Congratulations to one of our outstanding alumni and advisory board members, Dr. Ed Barnes, who was honored with the National Cotton Ginner Association’s 2018-19 Charles C. Owen Distinguished Service Award! The award honors distinguished service to the cotton ginning industry.

Barnes is a senior director for Cotton Incorporated’s Agricultural and Environmental Research Division. This award honors those who have provided a career of distinguished service to the U.S. ginning industry.

Barnes received his B.S. and M.S. in Biological and Agricultural Engineering from North Carolina State University. While pursuing his doctorate at Oklahoma State University, he worked as an Extension engineer. In 1995, he joined USDA’s Agricultural Research Service as an agricultural engineer at the U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory in Phoenix, Ariz., developing uses of remotely sensed data for agricultural management, with a focus on water optimization. He joined Cotton Incorporated in 2002 serving as an associate director of the Agricultural and Environmental Research Division before being named Division director in 2007. Barnes serves as an advisor on the NCC’s Joint Cotton Industry Bale Packaging Committee and is a member of the NCGA’s Technology Committee.

Barnes has been a member of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) for 30 years. He served as chair of its Engineering for Sustainability Committee, is a trustee of its Foundation, and has been an ASABE fellow since 2017. In 2013, he was awarded the National Conservations Systems Precision Agricultural Researcher of the Year award, and in 2014, the ASABE Mayfield Cotton Engineer of the Year Award.