and efficiency, water quality, and water management.

Allen Berthold, Ph.D.
Research Scientist, Texas Water Resources Institute
Texas A&M University
Allen’s expertise includes water assessment, planning and implementation; technology transfer; and identifying and overcoming barriers to technology adoption.

Binayak Mohanty, Ph.D.
Regents Professor and COALS Chair in Hydrologic Engineering and Science, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Texas A&M University
Binayak’s expertise includes soil physics, water/nutrient dynamics in porous media, and soil hydraulic properties.

Charles Swanson, M. Agr.
Extension Program Specialist, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Texas A&M University
His expertise includes research and technology transfer in landscape irrigation, irrigation technologies and scheduling, weather stations and ET Networks.

Explore IIC Research Stations

California

Center for Irrigation Technology (CIT): Fresno, CA 
The CIT is a leading independent testing laboratory and applied research facility for irrigation. With state-of-the-art ISO 17025 certified testing facilities, CIT works with the public and private sector to advance irrigation technology, water/energy management practices, and equipment standards. 

Water, Energy and Technology (WET) Center: Fresno, CA 
The WET Center helps grow innovative ideas into commercially viable products and services. WET supports water, energy and agricultural technology entrepreneurs through programs and services with the assistance of a diverse team of industry and academic professionals. 

Colorado

Prospect Site: Fort Collins, CO
Established in 2019, this site has hosted 7 IIC research projects and attracted cash and in-kind donations from 9 industry partners. Its outreach activities have included a virtual field day, webinars, and well audit certifications. 

Agriculture Research Development & Education Center (ARDEC):
Fort Collins, CO
ARDEC main facility is approximately 1,000 acres; 889 acres are farmable irrigated acres utilized to support research and teaching programs, livestock unit and future sustainability. ARDEC was founded in 1993 in order to encourage cooperation between soils, crop and water research scientists. 

 Central Great Plains Resources Management Research: Akron, CO
The research station, managed by Agricultural Research Services, consists of 550 acres of cultivated, dryland research fields. The site, which has been in use since 1913, hosts some of the longest running experiments in the nation. Tours, trainings, field days, and workshops are frequently offered on-site.  

 

Kansas

Rocky Ford Turfgrass Research Center: Manhattan, KS
The site accommodates field research needs of K-State faculty and serves as an education resource for students and those employed in the commercial turf industry. The facility includes 10 acres of research plots, including a rainout shelter.   

Nebraska

Eastern Nebraska Research and Extension Center (ENREC): Mead, NE 
The site is a major research and education facility of the Agricultural Research Division of the University of Nebraska’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR). The site consists of approximately 9,663 acres (3,912 hectares). About half of the land base is in row crops. Fifty percent of those row crops are irrigated. The balance of the site is predominately in cool and warm season pastures. 

Western Nebraska Research and Extension Center (WNREC): North Platte, NE
West Central consists of approximately 1,800 acres of which 1,100 are in pasture and the remaining in dryland and irrigated cropping systems. The Gudmundsen Sandhills Laboratory, a 12,800-acre working ranch in the Nebraska Sandhills is also part of West Central, as is the West Central Water Resources Laboratory near Brule, which consists of 1,280 acres of irrigated and dryland cropping systems. This size and diversity offer many opportunities in integrated systems research and extension programming. 

Texas

Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center: Amarillo, TX 
The mission of the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Amarillo centers on beef, wheat, and water.  We manage two research farms at Bushland, TX, 10 miles west of the Amarillo Center:  (1) the 640-acre James Bush Farm, which is half pasture and half limited-irrigation crop research and features a 115-acre center pivot and 15 acres of subsurface drip irrigation, and (2) the 155-acre Emeny Farm, which features a 55-acre pivot, a rainfed wheat nursery, and some native grass pasture.  We also conduct cooperative research on the neighboring USDA-ARS Conservation and Production Research Laboratory to the west of our Emeny Farm, including vegetables, irrigated wheat breeding, and cotton-based cropping systems. 

 

Texas A&M AgriLife Center: Dallas, TX 
The Texas A&M AgriLife Center at Dallas, 17360 Coit Rd., houses scientific research, public outreach, and education programs. Everything we do aims to advance “green” innovation in urban agriculture and forestry, water and land resource management, and healthy living for all Texans. Turfgrass breeding is a vital component of our urban-facing mission.