Dennis Keeney

Dennis Keeney was the first director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. He retired in 2000, and is professor emeritus of Agronomy and Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University. Dennis grew up on a family dairy farm near Runnells, Iowa, and obtained a B.S. in agronomy from Iowa State University, an M.S. in soil science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a Ph.D. in agronomy and biochemistry from Iowa State University. He was a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin in soils and water chemistry before coming to Iowa State in 1988. He has pioneered research and outreach on agricultural issues related to sustainability, land resource use, rural community development and water quality. Dennis has published over 140 refereed papers on soil and water quality research, and served on numerous state, federal and international scientific committees and task forces. He also served as president of the American Society of Agronomy and the Soil Science of America. He has been a Senior Fellow at IATP since 2000 and is also a senior fellow in the Department of Soil, Air and Water in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota.