Introduction to Symposium Honoring career of James W. Jones: Pioneering developer of agronomic simulation models and decision support systems.

James Jones is a Distinguished Service Professor in the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department. He has built a remarkable career based on using computer simulation to integrate scientific knowledge for use in agricultural decision-making. On the occasion of his recent “official” retirement as a professor, his colleagues wish to honor him with this symposium containing information on advances in crop simulation models, their development, use, and potential for the future.

Jones started his career at a time when computers were making it possible to bring together complex systems of equations and large amounts of data. Many workers were producing models, but often the models had a narrow research focus. Jones saw that the ability of crop models to take into account many variables and to play out many scenarios could be extremely useful to agricultural producers and to policy makers. He sought to create a computer-based application that would allow people outside of research labs to use crop models, produce meaningful results, and interpret those results.  Jones led the development of a systematic approach of using simulation models for helping with decision making known as the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer, or DSSAT, and it has been continually improved and published for over 25 years. The technology transfer part of the name refers to the idea that agricultural technologies can be tested in the computer to reduce the number of field experiments needed before a producer makes a commitment to them. The effect of this has been to promote modern agricultural technology and management techniques and to increase food and fiber production in many regions of the world.

A few of the areas of the agronomic systems science excellence pioneered by Jones will be discussed in the presentations of this symposium.