Request Expert

Expert's primary areas of specialization are agricultral systems analysis, agricultural production, agricultural safety, food and agricultural processing, greenhouse, and tissue culture. Expert has broad knowledge about agriculture, agricultural production, and agricultural systems. This knowledge comes from being raised on a livestock farm and from his current operation of a grain farm. Additionally, his training while earning degrees at three agricultural universities and his role as a professor at two others have given Expert the opportunity to research many different agricultural situations. He has had extensive experience with many aspects of agricultural systems. These include tillage, pest management as a licensed fumigator and pesticide applicator, irrigation, drainage, agricultural machines, grain bins, grain dryers, and livestock housing. At Penn State University, he teaches the capstone engineering design course for agricultural engineering students, "Optimization of Agricultural Systems." This course emphasizes systems engineering, systems analysis, and computer programming.


Expert has served as an expert witness on numerous occasions over the past 15 years concerning accidents involving agricultural machinery. These cases have involved a number of different agricultural machines. They have included a hay baler, flight conveyor, auger elevator, corn picker (two cases), lawn mower, silo unloader, and tractors. The accidents have included disfiguring twists, abrasions and cuts, amputation, electrocution, and mental impairment. Expert's qualifications for serving as an expert witness include his formal training in agricultural engineering, work experience with International Harvester, professorial teaching experiences, and first hand knowledge of the operation of agricultural machines from his ongoing experiences operating a grain farm.

Expert's primary area of research over the last two decades is controlled environments for plant production. This research has been done at Penn State University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Hawaii. It has included the design and construction of shadehouses and greenhouses, greenhouse heating systems, use of rejected water for heating greenhouses, greenhouse lighting, hydroponics, growth chambers, and micropropagation facilities. This work has led to dozens of publications. Expert's largest consulting job has been as the lending institutions technical representative in the construction of a $20 million, 30-acre greenhouse complex.

Some of Expert's current research at Penn State University is aimed at plant tissue culture. His work has included the design of bioreactors and growth chambers. He has worked extensively with the Hawaiian Sugar Planter Association in the optimization of sugarcane micropropagation.

Expert teaches the Agricultural Processing and Food Processing engineering courses at Penn State University. His areas of concentration are heat transfer, heat exchangers, fluid mechanics, pumps, fans, and materials handling.