College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences Professor George Vellidis has been named director of the Institute for Integrative Precision Agriculture (IIPA). His term began on Nov. 1, and he will serve as the unit’s first permanent director.
“Dr. Vellidis has been a vital member of our UGA faculty for years and played a key role in launching IIPA,” said Chris King, interim vice president for research. “Whether it’s his impact as a first-class researcher and educator, or the work he does behind the scenes to elevate our reputation in the field abroad, his presence has made UGA a hub for precision agriculture research. We are thrilled to have him take the reins of a unit already poised for tremendous growth.”
A longtime UGA faculty member, Vellidis takes over for interim co-directors Harald Scherm, professor and department head in the Department of Plant Pathology (CAES), and Ramaraja Ramasamy, professor in the School of Chemical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering and senior associate dean in the College of Engineering. IIPA also was previously led by interim co-director Jaime Camelio.
IIPA was launched in 2022, with the intention of leveraging faculty expertise and industry ties to expand research that helps sustainably feed a growing global population. Precision agriculture maximizes yields through data-driven decision-making technologies like soil moisture sensors, drones, satellite imagery, artificial intelligence, and robotics. It is a collaboration between diverse fields of study, including engineering, plant genomics, forestry, and more.
Since its inception, IIPA has grown to include more than 70 faculty members and is a well-recognized leader in agriculture-related efforts throughout the state of Georgia. It hosts an annual spring retreat; in 2023 the institute hosted the Integrative Precision Agriculture international conference, leading discussions on local solutions through global advances.
“Our interim co-directors, Drs. Camelio, Ramasamy, and Scherm, have provided the Institute with an incredible start,” Vellidis said. “Because agriculture is Georgia’s largest industry, IIPA offers us the opportunity to focus the technological advances and knowledge developed across many research endeavors at UGA to make Georgia into a global hub of agricultural innovation.”
The university has internationally recognized programs in poultry science and entomology. Its agricultural engineering program is one of the oldest in the nation, and the university is ranked among the top 20 universities in the world, according to the trade publication Precision Ag.
The state of Georgia has shown its support for this crucial area of research with $4.4 million in funding, which, among other things, has been used to support seed grant funding to jump-start faculty research. In 2023, precision ag researchers were awarded nearly $4 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop a climate-smart “4-D Farm.”
“I want to help capture this existing momentum and leverage it to make IIPA well-known throughout the United States and globally,” Vellidis said. “We will achieve this by becoming a trusted partner for growers, industry, state, and federal agencies, and a magnet for young scientists who want to work with the best and brightest in integrative precision agriculture.”
Vellidis came to UGA in 1989 as a professor of biological and agricultural engineering. He became director of academic programs at the university’s Tifton campus in 2017.
His research applies principles of engineering and the sciences to measure, model, and manage the interaction between agricultural production systems and the environment, with a focus on water resources and precision agriculture.
