Ag Department Head Earns American Society of Civil Engineers Award

May 06, 2026

Suat Irmak, professor and head of Penn State’s Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, received the prestigious Royce J. Tipton Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) at the 2026 World Environmental and Water Resources Congress, held April 26-29 in Mobile, Alabama.

The award — established in 1964 and one of ASCE’s top honors — recognizes one society member a year for definitive contributions to the advancement of irrigation and drainage engineering management. This year, the award recognizes Irmak’s contributions to the advancement of agricultural engineering and science, irrigation, drainage, and water and soil resources engineering through impactful research, teaching and fulfilling the land-grant university mission. It acknowledges the excellence of his extension, outreach and education programs for unbiased scientific data, and knowledge transfer to stakeholders and communities to improve their well-being, operations, agricultural productivity, and enhance agro-ecosystem and environmental services, according to the society.

“Suat Irmak is an accomplished scientist and educator who is a leader in soil and water resources engineering,” said Troy Ott, Peter and Ann Tombros Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences. “This prestigious award highlights his dedication to science and sharing knowledge through teaching and his large-scale, impactful research, extension and outreach programs.”

One of Irmak’s research areas focuses on science and research-based economical, durable, accurate and easy-to-use and easy-to-interpret technology implementation in agriculture and natural resources. His large-scale research and extension/outreach programs — conducted in partnership with state and federal agency partners, producers and other agricultural professionals — have resulted in substantial large-scale impacts in terms of water saving, reduction in energy use and carbon dioxide emission in agricultural production, improving water quality and enhancing economic net return in agricultural operations, while protecting environmental and natural resources services.

Source : psu.edu

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The United States has more than 895 million acres of farmland, which includes all rural land tied to farming operations, from highly fertile Midwest cornfields to vast grazing ranges in the West, as well as the undeveloped rural land, which is often sold as ranches, homesteads, or uncultivated lots. Nowadays investing in rural land is very lucrative even billionaires like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett have bought up thousands of acres of farmland across America. In contrast to investors, agricultural companies, and business moguls, some buy farmland for their own requisites, like starting a small farmstead, creating a cottage, and becoming self-resilient. In this video we have ranked the top cheapest states to buy farmland according to the per-acre land value, which is accumulated from the United States Department of Agriculture. The USDA’s per-acre land values come from an annual survey, which is cross-checked with actual sales data, appraisals, and market trends to ensure accuracy. So here are The top Cheapest States to Buy Farmland.