Daniel R. Ess is an Associate Professor and Extension Agricultural Engineer at Purdue University. Dan was born in Paris, Missouri in 1961 and raised in the family farm equipment business. He received Bachelor of Science degrees in Agricultural Engineering and in Agricultural Mechanization from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1984. After a four-year stint in the family business, Dan entered graduate school at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural Engineering from that institution. His areas of research included the energetics of low-input corn production and the effects of crop roots and residues on machine-soil interaction. During his graduate school experience, Dan taught courses in agricultural technology and machinery management for students in agriculture, engineering, and forestry.

Dr. Ess joined the faculty of Purdue University's Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) Department in 1994. He worked with undergraduate and graduate students in the Agricultural Systems Management (ASM) Program as a teacher and an advisor. His applied research program included projects in low-ground-pressure in-field transport systems and in the precision land application of animal manure. After a two-year stint in the ASM Program at the University of Missouri, Dan has returned to Purdue University in a teaching and extension role with ABE. His focus is the development and evaluation of information-intensive, precision agricultural management systems.

Publication reprints available upon request or on my Google Scholar page.