Joshua Viers is the director of CITRIS at UC Merced and associate dean for research at the UC Merced School of Engineering. He joined the CITRIS leadership team in August 2013, and under his direction, the youngest UC campus has developed significant strengths in ag-food-tech, climate resilience and inclusive innovation. Merging the unique history and environment of the Central Valley with a growing and energetic faculty, CITRIS at UC Merced continues to drive campus research excellence in conjunction with regional sustainability and prosperity.
In addition to his role with CITRIS, Viers also serves as a professor of water resources management in the School of Engineering. Since joining UC Merced, Viers has led campus efforts to build an experimental smart farm, to develop a joint industry-university consortium on ag-food-tech research and to convene several universities in developing water accounting methods to secure a climate resilient water future.
His international research activities include the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center for Water and Energy Technologies (CERC-WET) consortium, as well as the international science advisory panel to New Zealand’s BioHeritage National Science Challenge. His research is multidisciplinary by design, team science based in execution, and dedicated to innovation in informatics and geospatial analysis in water and land management. He teaches environmental engineering with a focus on water resources management, geospatial analytics, ecosystem restoration and sustainability.