New Faces At DIFM: Rodrigo Goncalves Trevisan

 

Rodrigo Goncalves Trevisan is a new graduate student in crop sciences under Professor Nicolas Martin who is focused on harnessing the power of new analytical methods to improve the decision-making process in agricultural systems. Trevisan received a baccalaureate degree in agronomy from the Federal University of Mato Grosso, and his master’s degree in agricultural systems engineering from the Luis de Queiroz College of Agriculture at the University of Sao Pãulo. He is the precision agriculture coordinator in one of the largest agriculture companies in Brazil, and is co-founder and the head of research and development of technological solutions for agribusiness at Smart Agri. Trevisan has participated in events as speaker and organizer and is a founding member of the Brazilian Association of Precision Agriculture. He is experienced in agricultural planning, precision agriculture, on-farm experimentation, remote sensing, geographic information systems, data analysis, and artificial intelligence.

Personnel Changes: New Faces On the DIFM Project

Due to their significant effort to date, we have officially added three scholars to the DIFM project. Dr. Nicolas Martin, Assistant Professor in Quantitative Agronomy in the Department of Crop Sciences, will participate in DIFM trial design and statistical analysis of the data generated.

Dr. Haiying Tao will work with DIFM trial designers to take the practical aspects of running trials in the Pacific Northwest, and will supervise the implementation of Washington and Idaho wheat trials. Laila Puntel will communicate with cooperating researchers and participating farmers in Argentina, and will concentrate on experimental design and data analytics from those trials.

Nicolas Martin’s undergraduate degree is in Agronomy at University of Mar del Plata; his graduate studies at the University of Illinois focused on studying Soil-Plant relationships with multivariate analysis and spatial statistics. After graduation, Martin worked for more than 10 years in the seed industry developing drought-tolerant corn hybrids and using large geospatial datasets to position trials and soybean varieties in the marketplace. As an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, he hopes to improve the long-term profitability and stability of cropping systems by exploring applications of quantitative methods on big data. He is interested in interdisciplinary efforts to expand the frontiers of agricultural research and study effective approaches to implement new insights and discoveries in agricultural decisions and operations.

Laila Puntel graduated from the National University of Mar del Plata in Balcarce (Buenos Aires) with a BSc in Agronomy. She got a MS degree in Crop Production and Physiology at Iowa State University and is currently pursuing a PhD degree. Her research focuses on customizing a cropping system model as an in-season tool to support management decision-making and means of improving nitrogen management decisions in maize production systems. She is the co-founder of and leads research and development at Clarion, a precision agriculture consulting company in Argentina, where she has worked with site-specific nutrient management based on soil mapping and analysis.

Haiying Tao is an assistant professor of Soil Fertility and Residue Management in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at WSU. Her research programs focus on fertility management and strategies to improve soil health for WA agricultural systems. She is currently leading an effort to develop a farmer’s network, which will be a platform for information sharing, participatory learning and on-farm research using precision agricultural technologies.