Project Team

Michael D. Dukes, Ph.D., P.E.

Dr. Dukes holds degrees in Agricultural Engineering and Civil & Environmental Engineering specializing in water management and water quality of biological systems. He leads a research team investigating water conservation and water quality of urban and vegetable irrigated systems and well as low impact development methods to prevent stormwater runoff. He can be reached at mddukes@ufl.edu.

Lincoln Zotarelli - Assistant Research Scientist

Dr. Zotarelli's is a Research Scientist of Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Soil Science at the Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His research interests include irrigation water management of agricultural crops, soil and nutrient management and environmental quality. He is currently working on projects to improve irrigation water use efficiency of vegetable crops using soil moisture sensors to control irrigation. His research also involves evaluation of the impact of irrigation management on crop physiology and nitrate leaching. He can be reached at lzota@ufl.edu.

Consuelo Romero, Ph.D.

Dr. Romero is a Post-Doctoral Researcher whose specific areas of expertise are irrigation modeling, soil fertility, soil erosion, and water conservation. She holds degrees in Biology, Soil Science, specializing in Production Ecology and Resource Conservation. She can be reached at ccromero@ufl.edu.

Bernard Cardenas-Lailhacar - Research Associate

Bernard Cardenas-Lailhacar holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Agricultural and Biological Engineering, with a minor in Environmental Horticulture. His research is focused in water conservation, analyzing which of the state-of-the-art irrigation technologies are the most suitable for Florida conditions. He can be reached at bernardc@ufl.edu

Research Projects Coordinator

Kristen Riley

Kristen J. Riley is the Project Manager for the Irrigation Research Team at the University of Florida. Her responsibilities include coordination of contract tasks and deliverables, schedules, budget adherence, and promotional activities. She received her bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics from the University of Minnesota, and a Masters in Business Administration from Texas A&M (formerly East Texas State). She can be reached at kjriley@ufl.edu.

Graduate Research Assistants

PhD

Eban Z. Bean, M.S., EI

Eban attended North Carolina State University for his bachelor's and master's degrees in Biological and Agricultural Engineering. Eban's research has primarily focused on reducing stormwater runoff through low impact development techniques. During his master's, Eban focused on the water quality and quantity impacts of permeable pavements. His current research focuses on retention basin performance in Florida and soil amendments to mitigate soil compaction. He can be reached at ezbean@ufl.edu.

Melissa Baum Haley

Melissa was awarded her B.S. and M.E. degrees from the University of Florida in Agricultural and Biological Engineering, focusing on land and water resources. Her Masters work analyzed effects of irrigation efficiency on water-use in Florida’s St. Johns River Water Management District. She is currently a doctoral student in the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department studying the interaction between the technical and social aspects of residential irrigation water-use conservation. With the Southwest Florida Water Management District, she has been working on project in efforts to reduce residential irrigation water application by incorporating sensor based controllers and educational materials. She is also working with the District's Communications Department to quantify water conservation practices and perceptions through homeowner survey research, and effective behavioral change at household level interaction. She can be reached at mbhaley@ufl.edu.

Stacia Davis

Stacia L. Davis graduated from the University of Florida with an M.E. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering in 2008 and from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2005. She continues her graduate education by pursuing a PhD degree, also from the University of Florida Agricultural and Biological Engineering department, that concentrates on residential outdoor water conservation. Her current projects focus on the evaluation and implementation of smart controllers that use ET for scheduling irrigation. She can be reached at stacia@ufl.edu.

Thomas Olmsted

Tom Olmsted graduated from Michigan State University with a Masters Degree in Agricultural Technology and Systems Management. His Masters research consisted of evaluating daily evapotranspiration estimation methods. Tom served with the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, West Africa and was later Research Equipment Manager for the DEKALB Genetics Corporation. His PhD research is looking at different irrigation strategies and the use of commercially available soil moisture sensors for the purpose of reducing irrigation water use on landscapes. He can be reached at olmsted@ufl.edu.

Master of Engineering

Daniel Rutland

Dan Rutland is a Graduate Research Assistant in the Agricultural and Biological Engineering department at the University of Florida. He holds a BS in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from the University of Florida and is currently working toward his masters. His current research specializes in evapotranspiration irrigation controllers for Florida residential landscapes.
He can be contacted at conandan@ufl.edu

Leah Meeks

Leah Meeks earned her B.S. from the BioResource and Agricultural Engineering department at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Her M. E.
research investigates rain sensors for urban irrigation water conservation. She can be contacted at lmeeks@ufl.edu.

Research Intern

Thales Barreto

Thales Pereira Barreto holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Agronomy at the Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Brazil. He is currently working on projects to improve irrigation water use efficiency of vegetable crops using soil moisture sensors to control irrigation. His research also involves evaluation of the impact of irrigation management on crop physiology and nitrate leaching. He can be reached at thales@ufl.edu.