Introducing Matt Carroll, ISA research scientist

March 2, 2023 | Kriss Nelson

Matt Carroll, a research scientist, joins the Iowa Soybean Association’s (ISA) analytics team.

Carroll will work with analytic team members Suzanne Fey, Aaron Prestholt and Josh McDanel, using ISA’s Research Center for Farming Innovation (RCFI) on-farm agronomic and environmental data to develop online decision tools for Iowa soybean farmers.

“As RCFI runs more statewide trials, the data we collect will give our farmers confidence knowing not only how a trial performed across the state as an average, but they can look at their area and see how it performed locally,” says Carroll.

In the long term, Carroll hopes to develop a more extensive database combining new and historical data.

“We have a lot of historical data; we are trying to centralize that so we can make informed decisions about what we have already done and where we want to go into the future,” he says.

Carroll grew up on his family’s soybean, corn and cattle farm in Elizabeth, Illinois. He started his undergraduate studies at Iowa State University in 2013, graduating with dual degrees in agronomy and genetics in 2017.

He then started his Ph.D. at ISU in the soybean breeding group led by Dr. Danny Singh. His research focused on remote sensing and machine learning to improve selection efficiency in cultivar development programs.

In October, he and his wife Krista welcomed their first child, Victoria.   

“I am excited to be here and I am passionate about farmers being able to use their data to make decisions for better outcomes for their farms,” he says.

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