Irrigation, water management specialist appointed

Amir Haghverdi will join the faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Panhandle Research and Extension Center this summer as an irrigation and water-management specialist.

Haghverdi's appointment was announced by Jack Whittier, research and extension director at the Panhandle R&E Center. He will replace Dean Yonts, the long-time irrigation specialist who passed away in 2012.

When he begins on July 1, Haghverdi will be responsible for conducting research and extension programs focused water and soil resources management programs for the crops and cropping systems in the Nebraska Panhandle. As part of a multidisciplinary team at the Panhandle Center, he will partner with other UNL faculty and various organizations, agencies and advisory groups.

"We are fortunate to attract another very talented, well-trained, and energetic young scientist to the Panhandle," Whittier said. "Amir brings an incredible set of modern tools and technology to address water management issues in this region and build in the high impact work of his predecessor, Dean Yonts. We eagerly await his arrival and his joining with the current team of crop and livestock specialists here at the Center."

Haghverdi's research is in agricultural water management with irrigation engineering, soil hydrology and spatiotemporal data mining as the main themes. He earned his first Ph.D. degree in irrigation engineering in Iran. He studied spring wheat deficit-saline irrigation using advanced statistical analysis and machine learning approaches.

Currently, he is pursuing his second Ph.D. in the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he expanded his research to precision agriculture. His major subject is optimizing cotton site-specific irrigation through remote sensing, GIS and GPS technologies, on-the-go sensors and site-specific wireless sensing systems.

The Panhandle Extension District encompasses 16 counties in western and north-central Nebraska, including Banner, Blaine, Box Butte, Cherry, Cheyenne, Dawes, Deuel, Garden, Grant, Hooker, Morrill, Kimball, Scotts Bluff, Sheridan, Sioux, and Thomas counties.