Gassman, Philip

Phil Gassman is an environmental scientist in the Resource and Environmental Policy (REP) Division at CARD, which he joined in 1987. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in agricultural engineering in 1984 and 1986, respectively, and his Ph.D. in environmental science in May 2008, all from Iowa State. His research efforts support the integration of environmental and economic models that are used to assess policy scenario impacts for watersheds and other regions, and the testing of field- and watershed-scale models.

Gassman has worked on such varied projects as analysis of the risks and benefits of herbicide use, soil erosion and soil nitrogen loss studies, atrazine leaching in the Midwest, the impacts of alternative practices of livestock operations, and the nature of hog confinement odor. Currently, he is collaborating with Iowa Department of Natural Resources and University of Washington researchers on reverse auction feasibility studies funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the Boone River watershed in north central Iowa, the Walnut Creek watershed in east central Iowa, and the Raccoon River watershed in west central Iowa (which also includes an assessment of the feasibility of water quality trading). He will also be taking part in a new study with researchers at USDA-ARS, Texas A&M University, Louisiana State University, and the University of Washington funded by the National Science Foundation that will investigate the potential for the adoption of alternative management and cropping systems in the Upper Mississippi River and Ohio River basins to mitigate the extent of the seasonal hypoxic zone that forms annually in the Gulf of Mexico.