Chad Higgins

Chad Higgins is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering at Oregon State University, part of the College of Agricultural Sciences. His research focuses on environmental fluid mechanics, agrivoltaics, and water resource management. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Johns Hopkins University (2007), an M.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins (2005), and a B.S. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from Cornell University (2000).

Research Interests:

• Agrivoltaics: Integrating solar energy and agriculture to enhance water use efficiency and energy production.
• Atmospheric Boundary Layer Processes: Investigating turbulence and scalar transport in complex terrains.
• Instrument Development: Creating novel sensors for measuring environmental variables like soil moisture and atmospheric fluxes.

Grants and Funding: Higgins has secured over $2.4 million in grants, including NSF support for projects like the INFEWS/T1 initiative on the Water-Energy-Food Nexus. He also leads the Water Resources Engineering graduate program and collaborates on interdisciplinary research.

Advising and Teams: He has mentored numerous graduate students and advises the Ecological Engineering Student Society. His work involves collaborations with institutions like the Ecohydrology Lab and the Center for Transformative Environmental Monitoring Programs (CTEMPs).