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Don Kirkham: Reading a Farm Field Through Mathematics

09/20/2026 12:00:00 AM

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A soil scientist is often pictured walking a field with a shovel. Don Kirkham is remembered differently, as the founder of mathematical soil physics, a field that applies mathematical methods to how water flows through soil and drains from agricultural land. Working at Iowa State University and Utah State University, he built his career on treating the movement of water underground as a problem to be worked out mathematically rather than only observed in the field. His contribution to agriculture was recognized with the Wolf Prize in Agriculture and the Robert E. Horton Medal. He lived from 1908 to 1998.

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