José L. Chávez

Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, CSU

Dr. José L. Chávez is an Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department at Colorado State University since January of 2009. He earned a B.S. degree in Agricultural Engineering from the Universidade Federal da Paraiba in Brazil in 1992. During his undergraduate years he was involved in research of drip irrigation systems. In 1999 Dr. Chávez received his M.S. degree in Irrigation Engineering from Utah State University. His M.S. thesis research involved investigating water resources potential to introduce irrigated agriculture in developing countries using precipitation data and evapotranspiration estimates. His Ph.D. degree was in Biological and Agricultural Engineering from Utah State University, in 2005. Dr. Chávez Dissertation research included estimating crop consumptive water use, or evapotranspiration, using multispectral airborne remote sensing imagery. His research interest and expertise include mapping/modeling spatially distributed crop water use (ET), crop water management, crop water stress, irrigation scheduling, irrigation systems efficiency, and precision irrigation. He has teaching, research and extension responsibilities. He teaches CIVE 512 Irrigation Systems Design, and CIVE 519 Irrigation Water Management.

Dr. Chávez is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASABE), the Irrigation Association (IA), and of the U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (USCID). He is also a member of the ASCE-EWRI Task Committee on Evapotranspiration, a member of the CSU Extension Water Team, a member of the CEE Department Graduate Admission Committee and Graduate Instructional Committee.