Brian Gelder, research manager in agricultural and biosystems engineering, is the recipient of the staff 2024 Outstanding Achievement in Research Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University. His research program focuses on soil erosion. During his tenure as a self-funded researcher at Iowa State, he has been awarded $7.8 million for 24 grant projects as a PI or co-PI.
Gelder is leading the world’s geographically largest and arguably most technologically sophisticated real-time soil erosion estimation system that exists. His pioneering work integrating multiple forms of remotely sensed data to build a modeling system that estimates real-time spatially explicit soil erosion and water runoff, the Daily Erosion Project, is globally unique. USDA’s Agricultural Research Service has periodic updates on their soil erosion research progress, which guides future research activities. Gelder has been invited as the sole non-USDA soil erosion researcher for the last two USDA-ARS sessions to inform attendees of DEP progress. “As the world’s leading soil erosion science organization, an invitation from USDA-ARS to present to their erosion specialists speaks volumes about their respect for his work,” states a colleague.
Gelder has attained an excellent publication record for a self-funded staff researcher. His work is also receiving an increasing level of international visibility, with invitations to present at national and international conferences. He has been to China and South Korea to present his research findings and interact with their researchers on soil erosion models - “Clear evidence of Brian’s research impact on solving environmental issues facing the global society,” said a colleague.
Gelder’s unique research has attracted numerous graduate students, and he has served on several master’s and doctorate committees. He is also noted for devoting time to help young scientists develop their skills. He has mentored five undergraduate students on senior capstone projects and taught two interdepartmental courses.