Irrigation Researcher Of The Year
Dr. Wesley Porter, Assistant Professor, Crop & Soil Sciences, College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, University of Georgia, has been named the 2020 Irrigation Researcher of the Year at the 23rd Annual National Conservation Systems Cotton & Rice Conference, Southern Corn & Soybean Conference, Southern Precision Ag Conference and the Delta States Irrigation Conference.
A graduate of Clemson with a Bachelor and Master degree in Agriculture Mechanization and Business, and Agricultural Engineering, Clemson University, Porter went on to earn his PhD in Agricultural Engineering from Oklahoma State University.
Porter accepted an 80 percent Extension and 20 percent Research appointment at the University of Georgia in 2014. His responsibilities include developing and advocating for irrigation management, machinery systems and precision agriculture systems that improve the sustainability of production agriculture.
Porter has become the leading authority or irrigation management strategies for the Southern United States. “As evidenced by his research and extension record, Porter is an invaluable resource and advocate for those striving to develop or adopt sustainable water management practices. Porter has authored 89 scholarly works including 16 peer reviewed journal articles that describe strategies to improve the sustainability of water resources in agricultural settings. He is actively involved in training the next generation of agricultural scientists and engineers as he has served on 13 graduate committees, six as the major professor. Porter’s students consistently win research awards at national meetings, which reflects his dedication and zeal to our discipline.”
“Porter has a unique ability to bridge agronomic and engineering disciplines. From an agronomic perspective, he has become an expert in water use efficiency and optimizing crop establishment. He is very well versed in many precision agriculture topics including zone management, variable rate irrigation, using yield monitor data, UAV applications and spatial crop management.”
“Porter is an integral part of a precision irrigation team that is densely locating soil moisture sensors within fields to aid precision irrigation decisions. They are combining multiple static data layers such as soil texture, soil electrical conductivity, soil survey maps, and elevation and/or yield maps with interpolated soil moisture maps from sensor data. This creates a dynamic zone map that can be used for variable rate irrigation. This innovative method takes advantage of historical and real-time data to assist irrigation decisions that conserve water. They have tested the UGA Dynamic VRI system on farmer fields for the past three years on peanut and for one year on corn and cotton. These team efforts have achieved irrigation water use efficiency gains ranging from 16 to 40 percent and yield gains ranging from two to four percent in peanuts and are optimistic that similar results will be found with other crops.”
Porter was the first agricultural engineer to be named a Cotton Incorporated Fellow. He was recognized as one of the Ten New Faces of ASABE in 2012. His accolades also include the University of Georgia, Tifton Campus; Michael J. Bader Award of Excellence for Junior Scientist-Extension and the 2019 Precision Agriculture Award of Excellence for Research and Education. ∆