Biobased Industry Outlook Conference
August 29-30, 2005
Iowa State University - Ames, IA
John Laflen
John Laflen, a retired USDA-ARS research scientist, is currently an Adjunct Professor of Agricultural Engineering at Iowa State University. He lives on his farm in Northern Iowa and is a registered Professional Engineer in Iowa and Louisiana.
Laflen’s current research involves the study of daily soil erosion prediction for the state of Iowa. Since his retirement from ARS in 2000, he has been a visiting professor at Purdue. He has also served as an advisor at Iowa State on research projects related to biomass production impacts on soil erosion and the use of composted materials to control erosion on highway construction projects. Laflen is also a private consultant on soil erosion and material movement due to erosion.
Prior to joining the ARS, Laflen was involved in surface drainage research at Louisiana State University, and then soil erosion research related to terracing and conservation tillage at Iowa State University. He then served as the director of the National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory at Purdue University.
Throughout his career Laflen has been awarded numerous awards including the Distinguished Service Award from the USDA. This is one of the highest awards given by the USDA and was awarded to Laflen for his work as a member of a team that modeled the impact of erosion on the nations ability to produce food and fiber. He was also awarded the prestigious Superior Service Award by the USDA as a team member in the development of a fundamental process based model for predicting soil erosion.
Laflen was a major contributor to the development of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation, and was leader of the Water Erosion Prediction Project from 1989 to 1999. He is a fellow of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers and the Soil and Water Conservation Society. He was Co-Chairman and Editor of the Proceedings of a Symposium on Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming held in Xian China in 1997. He has published extensively on the effect of crop residue and tillage on soil erosion, and was a major contributor to studies that determined the impact of conservation tillage on plant nutrient and pesticide losses. He obtained his B.S. and M.S. from the University of Missouri and his Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering from Iowa State University.
