SDSU adds two new professors to Ag & Biosystems Engineering
Contact: Van Kelley
Phone: (605) 688-5141
Friday, June 26, 2009
South Dakota State University's Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering department announced the addition of two new professors.
Assistant professor and environmental quality engineer Erin L. Cortus, and Christopher H. Hay, assistant professor and water management engineer, have started their work at SDSU.
While at Purdue University, Cortus worked on the largest agricultural air quality study ever. Commodity organizations through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency funded the study.
Her work in South Dakota will focus on water and air quality issues. She will seek to help livestock and poultry producers find economical solutions that meet increasing governmental regulations.
Cortus also will teach an undergraduate agricultural manure management class, and she will direct the statewide Environmental Training for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations program. Before her work at Purdue, Cortus studied at the University of Saskatchewan and the Prairie Swine Centre, Inc., in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Van Kelley, the department head of SDSU's Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering department, said SDSU is fortunate to have been able to recruit one of the few engineers at the Ph.D. level in the country who has expertise in measuring, modeling, and mitigating emissions from in livestock production facilities.
Hay is an expert in agriculture water management issues including measuring and modeling different cropping and pasture system water consumption rates. He will conduct research on the impacts of changes in land and water use on water availability. His work will help maintain and improve agricultural production in the face of competing demands for water, drought, and climate change.
Kelley said Hay's experience and expertise would benefit SDSU.
"This area of research is important because more than 80 percent of the precipitation in South Dakota is consumed by crops, lawns, or other plants," Kelley said. "The amount left over is the water that will flow to streams, lakes, or groundwater. Policy makers need to know what happens to our water so they can make the best decisions for the expanding South Dakota economy."
Hay also will teach courses in soil and water engineering, and he will work with crop producers in the areas of water resources management and irrigation. Hay brings with him several years of consulting and industry experience in water resources management from Colorado, Nebraska, and Virginia.
His most recent involvement was as part of a research team studying the consumptive use of cropping systems in the central Platte River Valley of Nebraska.
For more information on SDSU's Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering department, visit http://abe.sdstate.edu/.
AgBio Communications Unit
South Dakota State University
ACC, Box 2231, Rm 200
Brookings, SD 57007
Telephone: (605) 688-4642
Jarett.Bies@sdstate.edu