Derek Heeren

Derek Heeren

Contact Information:

East Campus (Lincoln)
239 L.W. Chase Hall
derek.heeren@unl.edu
402-472-8577

Personal Links:

Professional Memberships:


Associate Professor and Irrigation Engineer
Water for Food Global Institute Faculty Fellow

Academic Degrees

  • Ph.D., Biosystems Engineering, Oklahoma State University, 2012
  • M.S., Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, South Dakota State University, 2008
  • B.S., Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, South Dakota State University, 2004
  • Licensed Professional Engineer, State of Oklahoma

Certifications

  • Ph.D., P.E.

Sensors on the Pivot for Automated Irrigation

More information: https://go.unl.edu/7umr

New Textbook: Irrigation Systems Management

More information: https://www.asabe.org/ISM

Appointment

  • 58% Research
  • 40% Teaching
  • 2% Service

Curriculum Vitae (CV):

Heeren CV July 2023.pdf

Areas of Research and Professional Interest

Research Interests:
  • Irrigation engineering and management
  • Sprinkler and variable rate irrigation systems
  • Irrigation management based on remote sensing
  • Nitrate leaching to groundwater
  • International irrigation development
Teaching Interests:
  • Agricultural systems technology (new major!)
  • Irrigation systems management
  • Agricultural engineering
  • Irrigation and water resources engineering

Courses Taught

About Derek Heeren

The objective of Dr. Heeren's teaching program is to prepare students to be wise managers of irrigation, water resources, and agricultural systems. He teaches courses in agricultural systems technology and agricultural engineering, advises undergraduate and graduate students, and is coadvisor for the Agricultural Systems Technology Club. Students working with Derek get hands-on experience with irrigation technology while working with industry partners. Derek recently published a textbook on Irrigation Systems Management, available at https://asabe.org/ism. He also has various leadership roles in ASABE and is the Irrigation and Agricultural Water Management (IAWM) Education Coordinator for the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute (DWFI). For information on Derek's research, visit his research website at https://heeren.unl.edu/. Before starting graduate school, Derek spent two years working at a civil engineering firm in the St. Louis, Missouri, area. He grew up on a farm in southeastern South Dakota and developed an interest in conserving natural resources while participating in FFA land judging and natural resources competitions. He is married to Amber and has four children (ages 13 to 19).

Honors and Awards

  • Heermann Sprinkler Irrigation Award. 2023. Amercian Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.
  • A. W. Farrall Young Educator Award. 2018. Amercian Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.
  • Distinguished Alumnus Award. 2017. Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, South Dakota State University.
  • ASABE Superior Paper Award. 2016. For the refereed journal article: Heeren, D. M., G. A. Fox, and D. E. Storm. Heterogeneity of infiltration rates in alluvial floodplains as measured with a berm infiltration technique.

Selected Publications

Selected Journal Articles:

  • Bhatti, S., Heeren, D. M., O'Shaughnessy, S. A., Neale, C. M. U., LaRue, J. L., Melvin, S. R., Wilkening, E. J., & Bai, G. 2023. Toward automated irrigation management with integrated crop water stress index and spatial soil water balance. Precision Agriculture. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-023-10038-4 
  • Bhatti, S., Heeren, D. M., Evett, S. R., O’Shaughnessy, S. A., Neale, C. M. U., Rudnick, D. R., Franz, T. E., & Ge, Y. 2022. Crop response to thermal stress without yield loss in irrigated maize and soybean in Nebraska. Agricultural Water Management 274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2022.107946
  • Bhatti, S., D. M. Heeren, S. A. O’Shaughnessy, S. R. Evett, M. S. Maguire, S. P. Kashyap, and C. M. U. Neale. 2022. Comparison of stationary and mobile canopy sensing systems for irrigation management of maize and soybean in Nebraska. Applied Engineering in Agriculture 38(2): 331-342. https://doi.org/10.13031/aea.14945
  • Singh, J., Y. Ge, D. M. Heeren, E. Walter-Shae, C. M. U. Neale, S. Irmak, and M. S. Maguire. 2022. Unmanned aerial system-based data ferrying over a sensor node station network in maize. Sensors 22: 1863. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22051863
  • Singh, J., D. M. Heeren, D. R. Rudnick, W. E. Woldt, G. Bai, Y. Ge, and J. D. Luck. 2020. Soil structure and texture effects on the precision of soil water content measurements with a capacitance-based electromagnetic sensor. Transactions of the ASABE 63(1): 141-152. https://doi.org/10.13031/trans.13496
  • Evett, S. R., P. D. Colaizzi, F. R. Lamm, S. A. O’Shaughnessy, D. M. Heeren, T. J. Trout, W. L. Kranz, and X. Lin. 2020. Past, present and future of irrigation on the U.S. Great Plains. Transactions of the ASABE 63(3): 703-729. https://doi.org/10.13031/trans.13620
  • Chavez, J. L., A. F. Torres-Rua, W. E. Woldt, H. Zhang, C. Robertson, G. W. Marek, D. Wang, D. M. Heeren, S. Taghvaeian, and C. M. U. Neale 2020. A decade of unmanned aerial systems in irrigated agriculture in the Western U.S. Applied Engineering in Agriculture 36(4): 423-436. https://doi.org/10.13031/aea.13941
  • Barker, J. B., C. M. U. Neale, D. M. Heeren, and A. E. Suyker. 2018. Evaluation of a hybrid reflectance-based crop coefficient and energy balance evapotranspiration model for irrigation management. Transactions of the ASABE 61(2): 533-548. https://doi.org/10.13031/trans.12311