Award of Merit - Scientific Understanding 2021

Professor Richard Godwin was presented with a EurAgEng Award of Merit for Scientific Understanding.


Professor Godwin’s research has been a major component relating to identifying major issues concerning the health of arable soils, a subject that is now attracting considerable interest. His work has underpinned approaches to, for example, controlled traffic farming, improved tillage methods, and cultivations aimed at maintaining soil structure, conserving and enhancing organic matter content, and minimizing emissions of greenhouse gases. A major strength of his approach has been relating research findings to practical methods of addressing issues relevant, mainly, to agricultural engineering problems but also in wider applications. The already existing work on vehicle/soil interactions has been extended to the off-highway vehicle and equipment design with specialist facilities developed initially at Silsoe and now at Cranfield University. At Harper Adams University, Godwin has led the team that has established an experimental site for examining tillage/traffic interactions. The long-term (>10 years) nature of this site means that it is now, being used to examine the environmental effect of such interactions alongside the agronomic and crop production implications.