Enviromental Waste and Ag Sustainability
Dr. Ramesh Kanwar, Iowa State University

Role of Mathematics and Science in Developing Environmental Friendly Waste Management Technologies of the 21st Century for Environmental Enhancement and Agricultural Sustainability.

Today’s agricultural and animal production systems have become very intensive and successful in increasing agricultural and livestock production to meet the food security needs of growing population in the world. The intensification of agriculture has occurred primarily because of the availability of new technology in the form of increased biological inputs (crop varieties), mechanical inputs (farm mechanization), water inputs (irrigation systems) and chemical inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, and animal manure). The use of agrochemicals such as fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides has not only increased the crop yields but also has started deterioration of the very base of global food production system i.e. soil and water resources.

Speaker Bio:
 Ramesh Kanwar is the Department Chair of the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department at Iowa State University. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in agricultural engineering from India and Ph.D. degree from Iowa State. He joined the faculty of the agricultural engineering department at Iowa State in 1981 and was promoted to full professor in 1991. He was appointed assistant director of the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station on January 15, 1997 and director of the Iowa Water Resources Research Institute on December 1, 1999 and served in these positions until September 15, 2001. He has worked as a consultant for the World Bank, European Commission, Global Environment Facility, United Nations Development Program, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), NATO, FAO, and many foreign governments/universities. These global opportunities have taken him to more than 35 countries. He has taught Bs, MS, Ph.D. degree students in Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Uzbekistan, and India. He is an honorary professor at both Beijing Agricultural University in China and Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization in Uzbekistan. He was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the Georgian State Agrarian University in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2000 and was elected Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences in India in 2001. Kanwar teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of water quality, soil and water management, and erosion and sediment transport at Iowa State University. He conducts research in drainage, irrigation, water quality impacts of agriculture and livestock production, hydrologic modeling, and natural resource engineering. He has been a major professor for 26 M.S. and 24 Ph.D. students. He has authored more than 400 publications (140 refereed journal articles, 115 book chapters and conference proceeding articles, and 165 presented papers at international conferences). Kanwar is a member of several professional societies and has received numerous awards.

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