Contact Information

Brian D. Phillips, M.S., E.I.
Biological & Agricultural Engineering
182 Weaver Labs
North Carolina State University
Campus Box 7625
Raleigh, NC 27695

Office: 919.515.6750
Fax: 919.515.7760

Education

Ph.D. Biological and Agricultural Engineering, North Carolina State University
Expected Graduation Dec 2011

M.S. Biological and Agricultural Engineering, North Carolina State University
May 2006

Summa Cum Laude, B.S. Biological Engineering - Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State University
May 2003

Professional Registration

Engineering Intern - State of North Carolina

Experience

Research Associate
Dr. R. Wayne Skaggs
NCSU Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Raleigh, NC, 6/06 - Present

• Non-Tenure Faculty, EPA Classification, Permanent Full Time, Funding in part provided by North Carolina Department of Transportation and USDA Forest Service and the Weyerhauser Company
• Serve as Research Associate for USDA Forest Service project : Effect of minor drainage on hydrology of forested wetlands
• Completion of NCDOT Project 2005-24 Determination of Lateral Effects of Borrow Pits on Hydrology of Adjacent Wetlands
• Leading role in testing the validity and enhancement of a previously developed method to predict lateral effect of drainage ditches and borrow pits on adjacent wetland hydrology
  • Field experiment design, installation, and monitoring
  • Soil analysis
  • Analysis of data from field experiments
  • Simulation modeling
  • Development of simulation model of hydrology of borrow pits
  • Preparing technical articles
  • Presentation of research and findings to agencies and at professional meetings
• Act as Teaching Assistant for Fall 2006 BAE 771 Theory of Drainage course
  - Duties included: Grading reports and homework, meeting with students, computer management
• Act as Teaching Assistant for Spring 2007 BAE 774 Theory of Drainage - DRAINMOD course
  - Duties included: Grading reports, assisting in computer labs, meeting with students, data management and computer management.
• Act as Teaching Assistant for Fall 2007 BAE/SSC 473/573 Surface Hydrologic/Water Quality Modeling
  - Duties included: Grading reports, assisting in computer labs, and data management.
• Act as Teaching Assistant for Spring 2008 BAE 590F DRAINMOD course
  - Duties included: Website management, grading reports, assisting in computer labs and lectures, meeting with students, data management and computer management.
• Act as Teaching Assistant for Fall 2008 BAE 771 Theory of Drainage course
  - Duties included: Grading reports and homework, meeting with students, computer management
• Act as Co-Instructor for Spring 2009 BAE 590F DRAINMOD course
  - Duties included: Day to day management of course including syllabus and schedule development, video tutorial development, website management, handling discussion board posts and email questions, meeting with students, and data management.
• Act as Co-Instructor for Spring 2010 BAE 590F DRAINMOD course
  - Duties included: Day to day management of course including syllabus and schedule development, video tutorial development, website management, handling discussion board posts and email questions, meeting with students, and data management.

Research Engineer
Dr. R. Wayne Skaggs
NCSU Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Raleigh, NC, 1/05 - 5/06

• Temporary, Full Time Classification
• Duties involved working on NCDOT Projects:
  2005-21 Development of methods to determine lateral effects of a drainage ditch on wetland hydrology
  2005-24 Determination of Lateral Effects of Borrow Pits on Hydrology of Adjacent Wetlands
• Development of T₂₅ coefficients for all counties of the State of North Carolina
• Software development for application of "Skaggs Method" - Method to determine lateral impact of a drainage ditch or borrow pits on adjacent wetland hydrology
• Soil study of each study site borrow pit - series description, hydraulic conductivity, depth to impermeable layer, soil water characteristics, other pertinent physical properties
• Calibration and modeling of study site borrow pits located in Eastern North Carolina
• Assisting NCDOT with editing of publications regarding intra-agency procedures for application of Skaggs Method
• Fielding inquires from private firms regarding application of Skaggs Method
• Assisting in development of presentation material and Quarterly reports regarding research for NCDOT
• Development of DRAINMOD format weather sets for various United States cities.
• Publication of conference article regarding research on determining lateral effect of a drainage ditch on adjacent wetland hydrology.
• Completion of thesis regarding method of determining lateral effect of a drainage ditch on adjacent wetland hydrology.
• Act as Teaching Assistant for Spring 2005 BAE 774 course
  Duties included: Grading reports, assisting in computer labs, meeting with students, data management and computer management.

Graduate Research Assistant
Dr. R. Wayne Skaggs
NCSU Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Raleigh, NC, 6/03 - 12/04

• Development of methods to determine lateral effects of a drainage ditch on wetland hydrology (Projects HWY-871 and 2005-21)
• Field Work
  Collection of water table data from three transects of wells; two located at a study site in Beaufort Co. and one located at a study site in Edgecombe Co. North Carolina. At both locations, local rainfall has been recorded using Onset HOBO data logging system. Equipment maintenance and repair if required.
• Soil Analysis
  Collection of study site soil cores for vertical hydraulic conductivities and soil-water characteristic data. In situ lateral hydraulic conductivities test using Auger Hole Method.
• NCDOT Responsibilities
  Assisting with quarterly progress reports and draft final reports, assistance in workshops regarding applications of the study.
• Hydrologic Modeling
  Calibrating and modeling study site well transects in DRAINMOD and WATRCOM using 2.5 or 3 years or water table data. Creation of soil files, weather files, and general files (for each model) based on study site specific data.
• Lateral Effect
  Obtaining weather data for each county in North Carolina, Converting weather data to DRAINMOD format. Calculation of T₂₅ values for various ditch depths and surface storage for each county in North Carolina.

Relevant Coursework

Wetland Soils

Introduction to GIS
GIS for Hydrology Applications
GIS Programming

Open Channel Hydraulics
Watershed Monitoring
Hydrogeology
Engineering Hydrology
Land Resource Engineering
Stormwater BMP
Elementary Surveying
Irrigation and Drainage
Groundwater Hydraulics
Water Quality and Modeling
Theory of Unsaturated Flow
Theory of Saturated Flow

Statistics I
Advanced Math for Engineers I

Skills

Computer Languages
Visual Studio .NET C#, Pascal, Fortran, R, LaTeX, XHTML, CSS, PHP, Python

Computer Software
ArcGIS, TAS, ArcHydro, TauDEM, AutoCAD, Dreamweaver, Camtasia, MS Office, Photoshop, Acrobat, Visual Studio, Visual Fortran, CMS - Joomla and Drupal

Hydrologic Models
Hydrus-2D, DRAINMOD, WATRCOM, HEC-HMS, HEC-RAS, TR-55, Small Watershed Method, RAINSIM (Rainfall dissagregation), REMM, SWAT

Lab Work
Pressure plate test - soil water characteristic (i.e. soil water retention curve = volumetric water content versus pressure head), constant head test - vertical saturated conductivity, bulk density, particle density, hydrometer method for particle size analysis

Field Work
Soil sample and core collection, Amoozemeter (CCHP) and custom constant head permeameter system, Auger Hole Test - lateral conductivity, basic surveying (Level, Transit, Total Station), shallow well installation, piezometer installation

Data Collection
Infinity system, Onset Computer systems including HOBO systems, Isco flowmeters, Sigma watersamplers, Thermosonic flowmeters

Honors and Activities

Phi Kappa Phi
Gamma Sigma Delta
Alpha Epsilon
Honor Fraternity of Alpha Zeta

College of Engineering Outstanding Senior Award for Leadership 2003

Senior Award for Leadership 2003 Dept. of Bio. and Ag. Engineering

Project Award Team Member 2003 BAE Senior Engineering Design


Alpha Zeta Censor Fall 2003
President NCSU ASAE 2001-2002, 2002-2003
President Alpha Epsilon 2002-2003


2003-2005 Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering Graduate Assistantship
2003-2004 F.J. Hassler Fellowship Recipient

2000-2001, 2001-2002, 2002-2003 Josephus Daniels Scholarship Recipient
2002-2003 Mr. and Mrs. John T McCarter Sr. Endowed Scholarship Recipient
2002-2003 Charles W. and Jane P. Suggs Scholarship Recipient
2002-2003 Eustace O. Beasley Biological and Agricultural Engineering Scholarship Recipient
2001-2002, 2002-2003 Goodrum Scholarship Recipient
2001-2002 R.E. Sneed N.C. Irrigation Scholarship Recipient

Professional Development

Membership

American Society of Civil Engineers
Soil Science Society of America
American Society of Agricultural Engineers

Committees

DRAINMOD Workshop April 2007. Raleigh, North Carolina
Local Arrangements Committee, "Hydrology and Management of Forested Wetlands" . New Bern, North Carolina, USA from April 08-12, 2006.

Conferences

June 2009, Attended ASABE International Meeting in Reno,NV
June 2007, Attended ASABE International Meeting in Minneapolis, MN
April 2006, Attended ASABE International Conference on Hydrology and Management of Forested Wetlands in New Bern, North Carolina
July 2005, Attended ASAE International Meeting in Tampa, FL
July 2003, Attended ASAE International Meeting in Las Vegas,NV
April 2003, Attended Southeast Student ASAE Rally at Virginia Tech, VA
July 2002, Attended ASAE/CIGR International Meeting in Chicago, IL
April 2002, Attended Southeast Student ASAE Rally at NC A&T University, NC
March 2001, Attended Southeast Student ASAE Rally at Auburn University, AL

Research Activities

Managed Websites

DRAINMOD

Drainage Water Management Online Advisory

Soil and Water Resource Management

Software

Skaggs Method - Program to determine lateral effect of single drainage ditch or borrow pit on adjacent wetland hydrology

DRAINMOD - Part of developer and testing team, development of help file for version 6

Publications

Anticipated Publications for 2010 - 2 Referred Journal, 1 Conference

Phillips, B.D., R.W. Skaggs, G.M. Chescheir. IN REVIEW. A Method to Determine Lateral Effect of a Drainage Ditch on Wetland Hydrology: Field Testing. Transactions of the ASABE.

Phillips, B.D., R.W. Skaggs, G.M. Chescheir. 2009. Testing of a Method to Determine Lateral Effect of a Drainage Ditch on Adjacent Wetland Hydrology. Written for presentation at the 2009 ASABE International Meeting in Reno, Nevada.

Phillips, B.D., R.W. Skaggs, G.M. Chescheir. 2007. Determination of Lateral Effects of Borrow Pits on Hydrology of Adjacent Wetlands. Written for presentation at the 2007 ASABE International Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Phillips, B.D. 2006. Methods to Determine Lateral Effect of Drainage Ditch on Wetland Hydrology. Masters Thesis. Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, N.C. State University, Raleigh, N.C.

Phillips, B.D., R.W. Skaggs, G.M. Chescheir. 2006. Determination of Lateral Effect of a drainage ditch on Wetland Hydrology for two field sites. Written for presentation at the 2006 ASABE International Conference on Hydrology and Management of Forested Wetlands in New Bern, North Carolina.

Skaggs, R.W., G.M. Chescheir, and B.D. Phillips. 2005. Methods to determine lateral effects of a drainage ditch on wetland hydrology. Transactions of the ASAE. Vol. 48(2).

Other Papers

Skaggs, R.W., G.M. Chescheir, and B.D. Phillips. Determination of Lateral Effects of Borrow Pits on Hydrology of Adjacent Wetlands Final Report. NCDOT January 2008.

Phillips, B.D. , Skaggs, R.W., and G.M. Chescheir. Methods to determine lateral effects of a drainage ditch on wetland hydrology : Phase 2 Final Report. NCDOT January 2007.

Skaggs, R.W., G.M. Chescheir, and B.D. Phillips. Methods to determine lateral effects of a drainage ditch on wetland hydrology : Phase 1 Final Report. NCDOT July 2006.

Skaggs, R.W., G.M. Chescheir, and B.D. Phillips. Methods to determine lateral effects of a drainage ditch on wetland hydrology. NCDOT Workshop, October 2004.

Skaggs, R.W., G.M. Chescheir, and B.D. Phillips. Methods to determine lateral effects of a drainage ditch on wetland hydrology. NCDOT Workshop, November 2003.

Presentations

Testing of a Method to Determine Lateral Effect of a Drainage Ditch on Adjacent Wetland Hydrology. ASABE International Meeting, Reno, Nevada. June 2009.

Determination of Lateral Effects of Borrow Pits on Hydrology of Adjacent Wetlands. ASABE International Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. June 2007.

Methods to determine the lateral effect of a borrow pit on adjacent wetland hydrology. NCDOT Researchers Review Session, Mooresville, North Carolina. May 2006.

Determination of Lateral Effect of a drainage ditch on Wetland Hydrology for two field sites. ASABE International Conference on Hydrology and Management of Forested Wetlands in New Bern, North Carolina. April 2006.