Agrochemical products such as pesticides are a central component for modern agriculture and the food security of nations across the globe. The anticipated population growth to over 9 billion by 2050 will require growing more food on even less land and with potentially greater overall chemical use. However, in certain settings pesticides are a continual threat to freshwater ecological quality and represents one of Society’s “Grand Challenges” today. While pesticide exposure and effect research has been dominated by the ecotoxicology discipline, agricultural and biological engineers should collaborate with ecotoxicologists to apply engineering systems-analysis and integrative modeling approaches to unravel the mechanistic understanding of pesticides, metabolites, and other agrochemicals in the environment, and identify effective mitigation strategies. This session will convene experts presenting recent laboratory, field, and modeling studies that provide new insights on the behavior and mitigation of pesticides in the “real world” environment. The event will consist of a keynote session (2:30-4:30 pm) followed by a synthesis panel (4:30-5:30 pm).
Speakers
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Towards Sustainable Environmental Quality: Priority Research Questions in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Bryan W. Brooks, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Institute of Biomedical Studies, Baylor University, Waco, TX |
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Challenges and Opportunities in Going from Aquatic Exposure Assessments to Risk Management: A Regulatory Perspective Nelson Thurman, Ph.D., Senior Advisor, US EPA OPP-EFED, Washington, D.C. |
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Pest Management Policy at USDA: A Hub of Science, Economics, and Law Sheryl H. Kunickis, Ph.D., Director, Office of Pest Management Policy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. |
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Tipping into the Future of Pesticides Risk Assessment: Where Landscape-Scale Data and Mechanistically Driven Chemical Risk Assessment Meet Tilghman Hall, PhD, Director, Environmental Toxicology and Risk Assessment, Regulatory Science North America, Bayer CropScience LP, Raleigh, NC |
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A Regional Ground Water Leaching Assessment Tool for Pesticide Registration Chittaranjan Ray, Ph. D., P.E., Director, Nebraska Water Center, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE |
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Incorporating the Benefits of Vegetative Filter Strips and Riparian Buffers into Risk Management and Assessment of Pesticides Rafael Muñoz-Carpena Professor & University Term Professor, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL |
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Incorporating the Benefits of Vegetative Filter Strips and Riparian Buffers into Risk Management and Assessment of Pesticides Garey Fox Professor & Department Head, NC State University, Raleigh, NC |