The Graduate Committee in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture has chosen Michael Sindelar, an agronomy graduate student specializing in soil and water sciences, as the recipient of the 2016 Daniel T. Walters Graduate Student Travel Fund. This award provides up to $500 for expenses to present research at a professional meeting.
Dr. Walters had a strong passion for graduate education, supervising more than 20 graduate students in their M.S. and Ph.D. programs. His thirst for knowledge led to an encyclopedic knowledge of crop and soil science. This award was established to honor his true global citizenship and his work as he aimed at understanding and making the world a better place for future generations.
Sindelar has chosen to present at the American Society of Agronomy-Crop Science Society of America-Soil Science Society of America 2016 Annual Meeting, Nov. 6–9 in Phoenix, Arizona. His research focuses on the effects that residue removal and cover-crop use have on soil physical properties. He is interested in how soil hydraulic and thermal properties are affected — looking at how these management practices affect pore-size distribution, water infiltration, water retention, saturated and unsaturated water flow, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and volumetric heat capacity. He is also looking at the combined effects when a cover crop is used after residue removal and he plans to explore models to predict soil properties and compare the predicted values to the measured values. Sindelar is advised by Associate Professor Humberto Blanco.
