Our Team
The Nutrient Management Spear Program (NMSP) was initiated in August 2000 when Quirine Ketterings joined the faculty of the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at Cornell University as assistant professor of nutrient management in agricultural systems. The NMSP and its applied research and extension mission in field crop nutrient management relocated to the Department of Animal Science in July of 2008.
- Kirsten Workman, Senior Extension Associate, joined the PRO-DAIRY team as the Nutrient Management and Environmental Sustainability Specialist in January of 2022.
- Manuel Marcaida, data analyst, joined us to support our precision agriculture program and yield data specific projects. He leads the team of staff and students who work on yield monitor data processing.
- Juan Carlos Ramos Tanchez , on-farm research coordinator, joined us in June of 2022. Juan Carlos carries responsibilities for our field-based research program and on-farm research network.
- Sanjay Gami, research associate, joined our team in December of 2008 to support and lead laboratory-based projects. He is in charge of laboratory analyses and management and worked on our project on implication of land application of acid whey.
- Sunoj Shajahan, research associate, received his PhD from North Dakota State University and joined us in October, 2019. Originally from India, his work in our team involves evaluation of corn silage and grain yield estimations and early season predictions from reflectance imagery obtained with multispectral cameras using drone and from satelites.
- Olivia Godber, reseach associate, is originally from the UK where she graduated with a PhD from the University of Bristol. She has a background in animal science, and her PhD focused on modelling the sustainability of livestock production systems. She was an Agricultural Consultant, working across global supply chains to provide insight and solutions to their food, feed and fiber sustainability challenges prior to joining us at the NMSP. Her research interests within NMSP are the identification of dairy sustainability indicators to improve dairy farm efficiency, profitability, and environmental sustainability.
- Abraham Hauser, assistant data analyst, joined us to support our precision agriculture program and yield data specific projects in June 2021 after he graduated with a degree in math from SUNY Geneseo.
We have had several postdoctoral researchers in our team over the years. Our current team includes two postdoctral researchers:
- Perejitei Bekewe, originally from Nigeria, joined us in July of 2021 to work on our the New York component of the multistate, six-year project, "Dairy Soil and Water Regeneration: Building Soil Health to Reduce Greenhouse Gases, Improve Water Quality and Enable New Economic Benefits". Perejitei has a PhD from Texas A&M.
- Subhashree Navaneetha Srinivasagan received her PhD from North Dakota State University and joined us in April of 2022 to work on an Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability proposal that puts farmers in the driver seat for on-farm research, with the use of technology (remote sensing). Subha is originally from India.
We currently have two graduate students in our program:
- Agustin Olivo, Ph.D. student. Agustin is originally from Argentina, and joined the NMSP team in August 2020 to work in the development of sustainability indicators for the dairy industry in New York.
- Gurpreet Kaur joined us this fall as a new PhD student. Gurpreet is originally from India. She joined the NMSP team in August of 2022 to work on evaluation of the role of microbial functions in improving soil health, nutrient cycling and production resilience in forage crops.
We are wrapping up journal articles with four previous postdoctoral researchers:
- Bhupinder Jatana, originally from India, joined us at the end of November of 2021 to work on our regional phosphorus index project and studies related to land-application of organic nutrient source. This includes a multi-state rainfall simulation project that evaluated impact of nutrient sources (manure, compost, solids, fertilizer) and soil conditions (cover crops, residue, soil health status) on phosphorus, nitrogen and sediment loss. Bhupinder has a PhD from Clemson University and in January of 2023 returned to Clemson to start his new position as assistant professor in Horticulture.
- Tulsi Kharel received his PhD from South Dakota State University. Originally from Nepal, his work in our team involved analyzing such datasets using advanced hierarchical statistical modeling. Tulsi's work aims to develop methodology and protocols for use and processing of datasets for agricultural decisions (yield monitor data, satellite images, crop sensor data, soil data etc.). He is currently with USDA-ARS in Mississippi.
- Angel Maresma graduated with a PhD from the University of Lleida in Spain, where he is originally from. After a 4 month internship with us in 2015, he returned to our team in April of 2017 to work on precision agriculture for corn and forage sorghum, with specific focus on use of drones and crop sensors for more efficient nitrogen fertilization strategies. Multispectral aerial images derived from drones services, as well as active sensor scanning, are used to determine in-season nitrogen requirements of corn and sorghum and to predict grain and forage yields. Angel is Technical Advisor and R&D at EuroChem AGRO Iberia, in Spain.
- Mart Ros, originally from the Netherlands, worked with several consulting firms and extension educators as well as state agencies in the Northeast on our regional phosphorus index evaluation project. In addition, he worked with many farms on their whole farm nutrient mass balance as assessment tool in the adaptive management process. Mart returned to the Netherlands where he is employed at Wageningen University.
- Martin Battaglia, originally from Argentina, worked on our northeast region phosphorus index project. He started working for The Nature Conservancy in July 2021.
We greatly enjoy working with undergraduates, through independent research projects, work-study programs, and internships. Currently we have twelve undergraduates in our program: Corrine Brown, Julianna Lee, Gretchen Wittmeyer, Sarah Flanagan, Anika Kolanu, Aleks Marcinkowski (CALS Agricultural Sciences majors), Katie Bishop (SUNY ESF), Skylar Cooper and Karolyn Auer (CALS Animal Science majors), Ben Polsen and Shirley Zhang (CALS Biometry and Statistics majors), and Nayana Venuka (Computer Science). We work with Ben Yeh, May 2022 Cornell graduate in statistics, to complete a publication on use of machine learning to estimate yield from imagery obtained using drones this summer.
A major role in the program is played by Cornell Cooperative Extension Field Crops Educators.