Roth started with the university on Sept. 18 and will serve as assistant professor in the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State, with an extension education appointment.
“I’m very proud to work for Iowa State and the opportunity to contribute to the Department of Agronomy,” said Roth. “In Iowa, nitrogen is a huge issue because our crops depend on it, and there are issues with leaching and water quality. My focus will be on looking at ways to engineer nitrogen management strategies to improve efficiency.”
At Iowa State, Roth plans to work toward engineering nitrogen management strategies through the manipulation of old technologies and investigation of new technologies to optimize the agronomic, economic and environmental performance of cropping systems throughout the Midwest.
He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Illinois State University before moving to Indiana where he graduated from the Department of Agronomy at Purdue University in 2021 with his Ph.D. in agronomy.
He also spent a year as a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Agronomy at Purdue. Prior to joining the department, Roth spent the past year as an assistant professor and the extension grains and oilseeds agronomist in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at the University of Georgia.
“We are excited Richard has joined us because of the expertise that he brings to the department and also the opportunities we’re going to have as a result,” said Mary Wiedenhoeft, interim chair of the Department of Agronomy and Morrill Professor at Iowa State. “It’s always exciting when new faculty start because of the possibilities and the potential they bring.”
Roth grew up in a small farming community in central Illinois. He said he looks forward to studying ways farmers can maximize their use of nitrogen, while being environmentally conscious.
“The question is, how can we manipulate our management with our systems to help alleviate some of these environmental issues, but continue to optimize agricultural production,” he said.
Roth can be reached at rtroth@iastate.edu or 515-294-1360.
