AWARDS: 2007 Royce J. Tipton Award

Dr. Wynn Walker received the Royce J. Tipton Award at the ASCE/EWRI World Water and Environment Congress, May 15–19, 2007 in Tampa, Florida for significant theoretical and practical contributions in surface irrigation hydraulic modeling, estimation of field properties needed for irrigation modeling and management, salinity control, sprinkle and drip irrigation, irrigation hydrology; canal hydraulics and control, and irrigation water allocation and planning. Dr. Walker’s expertise is recognized nationally and internationally. He has worked on projects for USDI-USBR, USEPA, USDA-NRCS, USAID, the Inter-American Development Bank, the U.S. Food and Agricultural Organization, and the U.N. Development Program. His major contributions include the surface irrigation model SIRMOD; the textbook, Surface Irrigation: Design and Practice, coauthored with Dr. G. V. Skogerboe; and FAO’s Irrigation and Drainage Paper 45.

Dr. Walker has been a faculty member at Utah State University since 1980. Currently, he is an associate dean in the College of Engineering and a Professor in the Biological and Irrigation Engineering Department. Before his current position, he served as head of the Department of Biological and Irrigation Engineering for 17 years. Prior to joining the faculty at Utah State, he was a faculty member at Colorado State University from 1969 to 1980. He has advised 53 graduate students, 23 of them at the Ph.D. level.

As a researcher, Dr. Walker has published more than 110 refereed journal articles, conference proceedings papers, and reports. The quality of his research has been recognized. In 1984 he received Utah State University’s Excellence in Research Award from the College of Engineering, in 1994 he was awarded the D. Wynne Thorne Research Award, in 2004 he received the Utah Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology, and more recently, in 2005, he received the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers’ Award for the Advancement of Surface irrigation.

Dr. Walker has also been a leader in the profession and has been actively involved in ASCE/EWRI, where he currently is a member of the On-Farm and Irrigation Delivery and Drainage Systems Technical Committees. He is also a member of the American Society of Biological and Agricultural Engineers, the U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, and the American Water Resources Association.

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