For 76 years, the Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) has helped Texans solve critically important water problems, and as of this month, the institute has a new leader at the helm.
Giovanni Piccinni, Ph.D., has formally assumed the role of TWRI director. He previously served as the Global Lead for field and plant production optimization and sustainability at Bayer Crop Science, in St. Louis.
“The Texas Water Resources Institute boasts a rich legacy of conducting extensive research and providing education on the sustainable utilization of water resources,” he said. “I look forward to building teams that leverage the research, extension, and teaching expertise in the Texas A&M University System and at TWRI, to provide premier water resources research and programs that ultimately improve communities and lives.”
Piccinni’s role is also a return to Texas A&M AgriLife; he served in research and leadership roles in Texas A&M AgriLife Research in Amarillo, Bushland and Uvalde from 1994-2008.
“I am looking forward to visiting all of the AgriLife Centers and getting together with all the departments that work in water resource management,” he said. “We have so much technical expertise in water research and extension in the Texas A&M University System.”
Early career research
Piccinni earned his doctorate in agronomy and crop physiology from the University of Bari, Italy, in 1989, and then in 1992 was awarded funds from the Italian National Research Council to conduct research for two years as a visiting scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service George E. Brown Jr. Salinity Laboratory in Riverside, California. He studied plant stress physiology related to saline irrigation water and resulting salinity stress.
In 1994 he joined Texas A&M AgriLife as a postdoctoral assistant research scientist at the AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Amarillo, in the Wheat Genetics Program, and then in 1996 joined the AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Bushland as a Research Scientist studying plant stress physiology.
While in Bushland he contributed to research on irrigation regimes for minimizing disease incidence and maximizing yield in pathogen-infested soils. As a result, growers could save water and money by irrigating less, especially at the beginning of the growing season, increasing profits and decreasing water use, he said.
Piccinni moved to South Texas in 2000 to join the AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Uvalde as an associate professor.
“The first part of my career was full of research opportunities that all involved water resources, water conservation and water management,” he said. “I was able to study agricultural systems ranging from tomatoes to wheat, sugar, beets, corn and other crops. And what really motivated me to lead my own lab at the Uvalde Center was looking at water resource management for sustainable cropping systems.”
He went on to establish the plant stress physiology program at Uvalde over the next eight years, researching water-use efficiency of crops under stress, prediction models for irrigation management, precision agriculture techniques using remote sensing evaluation of plant stress, and irrigation management under limited water availability.
“We were always looking for opportunities for farmers to use water resources in the best way possible, in the most sustainable way, but also in the most profitable way,” he said.
In 2008, he began working at the Monsanto Company in Missouri, conducting biotechnology research and agronomic trials studying gene responses in corn and soybeans. Piccinni served on the teams that helped develop a new variety of drought-tolerant corn, saving producers water and money.
Global leadership experience
From 2014-2018 he served as Global Production Sustainability Lead for the supply chain side of Monsanto’s global operations, developing environmentally minded strategies and leading teams around the world. And beginning in 2018 he took on a larger role, leading global field and plant production optimization and sustainability at Bayer Crop Science, formerly Monsanto.
“I’m very proud that we always prioritized sustainability, even when I was on the production side, or biotechnology, or supply chain — we always looked at ways to help grow more and consume less.”
Piccinni credits his productive career in international agriculture to the strength of collaborative and interdisciplinary teams.
“And, as a scientist, I thrive in a diverse environment,” he said. “The job at Bayer really allowed me to experience so many different teams and places around the world, and I greatly enjoy working with people with different cultural and scientific backgrounds.”
While at Bayer, he also completed executive training at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.
Now after returning to Texas, he aims to begin empowering and building interdisciplinary teams of researchers through his new role at TWRI.
“Building consensus across stakeholders, explaining the value of cutting-edge technologies, and empowering research excellence to improve the lives of the people we serve, the communities where we live, the state, the nation and ultimately the world, is the vision I plan to lead at the Texas Water Resources Institute.”
