Matt Helmers

Core Team, Conservation Drainage Working Group

Dr. Matt Helmers is the Director of the Iowa Nutrient Research Center. He is also the Dean’s professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University (ISU), where he has been on the faculty since 2003.

Helmers earned his doctorate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2003, a master's degree from Virginia Tech in 1997, and a bachelor's degree from ISU in 1995. His research areas include studies on the impact of nutrient management, cropping practices, drainage design and management, and strategic placement of buffer systems on nutrient export from agricultural landscapes.

Helmers oversees a regional extension program working to increase adoption of practices that have the potential to reduce downstream nutrient export. In this role, he enjoys working with Iowa farmers and finding results that were not expected. He also served as the nitrogen science team lead on the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy (NRS) Science Assessment. In his youth, Helmers helped his grandparents with their soybean and livestock operation and showed livestock.