Robert (Bob) D Nielsen, Certified Professional Soil Scientist:

Robert D Nielsen holds both Bachelor (December, 1975) and Master of Science (May, 1982) degrees in Soil Science from South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD.  From 1976 through 2003, Bob served in various positions as a Soil Scientist with USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service.  As an NRCS Soil Scientist, Bob has served as a field soil scientist, a soil survey project leader, an assistant State Soil Scientist, and a national lead soil scientist for soil survey interpretations and applications.

As a field soil scientist and soil survey project leader, Bob has conducted and/or led soil survey field operations in 5 South Dakota counties.  The majority of his work was in Western South Dakota in the counties of Custer, Pennington, and Haakon.  As an Area Soil Specialist, Bob provided detailed soil survey maps and attributed data for conservation planning for the 11 counties that made up NRCS Administrative Area 1, located at Brookings, South Dakota.

In 1987, Bob was chosen Assistant State Soil Scientist for Correlation and Database Management and assigned to the NRCS State Office staff in Huron, SD.  In this capacity, Bob had state wide responsibilities, ensuring the quality of soil survey mapping and attribute data collected by NRCS.  In 1990, Bob joined the National Soil Survey Staff in Lincoln, Nebraska as the lead soil scientist for soil related water quality interpretations.  In this capacity, Bob provided technical guidance and leadership to the 50 states, territories, and 4 Regional Offices in support of NRCS water quality initiatives.  In 1996 through 2003, Bob was one of the lead soil scientist at the National Soil Survey Center for NRCS soil interpretation.  During this time he facilitated the development and implementation of new technologies used to gather, interpret and deliver soil survey information both in tabular and geographic information systems (GIS) format.  These new technologies include NRCS’s adoption of fuzzy systems modeling for soil interpretations and the development and deployment of Soil Data Viewer, a spatial GIS based interface to NRCS soil databases and Web Soil Survey.

Bob became an ARCPACS (American Registry of Certified Professionals in Agronomy, Crops and Soils) Certified Professional Soil Scientist in 1986 and has maintained that certification in good standing.  He also has memberships in the Nebraska Society of Professional Soil Scientists, Nebraska Agricultural Technology Association (NEATA), and  Professional Soil Scientists Association of  South Dakota.

In 2010, Bob completed a Precision Agriculture Practicum and course of study through the University of Nebraska.