Suat Irmak recently received the Extension Award of Merit Award from the “Gamma Sigma Delta (The Honor Society of Agriculture)” for his contributions to the Land-Grant Mission with his outstanding service and extensive work on truly integrating his research, science and extension/education programs to serve citizens and make their lives better.
Exhibiting excellence in research, science, and extension, and integrating and disseminating relevant and quality data and information Suat helps citizens in their management practices. He has developed signature extension programs with substantial impacts. His research and education programs are being used/mimicked as a model in most of UNL’s Research and Extension Centers, including West Central Research and Extension Center and Panhandle Research and Extension Center, and by other U.S. states and internationally.
One of Suat’s signature large scale programs is the Nebraska Agricultural Water Management Network (NAWMN), which he established with an outstanding team of Extension Educators, Natural Resources Districts (NRD) partners, USDA-NRCS colleagues, farmers, and crop consultants. NAWMN was founded in 2004-2005 and it is the largest agricultural water management program in the United States.
NAWMN’s significant impacts in Nebraska have been more than all other water management programs combined. The network-enabled the adoption of new technologies and strategies for conservation of soil, water, and energy resources in agriculture through an unprecedented effort of establishing over 800 demonstration projects throughout Nebraska providing hands-on teaching and training to 15,000+ learners. This Network has essentially changed the way irrigation is managed in Nebraska and beyond.
The network now has over 1,500 farmers and crop consultants as partners/members who have been utilizing the tools and technologies and educational materials taught in the NAWMN with over two inches of reduction in irrigation water withdrawal per growing season every year on approximately three million acres of land represented by Network partners. The network enabled $80-$100 million in total energy saving since 2005 due to a reduction in energy use for irrigation water withdrawal. In successive years, more partners (20 of Nebraska’s 23 NRDs) joined, providing more equipment for cost-share programs. The total reduction in water withdrawal since 2005 exceeded 1.5 million acre-feet.
NAWMN has been an excellent example of effective and efficient teamwork to make large scale positive impacts in the real world. The Network also developed one of the first smartphone apps that is widely used nationally and internationally for irrigation management decisions. NAWMN functions and some of Suat’s research programs are implemented into the national USDA-NRCS soil and water conservation incentive programs. Some of his innovative research and education activities in soil and water resources engineering have been used by the USDA Undersecretary for research, education, and economics as an example of signature programs in the U.S. Congressional Discussions at U.S. Congress on justification of continuation of Hatch and Smith-Lever Federal Support Funds for research and extension.
NAWMN received numerous national and international awards and recognitions, including “USDA-NIFA National Innovative Programs and Partnership Award” presented by the USDA-NIFA Director and USDA Undersecretary, which was the first of such an award in UNL’s history. Before NAWMN was initiated, Nebraska ranked very poorly in terms of technology implementation for water management. Now, Nebraska is ranked number one in the number of farms that use technology for water management decisions and NAWMN had a significant impact on this ranking.
Suat’s scholarly productivity that supports his research, education and extension programs includes authoring over 360 publications, including 200 refereed journal articles in prestigious journals and 60 refereed Extension/education articles. Suat also has over 500 scientific, research and education presentations with over 200 invited presentations/keynotes related to his research, extension and education programs.
Suat contributed significantly to the graduate education mission of the BSE Department with mentoring/advising over 60 Ph.D. and MS students. 10 of his former students and team members are now faculty members. All other students are employed in USDA, NRCS, USAID, Commodity Boards, and private industry. Suat has been able to obtain about 10 million grants to support his research, extension and education programs. All his graduate students, post-docs, research technicians, research assistant and associate professors he supervises in his research team have been supported by his grants since 2004.