Shearer presented with Case Gold Medal at ASABE

Scott A. Shearer, PE, ASABE Fellow, is the 2017 recipient of the Cyrus Hall McCormick Jerome Increase Case Gold Medal award for development of machinery engineering technology and innovative futuristic concepts that shape precision farming systems.

Shearer is a professor and chair of the Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering at The Ohio State University. He administers academic, outreach, and research programs on the Columbus and Wooster campuses. Shearer’s career focuses on working with students and mentoring the next generation of engineers, continually encouraging work on global food security while ensuring sustainability of agricultural production and processing systems.

In addition to his work as an academic, Shearer has also had an active research career in machinery automation, application technology, and sensing systems to capture yield, nutrient and machinery based data that can be used to asses performance and drive decision making. Specifically, Shearer developed control system strategies for automating agricultural field machinery with emphasis in sensor development, fluid power circuit design and product testing and development. He developed a unique facility for testing grain yield monitors that supported the development of an ASABE standard. The facility is used extensively by the agricultural equipment industry for product development and testing. His research on distribution of crop inputs is a major contribution to the profession and his research in evaluating automatic control systems for sprayers is foundational. His work on spray applications has supported the revision of two international standards.

A 32 year member of ASABE, Shearer has been an active member of many committees including the International ¼ Scale Tractor Student Design competition. He has also been a leader and member of the Academic Program Administrator committee and a contributing member and leader on many Machinery Systems committees.

Shearer has authored or coauthored more than 200 refereed journal articles, conference proceeding papers, and book chapters. He is also listed as an inventor or coinventor on three patents. Throughout his career, Shearer has received many awards, including being inducted as an ASABE Fellow in 2014. He received the PrecisionAg Legacy award of Excellence. He has received many teaching awards from the University of Kentucky and he has received many ASABE paper awards. He was also the recipient of the1996 A.W. Farrall Young Educator award and the 2012 Massey Ferguson Educational Gold Medal.