Mark Nearing has a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (1986) and an M.S. in Soil Science (1984) from Purdue University. He has worked as a scientist for the Agricultural Research Service since 1986. Most of Dr. Nearing's work has been in the area of soil erosion and conservation, including the understanding of basic erosion processes, field measurement of erosion rates, and the development and testing of soil erosion models. Recent work focuses on erosion in semi-arid rangeland environments.