Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Lab
USDA, ARS, NEA, BARC, EMFSL
10300 Baltimore Avenue
Building 303 Room 021A, BARC-East
Beltsville, MD 20705
Phone 301.504.6084
www.ars.usda.gov/nea/emfsl/pachepsky

Member of the Beltsville Supergrade Committee

• 1987 Dr. Sc. in Soil Science. Soil Science Department, Moscow State University, Russia. Dissertation title: "Regularities and models of chemical transport in soils of arid and semiarid regions"
• 1973 Ph. D. in Physics and Mathematics, Department of Mechanics and Mathematics, Moscow State University, Russia. Dissertation title: " One-dimensional problems in rock mechanics "
• 1969 M. Sci. in Mechanics, Department of Mechanics and Mathematics, Moscow State University, Russia. Dissertation title: "One-dimensional problems of ground mechanics"

• 2001-pres. Soil Scientist, USDA-ARS Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, MD
• 1999-2001 Research Physical Scientist, USDA-ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, MD
• 1994-1999 Senior Research Scholar, Phytotron, Duke University, Durham, NC
• 1992-1993 Visiting Research Scientist, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
• 1990-1992 Professor, Soil Science Department, Moscow State University, Moscow, USSR.
• 1988-1991 Research Leader , Institute of Soil Science and Photosynthesis, USSR Academy of Sciences, Puschino
• 1985-1988 Lead Scientist, Institute of Soil Science and Photosynthesis, USSR Academy of Sciences, Puschino
• 1975-1982 Senior Scientist, Institute of Agrochemistry and Soil Science, USSR Academy of Sciences, Puschino
• 1972-1975 Junior Scientist, Institute of Agrochemistry and Soil Science, USSR Academy of Sciences, Puschino

The purpose of the research is to discover, evaluate, and integrate knowledge about transport and fate of enteric pathogenic microorganisms affecting microbial quality of irrigation waters. New hypotheses and measurement strategies have to be developed to evaluate and quantify biological, chemical and physical factors and interactions affecting pathogen prevalence, fate and transport in irrigation waters. The research uses hydrologic and contaminant transport modeling, soil-landscape analysis, scaling methods, data mining, geographic information systems, and other relevant technologies to integrate pathogen fate and transport information in pathogen fate and transport models for development, evaluation, comparison, and selection of management practices to reduce or eliminate risk of preharvest microbial contamination of foods.

• Moon Kim, Jo Ann Van Kessel, Ali Sadeghi, Craig Daughtry, Thanh Dao, Gregory McCarty, Vangimalla Reddy, Dennis Timlin, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD
• Scott Bradford, USDA-ARS, Riverside, CA
• David Goodrich and Carl Unkrich, USDA-ARS, Tucson, AZ
• Frederick Pierson, USDA-ARS, Boise, ID
• Mark Welz, USDA-ARS, Reno, NV
• Jaehak Jeong and Jimmy Williams, Texas AgriLife, Temple, TX
• Bin Gao and Rafael Muñoz-Carpena, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
• Andrey Guber, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
• Jiri Simunek, University of California, Riverside, CA
• Robert Hill, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
• Thomas Nicholson, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Rockville, MD
• Marirosa Molina, US EPA, Athens, GA
• Mikhail Kuznetsov and Alexander Yakirevich, Jakob Blaustein, Desert Research Institute, Sde Boker, Israel
• Fariz Mikayilsoy, Igdir University, Igdir, Turkey
• Martinus van Genuchten, University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Miguel Angel Martin and Fernando San Jose Martinez, Technical University of Madrid, Spain
• Krzysztof Lamorski and Cezary Slawinski, Institute of Agrophysics, Lublin, Poland
• Karl Vanderlinden, IFAPA, Seville, Spain
• Gonzalo Martinez, University of Cordoba, Spain
• Javier Valdes Abellan, University of Alikante, Spain
• David Oliver, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
• Richard Muirhead, AgResearch, Dunedin, New Zealand
• Harry Vereecken, Heye Bogena, Johan Huisman, and Jan Vanderborght, Institute of Agrosphere, Jülich, Germany
• Kyunghwa Cho, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea
• Joonha Kim, Gwangju National Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea
• Maria Leonor R.C. Lopes Assad, University of Sao Carlos, Brazil
• Abhijit Nagchaudhuri, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, MD
• Edward Wells and Dana Harriger, Wilson College, PA

• American Society of Agronomy
• Soil Science Society of America
• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• American Geophysical Union
• International Society of Ecological Modeling
• International Union of Soil Sciences

• Interagency agreement: "Predictive Assessment for Microbial Fate, Transport, and Exposure of Manure-Borne Indicators and Pathogens at Plot, Field, and Watershed Scales"

• Hong, E., Pachepsky, Y., Whelan, G., Nicholson, T. (2017): Simpler models in environmental studies and predictions, Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, DOI: 10.1080/10643389.2017.1393264
• Oliver, D.M., Porter, K.D., Pachepsky, Y.A., Muirhead, R.W., Reaney, S.M., Coffey, R., Kay, D., Milledge, D.G., Hong, E., Anthony, S.G. and Page, T. (2016). Predicting microbial water quality with models: Over-arching questions for managing risk in agricultural catchments. Science of the Total Environment, 544, pp.39-47.
• Cho, K. H., Pachepsky, Y. A., Oliver, D. M., Muirhead, R. W., Park, Y., Quilliam, R. S., & Shelton, D. R. (2016). Modeling fate and transport of fecally-derived microorganisms at the watershed scale: State of the science and future opportunities. Water research, 100, 38-56.
• Vereecken, H., Pachepsky, Y., Simmer, C., Rihani, J., Kunoth, A., Korres, W., Graf, A., Franssen, H.H., Thiele-Eich, I. and Shao, Y., 2016. On the role of patterns in understanding the functioning of soil-vegetation-atmosphere systems. Journal of Hydrology 542 (2016) 63–86.
• Pachepsky, Y., Shelton, D., Dorner, S., and Whelan, G. (2014). Can E. coli or thermotolerant coliform concentrations predict pathogen presence or prevalence in irrigation waters? Critical Reviews in Microbiology, DOI: 10.3109/1040841X.2014.954524
• Pachepsky, Y.A., and Shelton, D.R. (2011) 'Escherichia Coli and Fecal Coliforms in Freshwater and Estuarine Sediments', Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 41:12, 1067-1110. (DOI: 10.1080/10643380903392718)
• Pachepsky, Y.A., Shelton, D.R., McLain, J.E.T., Patel, J., and Mandrell, R.E. 2011. Irrigation Waters as a Source of Pathogenic Microorganisms in Produce: A Review. In: Advances in Agronomy, Vol. 113, pp. 73-138, D. Sparks, editor. Academic Press, Burlington.

Click here to see a full list of publications drawn from the ARS database for Yakov Pachepsky, with access to an abstract/summary for each publication.

1. defining the conceptualization of the hydrologic model and the questions to be answered
2. determining the significant features, events and processes to be abstracted
3. selecting applicable MA techniques
4. identifying MA simplifications of complex representations that may provide substantial gain
5. evaluating the base model for additional simplifications of complex representations.

• difficulties in obtaining reliable calibration of the base model
• error propagation by introducing uncertainties into the key outputs
• difficulties in understanding errant simulations results of the base model
• excessive resource requirements for simulating complexities in base model
• the need for incorporating the base model in repetitive risk assessments of multimedia environmental model
• the goal for making the modeling process more transparent and tractable
• the need in justifying the use simpler model rather than overly complex model

• improving reliability of modeling results
• making the data selection and input more efficient
• enabling risk assessments to be run and analyzed with much quicker turnaround, with the potential for allowing further analyses of problem sensitivity and uncertainty
• enhancing communication of simplifications resulting from appropriate model abstractions which facilitates decision-making and informing the public

Computer code mentioned and used in peer-reviewed publications authored by the EMFSL Environmental Fate and Transport research group is now available online. Written mostly in FORTRAN, the code is available for reuse and modifications. PC executables, source code, and PDF files for manuals and article reprints are provided.

www.ars.usda.gov/nea/barc/emfsl/code

In this 15-minute film about research on the fate and transport of pathogenic bacteria in the environment, EMFSL scientists describe their research that uses a rainfall simulator and a special lysimeter site to investigate how bacteria can infiltrate into soil or run off with surface water depending on rainfall and vegetation conditions.

Click here to watch the film or read the film transcript.

Click here to see a list of current projects for Yakov Pachepsky

Click here to see a list of publications for Yakov Pachepsky

Click here to see a list of ARS News articles for Yakov Pachepsky

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