Episode 038: Solving for N

Measuring nitrogen, particularly plant available forms of nitrogen, in the soil in near real-time is a critical missing link furthering nitrogen management in agricultural production systems. Dr. Jonathan Claussen, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University, joins us for this episode to discuss measuring nitrogen in the soil. His research team has been working in collaboration with a research team at the University of Florida to develop and test soil nitrogen sensors. The sensors they have developed rely on an ion-selective membrane and communicate via telemetry. In this episode, we discuss ion selective membrane technology, the challenges of sensing nitrogen in the soil environment, and what is necessary to translate and commercialize technologies that have been developed for biomedical applications (e.g. ion-selective membranes) for agriculture. This episode concludes the "Nitrogen Management Technologies" series. Next up: Precision Crop Protection. Resources: Flexible Graphene Sensors: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.8b10991 Nanotechnology Initiative: https://www.nano.gov/ Dr. Claussen Info: Website: https://web.me.iastate.edu/claussen/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/dr_jclaussen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-claussen-4771818/ FarmBits Team Contact Info: E-Mail: farmbits@unl.edu Twitter: https://twitter.com/NEDigitalAg Samantha's Twitter: https://twitter.com/SamanthaTeten Samantha's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthateten/ Jackson's Twitter: https://twitter.com/jstansell87 Jackson's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacksonstansell/ Opinions expressed by the hosts and guests on this podcast are solely their own, and do not reflect the views of Nebraska Extension or the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.