David C. Nielsen is a Research Agronomist with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Central Great Plains Research Station in Akron, CO (since 1983). He also currently holds adjunct faculty positions with the University of Nebraska Department of Agronomy and Horticulture and with the Colorado State University Department of Soil and Crop Sciences. He grew up on a diversified crop and livestock farm in north-central Iowa and holds a BS in meteorology and an MS in Agronomy/Agricultural Climatology from Iowa State University. Dr. Nielsen earned his Ph.D in Bioenvironmental Engineering (Agricultural Meteorology) from the University of Nebraska in 1983. His research centers on water storage and use for crop production in dryland (rainfed) and irrigated production systems in the semi-arid Central Great Plains. He is known nationally and internationally for his work and expertise in automated weather data collection, infrared thermometry for quantification of water stress, crop water relations, crop rotations, cropping systems, water use efficiency, water use/yield production functions, irrigation scheduling, simulation modeling of cropping systems, and microclimate changes due to residue management. Results of Dr. Nielsen’s research have been used by farmers, crop consultants, and scientists throughout the Great Plains and other semiarid regions of the world to improve cropping system water use efficiency and profitability while protecting the soil resource. Dr. Nielsen has served on the editorial boards of Crop Science and Agronomy Journal. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America. He has received the L.R. Ahuja Ag Systems Modeling Award from the Soil Science Society of America and the Carl Sprengel Agronomic Research Award from the American Society of Agronomy.