Project Team

Michael D. Dukes, Ph.D., P.E.

Dr. Dukes holds degrees in Agricultural Engineering and Civil & Environmental Engineering specializing in water management and water quality of biological systems. He leads a research team investigating water conservation and water quality of urban and vegetable irrigated systems and well as low impact development methods to prevent stormwater runoff. He can be reached at mddukes@ufl.edu.

Learn more about Dr. Dukes in this video

Research Team

Mackenzie Boyer, PE

Mackenzie graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a MS in Environmental Engineering. She has worked for Black & Veatch and CH2M HILL as a consulting engineer specializing in municipal water and wastewater treatment design. Her research focuses on landscape irrigation water use in southwest Florida. Mackenzie is a registered professional engineer in Florida and North Carolina and LEED Accredited Professional. She can be reached at mjboyer@ufl.edu.

Learn more about Mackenzie in this video

Eliza Breder

Eliza Breder graduated in 2013 with a B.S. in Sustainability and the Built Environment. Her experience includes a year-long study abroad program in Brazil where she worked on projects pertaining to water conservation, efficiency, and supply. As a part of the irrigation research team, Eliza performs sprinkler distribution uniformity tests, manages irrigation controller technology data, and contributes to a strawberry frost protection related project. She can be reached at elizambreder@gmail.com.

Learn more about Eliza in the video

Bernard Cardenas-Lailhacar — Research Associate

Bernard Cardenas-Lailhacar holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Agricultural and Biological Engineering, with a minor in Environmental Horticulture. His research is focused in water conservation, analyzing which of the state-of-the-art irrigation technologies are the most suitable for Florida conditions. He can be reached at bernardc@ufl.edu

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Stacia Davis

Stacia L. Davis graduated from the University of Florida with an M.E. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering in 2008 and from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2005. She continues her graduate education by pursuing a PhD degree, also from the University of Florida Agricultural and Biological Engineering department, that concentrates on residential outdoor water conservation. Her current projects focus on the evaluation and implementation of smart controllers that use ET for scheduling irrigation. She can be reached at stacia@ufl.edu.

Learn more about Stacia in this video

Michael Gutierrez

Michael is a Water Resources Technician. He holds a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Florida State University. Currently he works on water conservation-focused projects in Central and Southwest Florida. Michael is also a skilled blogger and visual media producer. He can be reached at smgutier@ufl.edu.

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Maria Isabel Zamora

Maria graduated from EARTH University in Costa Rica with a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering. During that time, she participated in a student exchange program at the University of Florida where she worked with irrigation control using soil moisture sensors in turfgrass. Since graduation in Fall 2008, she has gained experience by filling multiple positions at various golf courses throughout Costa Rica. She is now working on multiple projects including distribution uniformity and frost protection of strawberries, and the University of Florida SWAT testing of rain sensors for the Irrigation Association. She can be reached at mzamora@ufl.edu.

Learn more about Maria in this video

Collaborators

Jason K. Kruse — Environmental Horticulture Department

Linda J. Young — Department of Statistics

Lincoln Zotarelli — Horticultural Sciences Department

Project Alumni