William Batchelor, Ph.D - profile information

Short Bio

Dr. Batchelor currently serves as Director of the Water Resources Center, professor in Biosystems Engineering and adjunct professor in Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences at Auburn University. He has worked in the area of crop growth modeling since 1986. Dr. Batchelor earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural engineering at the University of Georgia in 1986 and 1987, respectively, and his doctorate in agricultural engineering at the University of Florida in 1993.  He worked at Iowa State University from 1994 until 2005 in the area of crop growth modeling, precision agriculture and crop management, advancing to the rank of professor.  He joined the Mississippi State University faculty in 2005 and served as Head of the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. He led the development of the Sustainable Energy Research Center at Mississippi State University.  Dr. Batchelor also served as the director of the Energy Institute at Mississippi State, which had approximately 200 researchers in several centers and departments.  From 2005 to 2007 he served as a Distinguished International Professor for the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany.  In 2009 he was named a Fellow of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers for his contributions to information and electrical technologies and biological engineering. He served as Dean of Agriculture and Director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station at Auburn University from 2010-2015.

During his career, Dr. Batchelor secured over $60 million in funding, published 150 peer reviewed journal articles and has given numerous presentations in over 20 countries. He served as the President of the Institute of Biological Engineers, Editor of the Transactions of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, served on the editorial board of Agricultural Systems and has received numerous paper awards. He has received numerous honors including being appointed as Hearin Eminent Scholar by Mississippi State University, named a Distinguished International professor by the University of Hohenheim, awarded the prestigious New Holland Young Researcher of the Year by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, received the Early Achievement in Research award from Iowa State University, and was selected by the National Academy of Engineering as one of the top 100 young engineers in the US in 2003. In 2019, he received the United States President’s National Service Award.