Abstract:

Farmers and their modern machinery collect prodigious amounts of data while engaging in the critical task of producing food to feed the world. Thinking about agriculture and agricultural data like a physicist is an unusual but very fruitful way of approaching the complex problems of helping farmers maximize their profits and production while managing their environmental impact.  The techniques that physicists regularly use for a wide range of problems have applicability and can lead to interesting discoveries and cultural processes, and this crossing of fields called “agrophysics” is an exciting opportunity for convergent research.  This talk will explore data, data acquisition, modeling and the huge potential for changing how agricultural practitioners and physicists might work together.  We will also explore what is needed for data to revolutionize agriculture in ways that it has yet to do.