Faculty Research Interests
James Ahern
jahern@calpoly.edu
AGB
Commodity marketing, industrial organization or market structure, price analysis, horse racing
Bill Amspacher
wamspach@calpoly.edu
AGB
Econometrics, economic analysis, quantitative analysis, forecasting, and wine
Christopher Appel
cappel@calpoly.edu
ESS
Environmental soil chemistry of heavy metal interactions with soil surfaces. Surface chemistry and surface physical chemistry of heavy metal sorption to soils.
Louise Berner
lberner@calpoly.edu
FSN
Dietary patterns, nutrition, and health especially based on analyses of data from CSFII and NHANES; estimation of usual intakes of foods; dietary assessment; nutritional implications of food industry practices.
Leanne Berning
lberning@calpoly.edu
DSCI
Immune mechanisms against animal diseases, particularly mastitis; vaccine development; development of tests for different aspects of white blood cell function (also applies to human medicine); multi-media development of course materials
J. Wyatt Brown
wbrown@calpoly.edu
HCS
Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) of vegetable and herbs with special reference to lightly processed produce
Charles Burt
cburt@calpoly.edu
BRAE
Irrigation, drainage, drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, canal automation, irrigation project, water rights, water balance, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, furrow irrigation, salinity
Rich Cavaletto
rcavalet@calpoly.edu
BRAE
Safety, ag safety, ag safety & health, occupational safety, machinery safety, ergonomics, safety training, safety engineering
Michael Costello
mcostell@calpoly.edu
HCS
Grape insect pest management, plant-insect interactions, insect response to plant water and nutrient status, spider mites, spiders in agriculture, cover cropping.
Madoka Dawson
mdawson@calpoly.edu
FSN
Nutritional profile of university students (comparative study between Japanese and US students); competency requirements for women managers (comparative study between Japanese and US organizations)
Christopher Dicus
cdicus@calpoly.edu
NRM
Fire in the Wildland/Urban Interface. Forest management activities on fuel loading and potential fire behavior. Forest regulation and its impact on California landowners.
Brian Dietterick
bdietter@calpoly.edu
NRM
Channel restoration; water quality monitoring; BMP's for minimizing erosion and water quality impacts; effects of timber harvesting on water quantity and quality hydrologic modeling
Del Dingus
ddingus@calpoly.edu
ESS
Soil chemistry; agronomy; land reclamation. Use of technology for teaching.
Nana Farkye
nfarkye@calpoly.edu
DSCI
Dairy chemistry and technology with emphasis on cheese manufacture and ripening; fermented dairy foods; and food enzymology
Les Ferriera
lsferrei@calpoly.edu
DPT
Dairy herd management, cow comfort, artificial insemination, reproduction management and dairy safety.
Samantha Gill
sgill@calpoly.edu
BRAE/NRM
Forest biometrics; statistical modeling and analysis (especially
parametric techniques); GIS and remote sensing
Marnie Goldenberg
mgoldenb@calpoly.edu
NRM
Outdoor and Wilderness Education, Adventure Recreation, Outcomes Associated with Participation, Means-End Theory.
David Green II
degreen@calpoly.edu
HCS
Plant pathology; Improved turfgrass management techniques;
Integrated pest management, specializing in turfgrass communities
Brian Hampson
bhampson@calpoly.edu
FSN
Food safety; food quality; fruit and vegetable processing; water quality and water usage in food processing; food microbiology; air quality management in the processing environment; ozone as a germicide
Dave Hannings
dhanning@calpoly.edu
HCS
Wholesale nurseries (nursery plant production); plant propagation; orchids; plant tissue culture; abiotic plant problems
David Headrick
dheadric@calpoly.edu
HCS
Biological control of agricultural pests; biological control of weeds; non-target impact of arthropods introduced for the biological control of weeds; ecosystem management and biological control; biology and behavior studies of the natural enemies of agricultural and greenhouse pests; biology and taxonomy of native phytophagous flies; pollination ecology-non-apis pollinators; taxonomy of thrips parasitoids; mortality of native and pest thrips populations
Stan Henderson
shenders@calpoly.edu
DSCI
Dairy cattle genetics; dairy cattle management
Bill Hendricks
whendric@calpoly.edu
NRM
Recreation resource management; wilderness education; environ-mental education; wilderness management; park management; outdoor recreation; natural resources based tourism; ecotourism
Wayne Howard
whhoward@calpoly.edu
AGB
Agribusiness Management, human resources management, appraisal, policy analysis.
Jeff Jacobs
jacobs@calpoly.edu
NRM/REC
Environmental and Wilderness Education, Outdoor and Camp Leadership, Adventure Travel and Tourism, Natural Resources Recreation.
Rafael Jimenez-Flores
rjimenez@calpoly.edu
DSCI
Milk protein chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology; interaction of milk proteins with other components in foods; milk fat globule membrane function and composition; dairy products microbiology
Bill Kellogg
bkellogg@calpoly.edu
AGED
High school agricultural education; FFA; teacher effectiveness; agricultural safety
Hany Khalil
hkhalil@calpoly.edu
FSN
Food thermal processing; microwave processing of food; food product development; food process development; international post harvest processing
Elizabeth Koutsos
ekoutsos@calpoly.edu
ASCI
Interactions between nutrition and immunology in companion, exotic and domestic avian nutrition.
Neal MacDougall
nmacdoug@calpoly.edu
AGB
Federal regulations concerning theorganic market and organic inputs; development of the certified organic seed market; institutional issues surrounding organic certification; trade and organics; writing issues of College of Agriculture students; assessment issues.
Walter Mark
wmark@calpoly.edu
NRM
Urban forestry; forest/plant pathology; silviculture
Joe Montecalvo
jmonteca@calploy.edu
FSN
Design and development of new food products including extruded and certified organic products and process operations; development of food plant sanitation and pest management operations that meet 7CFR-NOP requirements; utilization of agricultural process by-products and plant process streams; strategic planning of plant and process operations to meet 7CFR National Organic Program requirements; wine chemistry and analysis and human resource training in all food/wine analytical methods and instrumentation.
Lynn Moody
lmoody@calpoly.edu
ESS
Coastal geomorphology and soils; the Coast Ranges of California (geology and soils); soil mineralogy; hydric solid and wetlands and subaqueous soils; soil erodibility; soils and water quality
Tom Neuhaus
tneuhaus@calpoly.edu
AY
Chicken fat composition as a function of diet. Organoleptic and fatty acid analysis of conventional, organic, and pasteured chickens. Complexity vs. neophobic tendencies. Does neophobia impact the consumer's hedonic response to spices and flavors?
Fair Trade and the Cocoa Cooperative. Effectiveness of Fair Trade at improving quality of life for the cocoa farmer in West Africa and the Caribbean.
Jay Noel
jnoel@calpoly.edu
Director of CISSC
Agricultural policy issues with special reference to California specialty crops. Impacts of regulatory policy on agricultural producer competitiveness and natural resource and environment policy.
Ammar Olabi
aolabi@calpoly.edu
FSN
Expertise and interests are in sensory methodology, influential variables on food acceptability and intake, and dairy processing. Currently conducting research on sensory properties of whey cream-based buttermilk, and on flavor complexity and neophobia.
W. Keith Patterson
kpatters@calpoly.edu
HCS
Grapes; vitis; grapevines; wine
Dan Peterson
dpeterso@calpoly.edu
ASCI
Molecular biotechnology applied to animal systems; Molecular investigations of bioactive nutrients, nutrient-gene interactions, animal functional genomics.
John Phillips
jphillip@calpoly.edu
HCS
Crop nutrition; soil fertility; cropping systems; soil conservation; sustainable agriculture; precision farming
Doug Piirto
dpiirto@calpoly.edu
NRM
Silviculture; forest harvesting; wood quality; forest policy; forest ecosystem management; environmental analysis (e.g., NEPA, CEQA), fire ecology; forest health; distance learning
Bill Plummer
wplummer@calpoly.edu
ASCI
Animal Biotechnology, mammalian sperm characteristics, embryo manipulation, enhancing conception rates.
Bob Rice
rrice@calpoly.edu
HCS
IPM; weed science; biorational and low impact methods of pest control
Thomas Rice
trice@calpoly.edu
ESS
Soil classification and mapping; land use planning; heavy metal contamination; soil-viticulture relationships; watershed monitoring
Brad Rickard
bjrickar@calpoly.edu
AGB
Analysis of domestic and international policies applied to food markets; traceability issues in agriculture; the economic implications of nutritional recommendations.
Mark Shelton
mshelton@calpoly.edu
CAFES
Integrated Pest Management; post-harvest disinfestation via controlled atmospheres; biological control
Stuart Styles
sstyles@calpoly.edu
BRAE
Emerging electronic flow measurement technologies. Irrigation, flow measurement, drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, furrow irrigation, evapotranspiration, pumps, concrete structures, canal automation, water investigations, water balances, international water projects, and modernization.
Rich Thompson
rpthomps@calpoly.edu
NRM
Resource economics; statistical analysis (especially parametric
techniques), forest ecosystem management; urban forestry.
Bob Thompson
rcthomps@calpoly.edu
AGB
Agricultural finance; farm management
Phil Tong
ptong@calpoly.edu
DSCI
Dairy food chemistry (physical properties - rheological, thermal, particle size, proximate composition, proteolysis) and science/technology for product manufacture (cheese, frozen desserts, dairy concentrates and powders, butter and spreads, milk composition, cultured dairy foods); bioseparation processes particularly membrane separation processes applied to food systems; development of new dairy foods and food products. Continuing education and outreach to suppliers and users of dairy foods and ingredients. Training and development of dairy industry internationally (SE Asia, China, Latin America)
Scott Vernon
svernon@calpoly.edu
AGED
Leadership; motivation; ag communication (applied and curriculum development); computers in secondary ag education; career development in agriculture
James Vilkitis
jvilkiti@calpoly.edu
NRM
Non-point source of pollution abatement through wetlands; environmental audits and assessments; resources planning and management; endangered species; habitat management plans
Doug Williams
dwwillia@calpoly.edu
BRAE
Animal waste; anaerobic digestion; methane; renewable energy; compost; sustainable agriculture; biomass energy
Mark Zohns
mzohns@calpoly.edu
BRAE
Development of mechanical systems for Agriculture. Three-dimensional solid and dynamic modeling. Hydraulic applications.