Andrew Hewitt

Biography

Dr Andrew Hewitt serves under a joint appointment as a Senior Research Fellow at The University of Queensland, Australia and a Full Professor (Research) at The University of Nebraska, USA, as well as an Adjunct Professorship at Lincoln University, New Zealand. His research is focused on application optimization and the management and modeling of chemical exposure to humans and the environment from agrichemical use in row, tree and vine crops as well as migrant pest and vector control such as locusts and mosquitoes. He received BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in the UK at the Universities of Sheffield, Cranfield and London (Imperial College) before moving to the USA in 1991 to continue his research focused on pesticide drift at New Mexico State University and then for a decade as Project Manager to the Spray Drift Task Force where he helped develop the main databases and models used by pesticide regulators in the USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. He has worked for The University of Queensland since 2004 on diverse projects with government, industry and academic stakeholders to solve pesticide drift challenges through applied research in wind tunnels and the field, linked with modeling. In 2008, he took on a joint appointment with UQ and Lincoln Agritech/ Lincoln University in New Zealand where he successfully wrote a research grant and led a 6-year, $6M research project for the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment aimed at researching safer pesticide application and drift detection in diverse crops. More recently he returned to UQ and The University of Nebraska to conduct research and modeling into spray drift management including developing new drift reduction technology schemes for the USA and Australia. His ongoing research and modeling in this area with other colleagues and PhD students in both countries is supporting the risk assessment and management needs of both government and industry in several countries.

Research Interest

Plant and soil sciences