CIGR Newsletter No 35
NEWS OF THE SECTIONS, WORKING GROUPS AND MEMBERS
Candidate for CIGR President, 1999 - 2000
The Presidium nominates Dr. Bill A. Stout, Professor Agricultural Engineering at Texas A & M University for President of CIGR in the years 1999 - 2000. If elected by the General Assembly, he will succeed current President Egil Berge and Incoming President, Osamu Kitani of Japan.
Dr. Stout has over 40 years of experience in agricultural engineering and has been deeply involved in international applications throughout his career. He has served as a Farm Power and Machinery Specialist for FAO in Rome, Director of a three year USAID study of agricultural mechanisation in Equatorial Africa, and Key Consultant to the UNDP/ICAR sponsored energy centre at Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana, India. He was Director of the branch campus of Texas A & M University in Koriyama, Japan for 2 ½ years. Dr. Stout has also had short-term assignments in Thailand, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Latin America. He has authored or edited eight books on mechanisation and energy management in agriculture and has also published over 140 papers in technical and popular journals. He also served as Editor-in-Chief for a six volume series of Handbooks on Energy in World Agriculture published by Elsevier in The Netherlands. He was Chair of the Agricultural Engineering Department at Michigan State University for five years where he directed a broad programme of engineering applications in agricultural mechanisation, structures, irrigation and food processing. He is a Foundation Member of the Asian Association of Agricultural Engineers. Dr. Stout is a Fellow in both the American Society of Agricultural Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1986, he received the ASAE Kishida Award for outstanding contributions toward food and fibre production, improved living, and education of people outside the USA.
Dr. Stout is currently the campus-based Director of the SPARC project in Mali, West Africa. This USAID funded project is designed to strengthen the research planning capabilities and the agricultural research programme of the Malian Institute of Rural Economy (IER). He is currently Vice President of ASAE and a Member of the Executive Board of CIGR.
Report on the International Conference on “Regional Use of Renewable Energy Sources in Agriculture, in Connection with Environmental Control”
This conference was held on 2-8 June 1996 in Budapest and was organised by the Hungarian
Electrotechnical Association and Section IV of CIGR. The conference coincided with the 1100th anniversary of the foundation of Hungary and the 200th anniversary of the 1st Agricultural High School in Hungary.
The conference was opened by Prof. Dr. Zoltan Sibalszky, Honorary Vice President of CIGR and Dr. Daniel Magassy, representative of the Hungarian Ministry for Agriculture. Prof. E. Berge, President of CIGR and Prof. T. Jungbluth, Chairman of Section IV of CIGR addressed the conference.
There were 66 participants from 30 countries and 9 accompanying persons.
The topics of the conference found wide interest and more than 100 papers were announced, 63 were sent in of which 38 were delivered by the authors during the three days of the conference.
The papers were followed by very lively discussions. At the closing session Mr. Hermann Scheer, representative of the Council of Europe spoke about the 'New European Policy Initiatives on Renewable Energy'.
The conference was followed by a one-day study tour to the southern part of Hungary where the participants visited some agricultural plants and the round painting of the 1100th anniversary of the founding of Hungary.
The participants of the following two-day study tour visited the eastern part of Hungary including the great Puszta.
(communicated by Prof. Z. Sibalszky)
