Lethbridge Polytechnic researcher profile series: Michael Kehoe

Southern Alberta is known as Canada’s Premier Food Corridor – a reputation built on hard work, rich soil and one critical advantage: irrigation. But as water supplies become less predictable and restrictions more common, ensuring every drop is used efficiently is no longer optional.

Dr. Michael Kehoe is a research scientist with the Mueller Irrigation Research Group (MIRG), within Lethbridge Polytechnic’s Centre for Applied Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CARIE). Working within a small, interdisciplinary team, Kehoe develops software tools that help irrigators make better-informed decisions about when and how much to water their crops.

Originally from Australia, Kehoe has a bachelor of science in computational mathematics from the Australian National University and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Queensland. Early in his career, Kehoe was recruited to study ocean hydrodynamics and the effects of climate change on the North Atlantic, a major driver of weather patterns in western Europe. Based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, he worked as part of a large international team examining how warming oceans are becoming more thermally stratified – a process where surface water prevents nutrients from circulating upward.

“Increased ocean stratification leads to major changes in phytoplankton populations, which disrupts ecosystems and food webs,” says Kehoe. “It showed me how changes in water systems can have significant consequences.”