Australian Centre for Precision Agriculture
Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
McMillan Building A05
University of Sydney NSW 2006 AUSTRALIA
Tel + 61 2 9351 5813
Fax + 61 2 9351 3706
Email r.viscarra-rossel@usyd.edu.au
Born: 19 June 1970 in La Paz, Bolivia
Nationality: Australian
Languages: English and Spanish (strong); French (moderate)

Research

pedometrics
soil diffuse reflectance spectroscopy
proximal soil sensing
precision agriculture

Funded research

2005-2008
Research fellowship. Australian Centre for Precision Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources, University of Sydney, NSW.

(i) Australian Cotton Catchment Communities CRC. The project involves the development of a soil spectral library for cotton growing growing regions of NSW and Qld.

(ii) Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC). Project to develop rapid soil tests for growers

2004-2005
Research fellowship. Australian Centre for Precision Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources, University of Sydney, NSW. Australian Cotton Catchment Communities CRC. The project involves the creation of a GIS and digital soil map layers for the major cotton growing reagions in Australia.

2001-2004
Research fellowship. Australian Centre for Precision Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources, University of Sydney, NSW. The project involved developing an 'on-the-go' proximal soil pH and lime requirement measurement system prototype for the site-specific management of acid agricultural soil. The project was funded by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage grant with Computronics Corporation Ltd. The collaborators on this project are the Swedish Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering (JTI) and Farmscan, the agricultural section of Computronics Corporation Ltd. Engineers at Farmscan are currently developing the commercial prototype of the system.

2000-2001
Post-doctoral research position. INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique), Rennes, France. The projects involved: (i.) development of a technique for rapid field measurements of soil pH, (ii.) development of a technique for inexpensive in-field measurements of soil colour to be used as a predictor of soil organic carbon content (iii.) a spatio-temporal simulation to study the field-scale evolution of soil organic carbon (iv.) development of a lime requirement model for the Armorican Massif and (v.) application of spatial point processes to lead contamination in urban soil

Teaching

2004 - present
Remote and proximal sensing

2002 - present
Aspects of pedometrics and soil diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

1995 - 2000
Aspects of pedometrics and precision agriculture

Conferences attended

2005

• Cotton Farming System meeting, Goondowindi, Qld
• 6th Australian Conference on Vibrational Spectroscopy. 28-30 September, University of Sydney, Australia.(Paper and poster presentations)
• Pedometrics 2005, 12-14 September 2005, Florida. (Paper and poster presentations)

2004

• SuperSoils 3rd Australian and New Zealand Soil Science Societiesjoint conference, 5-9 December 2004, University of Sydney. (Paper and poster presentation)
• 7th International Conference on Precision Agriculture and Other Precision Resources Management, Minneapolis - Minnesota, USA (Paper presentation)

2003

• 7th Symposium on precision agriculture research and implementation in Australasia, Mawson Lakes Campus, University of SA, Adelaide (Paper presentation)
• International Workshop on Sugar Cane Agronomy, Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute (MSIRI)/ International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists (ISSCT), MSIRI 21-25 July 2003, Mauritius. (Keynote address: '20th Century Precision Agriculture for 21st Century Agriculture')

2002

• 17th World Congress of Soil Science, Bangkok, Thailand (Paper presentation)

2001

• 3rd European Conference on Precision Agriculture, Montpellier, France (Paper presentation)
• Colloque l'acidification des sols: origine, approche, enjeux et maîtrise, Versailles, Frances (Poster presentation)

1999

• ISSS Pedometrics '99, Sydney, Australia (poster presentation)

1997

• 1st European Conference on Precision Agriculture, Warwick, UK (Paper presentation)
• ISSS Pedometrics '97, Madison WI, USA
• ASAE Annual Meeting, Minneapolis MN, USA

1996

• ASSI/NSSI Conference, Melbourne, Australia (Paper presentation)

1997-2000, 2002, 2003, 2004

• Annual Precision Agriculture Symposium on Australian Research, Sydney (Paper presentation in 1997, 2003)

Affiliations

Member - International Union of Soil Science (IUSS)
Member - Australian Society of Soil Science (ASSS)
Member - British Society of Soil Science (BSSS)
Member - American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE)
Member - Southern Precision Agriculture Association (SPAA)