VISTA Faculty Director
Dr. Joshua Viers is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Interdisciplinary Research and Strategic Initiatives, Executive Associate Dean for the Agricultural Experiment Station (AES), and Faculty Director for the Valley Institute for Sustainability, Technology, and Agriculture (VISTA), as well as the Faculty Director for Farms, Food Future Innovation Initiative (F3 Innovate) at UC Merced. He is also involved with the USDA Secure Water Future (SWF) and the NSF-USDA AI Institute for Transforming Workforce & Decision Support (AgAID). As a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Dr. Viers champions UC Merced’s role in advancing agricultural sustainability through research, education, and technology.
Since joining UC Merced in 2013, Dr. Viers has been pivotal in expanding the university’s impact on Central Valley agriculture. As the previous Director of CITRIS and the Banatao Institute, he facilitated multi-campus research collaborations and fostered innovative outreach programs like NexTech Robotics and CITRIS FLY, enhancing tech education in the region. His advocacy led to UC Merced’s designation as an Agricultural Experiment Station and the establishment of the Experimental Smart Farm, a 40-acre test bed for climate-smart agriculture.
In 2019, Dr. Viers was appointed Associate Dean for Research in the School of Engineering, where he significantly increased research funding and industry partnerships. His research, which addresses human-natural system interfaces, has resulted in over 200 publications and substantial funding exceeding $60M. Dr. Viers’ work, featured in major media outlets, includes projects funded by NSF, DOE, USDA, and state agencies. He also teaches courses on spatial analysis and geospatial science.