Ronald Elliott of Stillwater, Oklahoma, received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1973 and 1974, respectively, and his doctorate in agricultural engineering from Colorado State University in 1981.

 

Elliott began his academic career in 1981 as a faculty member in the OSU Department of Agricultural Engineering, later renamed the OSU Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering. He taught and conducted research for 29 years and was department head from 2001 to 2010. During his tenure as department head, Elliott played a major role in fundraising for departmental scholarships and helped to increase the number of scholarship recipients from 15 to 45 per year.

 

Elliott also co-founded and provided ongoing leadership for the Oklahoma Mesonet, a world-class network of environmental monitoring stations, operating for more than 30 years. A partnership between OSU and the University of Oklahoma, the 120 Mesonet station sites throughout Oklahoma’s 77 counties send more than 2,500 atmospheric and subterranean observations every five minutes to the National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma. The data and many value-added products are used for agricultural applications, weather forecasting, education, emergency management, wildland fire management, scientific research and more.

 

In retirement, Elliott remains active with the biosystems and agricultural engineering department. He and his wife established the Ron and Judith Elliott Endowed Scholarship to continue supporting students. Elliott also fosters OSU relationships through involvement with the department’s donor and alumni relations activities.