Van Es, Harold Mathijs
Professor
Harold van Es is the Chair of the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and a Professor of Soil and Water Management with extension, research and teaching duties. He also directs the Cornell Initiative on Computational Agriculture. He works in New York, and also has project experience in Central and Eastern Europe, Central America, Africa, the Middle-East, and New Zealand. He has published over 71 refereed papers, co-authored the widely-read book Building Soils for Better Crops, developed several videos in water quality management, wrote numerous extension articles, and advised 45 graduate students.
research
research and scholarship focus
Current research efforts focus on soil health, precision management of crop inputs, chemical fate in soils, tillage and compaction, and pedometrics
primary investigator of
research areas
- biophysics | collaborative research area (CALS)
- climatology | collaborative research area (CALS)
- compost | collaborative research area (CALS)
- crop management or crop science | collaborative research area (CALS)
- environmental sciences | collaborative research area (CALS)
- fruit and vegetable production | collaborative research area (CALS)
- horticultural sciences | collaborative research area (CALS)
- information science | collaborative research area (CALS)
- landscape ecology | collaborative research area (CALS)
- land use | collaborative research area (CALS)
- nutrient management | collaborative research area (CALS)
- organic agriculture | collaborative research area (CALS)
- plant pathology | collaborative research area (CALS)
- soil and crop science | collaborative research area (CALS)
- soil health | collaborative research area (CALS)
- sustainable agriculture | collaborative research area (CALS)
- sustainable development | collaborative research area (CALS)
- vegetables | collaborative research area (CALS)
- viticulture | collaborative research area (CALS)
- waste management | collaborative research area (CALS)
- water resource management | collaborative research area (CALS)
international geographic focus
- Honduras | country
- Latin America | trans-national region
- Mexico | country
- Mozambique | country
- Togo | country
domestic geographic focus
- New York State | state
submitted impact statement
- Cornell University’s Computational Agriculture Initiative: Serving the land-grant mission through data-driven science| | 2007 Impact statement
- The Cornell Computational Agriculture Initiative | 2005 Impact statement
- Promoting soil health in New York State | 2004 Impact statement
- The Cornell Computational Agriculture Initiative | 2004 Impact statement
affiliations
head of
- Crop and Soil Sciences (CSS) | Cornell department
faculty appointment in
- Crop and Soil Sciences (CSS) | Cornell department
administrative appointment
- Crop and Soil Sciences (CSS) | Cornell department
member of graduate field
- Conservation and Sustainable Development | minor graduate field
- International Agriculture and Rural Development | graduate field
- Soil and Crop Sciences | graduate field
other Cornell affiliations
- Cornell's Precision and Computational Agriculture Support Team | extension program unit
- Institute for European Studies | research institute
teaching
teaching focus
I teach an undergraduate course in Soil and Water Management (4 cr.) and a graduate course in Space-Time Statistics (2 cr.).
teaches
- CSS 6942 - Special Topics in Soil Science (TBA -) | fall 2009 class
- CSS 6970 - Seminar in Crop and Soil Sciences (R 12:20:PM-01:10:PM) | fall 2009 class
- CSS 6980 - Graduate Teaching or Extension Experience (TBA -) | fall 2009 class
- CSS 7900 - Graduate-Level Dissertation Research in Soil Science (TBA -) | fall 2009 class
- CSS 7920 - Graduate-Level Dissertation Research in Environmental Information Science (TBA -) | fall 2009 class
- CSS 7970 - Graduate Individual Study in Crop and Soil Science (TBA -) | fall 2009 class
- CSS 8910 - Master's-Level Thesis Research in Environmental Information Science (TBA -) | fall 2009 class
- CSS 8920 - Master's-Level Thesis Research in Soil Science (TBA -) | fall 2009 class
- CSS 9900 - Doctoral-Level Dissertation Research in Soil Science (TBA -) | fall 2009 class
- CSS 9920 - Doctoral-Level Dissertation Research in Environmental Information Science (TBA -) | fall 2009 class
- CSS 3210 - Soil Management for Sustainability (F 12:20:PM-01:10:PM) | spring 2009 class
- CSS 6970 - Seminar in Crop and Soil Sciences (R 12:20:PM-01:10:PM) | spring 2009 class
- CSS 4830 - Land, Water, Agriculture and Environment (TR 11:40:AM-12:55:PM) | fall 2008 class
- CSS 6970 - Seminar in Crop and Soil Sciences (R 12:20:PM-01:10:PM) | fall 2008 class
service
outreach focus
Current extension efforts address soil health, precision nitrogen management, water quality, tillage and compaction related to agricultural and environmental systems.
current professional activities
- Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America
- Served as chair of Division S-6 (Soil and Water Management)
- Advisory member to the New York State Soil and Water Conservation Committee
- Member of EPA Science Review Boards for FQPA and FIFRA implementation
- Authored over 60 refereed journal articles
- Co-authored the best-selling book Building Soils for Better Crops
event participant
background
educational background
- Kandidaats Degree, (Physical Geography), University of Amsterdam, 1981
- M.S., (Soil Management), Iowa State University, 1984
- Ph.D., (Soil Physics), North Carolina State University, 1987
professional background
- Director of Graduate Studies
- Lead PI for the Cornell Initiative on Computational Agriculture
featured in
- Cornell's supercomputers will crunch weather data to help farmers manage chemicals | Cornell Chronicle feature
publications
selected publications (listing in progress)
- Magdoff, F.R., and H.M. van Es. 2000. Building Soils for Better Crops. Handbook Series Book 4. Sustainable Agric. Network, Beltsville, MD. 224 pp. (over 10,000 copies sold).
- H.M. van Es, J.M. Sogbedji, and R.R. Schindelbeck. 2006. Nitrate Leaching under Maize and Grass as Affected by Manure Application Timing and Soil Type. J. Environmental Quality (in print).
- Magri, A., H.M. van Es, M. Glos, and W.J. Cox. 2005. Integrated assessment of the use of crop, soil, and remote sensing information for precision management of maize. Precision Agric. 6:87-110.
- Kahabka, J.E., H.M. van Es, E.J. McClenahan, and W.J. Cox. 2004. Spatial analysis of maize response to N fertilizer in Central New York. Precision Agriculture 5:463-476.
- van Es, H.M., C.B. Ogden, R.L. Hill, R.R. Schindelbeck, and T. Tsegaye. 1999. Integrated assessment of space, time, and management-related variability of soil hydraulic properties. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 63:1599-1607.
speaker at Cornell event
Keywords: nutrient management, precision agriculture, soil health, soil science, spatial statistics, tillage, water quality