Grants

(updated October 18, 2026)

18. PI, “Public R&D, Crop Insurance, and Agricultural Productivity Growth: Evidence from Decomposed Total Factor Productivity in the United States.” Agricultural Research Enhancement & Seed Funding Program, College of Agriculture, Auburn University. $70,000. (submitted on 7/17/2026)

17. PI, “Are all innovations created equal? Evaluating agricultural innovations by startups, large agribusinesses, and public research institutions in the United States.” Agricultural Research Enhancement & Seed Funding Program, College of Agriculture, Auburn University. $10,000. (submitted on 7/9/2025)

16. Co-PI, “Advancing the Circular Polymer Economy through Multitiered Workforce Development in Polymer Metrology.” with PI Edward Davis (Mechanical Engineering, Auburn), Co-PIs Yucheng Peng (Forestry & Wildlife Sciences, Auburn), Bryan Beckingham (Chemical Engineering, Auburn), and Russell Mailen (Aerospace Engineering, Auburn). Training for Improving Plastics Circularity (TIPC) Grant Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). $500,000. (submitted on 07/17/2023)

15. Co-PI, “Supplemental Funding Request for `EFRI E3P: Supercritical Extraction for the Elimination of End-of-Life Plastics (SCE3P)’.” (Involving High School Students in an Active NSF/EFRI Project). with PI Edward Davis (Mechanical Engineering, Auburn), Co-PIs Virgina Davis (Chemical Engineering, Auburn), Yucheng Peng (Forestry & Wildlife Sciences, Auburn), and Bryan Beckingham (Chemical Engineering, Auburn). Research Experience and Mentoring (REM) Program, NSF. $98,013. (submitted on 11/6/2023)

14. Co-PI, “Supplemental Funding Request for `EFRI E3P: Supercritical Extraction for the Elimination of End-of-Life Plastics (SCE3P)’.” (Involving High School Students in an Active NSF/EFRI Project). with PI Edward Davis (Mechanical Engineering, Auburn), Co-PIs Virgina Davis (Chemical Engineering, Auburn), Yucheng Peng (Forestry & Wildlife Sciences, Auburn), and Bryan Beckingham (Chemical Engineering, Auburn). Research Experience and Mentoring (REM) Program, NSF. $95,602. (submitted on 11/17/2021)

13. PI, “Mitigating Climate Change with the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP): The Role of Carbon Credits and CRP Re-Design,” with Co-PIs Chaoqun Lu (Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State), Marshall McDaniel (Department of Agronomy, Iowa State), and Wendiam Sawadgo (Auburn U.). Agriculture and Food Research Initiative: Foundational Program, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA. Award Number: 2022-67023-36383. $649,955. (submitted on 7/15/2021)

12. Participant, “AI in Agroecosystems: Big Data and Smart Technology-Driven Sustainable Production (Multistate Research Project S-1090),” with PI Won Suk Lee (Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Florida) and many other participants. 10/01/2021-09/30/2026. National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA. (submitted on 07/28/2021)

11. Senior Personnel, “Designing Agrivoltaics for Sustainably Intensifying Food and Energy Production,” with PI Madhu Khanna (Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, UIUC) and Co-PIs Carl Bernacchi (USDA), Evan DeLucia (Department of Plant Biology, UIUC), Greg Barron-Gafford (School of Geography and Development, U. of Arizona), Bruce Branham (Department of Crop Sciences, UIUC), Kaiyu Guan (Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences, UIUC), Bin Peng (Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences, UIUC), Alan Knapp (Department of Biology, Colorado State U.), Chad Lane (Department of Educational Psychology, UIUC), DK Lee (Department of Crop Sciences, UIUC), Nenad Miljkovic (Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, UIUC), Nuria Gomez-Casanovas (Department of Plant Biology, UIUC), Iris Caldwell (Energy Resource Management, UI-Chicago), Samantha Lindgren (Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, UIUC), Dennis Bowman (Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Illinois Extension, Urbana-Champaign), Jordan Macknick (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden), and Ron Meyer (Agronomist, Colorado State University Extension). Agriculture and Food Research Initiative – Sustainable Agricultural Systems, USDA. 9/15/2021-9/14/2025. $10 million. Grant number: 2021-68012-35898 (full proposal submitted on 4/1/2021, award abstract available at: {https://cris.nifa.usda.gov/cgi-bin/starfinder/0?path=fastlink1.txt\&id=anon\&pass=\&search=R=94424\&format=WEBLINK).

10. Co-PI, “EFRI E3P: Supercritical Extraction for the Elimination of End-of-Life Plastics (SCE3P).” with PI Edward Davis (Mechanical Engineering, Auburn), Co-PIs Virgina Davis (Chemical Engineering, Auburn), Yucheng Peng (Forestry & Wildlife Sciences, Auburn), and Bryan Beckingham (Chemical Engineering, Auburn). Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) Program, NSF. 8/15/2021-8/14/2025. $1,980,029. Award number: 2132093. (submitted on 1/12/2021, award abstract available at: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2132093\&HistoricalAwards=false).

9. Co-PI, “INFEWS U.S.-China: Integrated Systems Modeling for Sustainable FEW Nexus under Multi-factor Global Changes: Innovative Comparison between the Yellow River and Mississippi River Basins,” with PI Hanqin Tian (Auburn) and Co-PIs: Chaoqun Lu (Iowa State), Susan Pan (Auburn), Qiang Yu (Northwest Agriculture and Forestry U. (NWAFU) and Chinese Academy of Sciences), and Hao Feng, Jianqiang He, Bangbang Zhang (NWAFU); Xiaojun Wang and Anbang Peng (State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute (NHRI)). NSF/NSFC Joint Research on Environmental Sustainability Challenges (INFEWS: U.S.-China). 07/1/2019-6/30/2023. $500,000 for U.S.-based researchers from NSF and \yen 2,998,600 for China-based researchers from NSFC in the team. Award number: 1903722. (submitted in 10/2018; award abstract available at: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1903722)

8. Co-PI, “Exploring plant-microbiome-environment interactions towards tailoring plant disease management,” with PI Neha Potnis (Auburn, Entomology and Plant Pathology) and Co-PIs Edward Sikora (Auburn, Entomology and Plant Pathology), Di Tian (Auburn, Crop Soil and Environmental Sciences), and Karen Garrett (U. of Florida, Plant Pathology). Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), 2019 New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Award. $581,992.89 (FFAR funds and matching funds). (submitted in 04/2019).

7. PI, “`Bee’ Productive and `Bee’ Safe: A Study of Apiculture Productivity and Apiculture Pilot Insurance Program,” with Co-PI Brittney Goodrich (Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, Auburn University). FY2019 AAES Award for Agricultural Research Enhancement, Exploration and Development (AAES-AgR-SEED) program, Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, Auburn University. 10/1/2018-9/30/2020. $50,000. (submitted in 06/2018; proposal ranked top 1 among 24 submissions to the 2018 AAES-AgR-SEED program)

6. Co-PI, “Reducing Antibiotic Use in Catfish Aquaculture: A New Approach to Control Enteric Septicemia of Catfish (ESC) Using CRISP,” with Yi Wang (PI, Biosystems Engineering), Co-PIs Cova Arias and Allen Davis (both of School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences). All PIs are from Auburn University. FY2019 AAES Award for Interdisciplinary Research (AAES-AIR) program, Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, Auburn University. 10/1/2018-9/30/2020. $140,000. (submitted in 06/2018)

5. PI, “Production Risk of Alabama Agriculture: Its Determinants and the Effects of Risk Management Tools on Farmers’ Production Efficiency and Welfare,” with Co-PIs Emir Malikov, Denis Nadolnyak, and Max Runge, all in Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, Auburn University. Production Agriculture Research Funding Program, Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, Auburn University. 5/1/2017-4/30/2019. $35,000. (submitted in 02/2017)

4. Co-PI, “Understanding and Advancing Agroclimate Forecasting for Decision Making,” with Di Tian (PI, Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences, Auburn University), and Co-PIs: William D. Batchelor (Biosystems Engineering, Auburn University), Hanqin Tian (School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University), and Senthold Asseng (Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Florida). Intramural Grants Program, Auburn University. 5/1/2017-4/30/2019. $40,000. (submitted in 12/2016)

3. PI, “Incentivizing Feedstock Supply for the Bioeconomy: Implications for Ecosystem Services and Policy Design” with Madhu Khanna (Co-PI) and Evan DeLucia (Co-PI), Agriculture and Food Research Initiative: Foundational Program, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA. $499,886. 05/01/2017 – 4/30/2020. Award number: 2017-67019-26283. (submitted in 07/2016; proposal ranked top 1 among 23 submissions to the same priority area)

2. Co-PI, “Establishing and Promoting Regional and Farm-Specific Brands for Specialty Crops in Alabama” with Deacue Fields (PI), Loka Ashwood (Co-PI), and Joe Kemble (Co-PI), USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant. $25,000. 01/02/2017 to 5/31/2018. (submitted in 05/2016)

1. Co-PI, “Risk Mitigation Strategies to Induce Participation in the Advanced Biofuel Industry by Small/Medium-Sized Farmers: Effectiveness and Implications for Policy Design,” with Madhu Khanna (PI) and Nicholas Paulson (Co-PI), Agriculture and Food Research Initiative: Foundational Program, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA. $495,000. Award number: 2014-68006-21872. 04/01/2014 – 03/31/2017. (submitted in 05/2013)