Aaron Lee M. Daigh, associate professor of Vadose Zone Science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, has been awarded the 2025 Outstanding Young Alumni Award from the Department of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Arkansas.
Daigh is an associate professor in the Departments of Agronomy and Horticulture and Biological Systems Engineering and a courtesy associate professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health. A vadose zone hydrologist and soil physicist, Daigh directs research on vadose zone water quality and the fate and transport of nutrients and chemicals in agricultural landscapes overlying major aquifers. His research and classroom instruction have covered topics such as the transfer of energy and matter in soils and the vadose zone, sources of spatial and temporal variability, soil and water contamination and management, and agronomy.
In addition, Daigh is the 90th President Elect of the Soil Science Society of America, an ex-officio of the U.S. National Committee for Soil Sciences at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and a Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute Faculty Fellow.
Daigh earned a Bachelor of Science in environmental, soil and water science and Master of Science in crop, soil and environmental sciences from the University of Arkansas. In 2013 he completed a doctoral degree in soil science and environmental science from Iowa State University.
Prior to Nebraska, Daigh was an associate professor of soil physics and hydrology in the School of Natural Resource Sciences at North Dakota State University where he directed research on terrestrial remediation-reclamation-restoration of severely degraded lands, soil salinity, agricultural practices for conserving soil and water quality, and the spatial-temporal characteristics of soil processes across working landscapes.
