From Kentucky to Ireland: Fulbright researcher explores agricultural impacts on water quality

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 18, 2026) — Bill Ford, Ph.D., an associate professor in the University of Kentucky Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering in the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CAFE), specializes in hydrology and water quality. His research focuses on understanding how agricultural practices affect water as it moves through the landscape. In 2026, the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program gave Ford the opportunity to approach those questions from a new perspective more than 4,000 miles away: in Ireland.

Established by Congress in 1946, the Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational and cultural exchange program. The program supports students, scholars, teachers, artists and professionals from the United States and more than 160 countries in studying, teaching, conducting research and exchanging ideas. For university faculty and researchers, the Fulbright Scholar Program provides opportunities to build international connections, gain new perspectives in their fields and bring those experiences back to their students and colleagues.

From February through July, Ford worked with researchers at Teagasc, Ireland’s Agriculture and Food Development Authority. He was hosted by Per-Erik Mellander, Ph.D., a senior research officer in the Agricultural Catchments Programme (ACP). 

During his time in Ireland, Ford worked primarily in rural areas, conducting agricultural research on farms, collaborating with scientists and farm advisors, and participating in outreach activities such as field days with students from Irish universities. 

Ford’s project, “Advancing tools to manage phosphorus pollution in karst watersheds of Ireland,” focused on developing data-driven and process-based modeling tools to quantify the impacts of nutrient management on water quality in agricultural watersheds.

“Quantifying the impacts of agricultural practices on water quality is important because it has direct implications for food production, environmental health and human safety,” Ford said.

His choice of Ireland was intentional. Ford had already developed relationships with Irish researchers and explored opportunities to collaborate on research projects, making Ireland a natural fit for his Fulbright project. Teagasc’s ACP also has a world-renowned database of hydrologic and water-quality monitoring data collected at high temporal resolutions, providing valuable information for modeling.

“A major motivation for this project was to combine shared long-term datasets for watersheds here in Kentucky with those collected in Ireland for model development and testing,” Ford said.

Karst landscapes are a shared feature of Ireland and Kentucky, but their impacts on water quality are not well understood. Karst landscapes develop when water dissolves limestone and other soluble rocks, creating features such as caves, sinkholes, sinking streams and springs. Underground pathways can influence how quickly water and contaminants move through a watershed, creating complex relationships between what happens on the land and what ultimately reaches waterways.

Ireland’s karst landscapes are less mature and have differing soil characteristics from Kentucky’s, giving researchers an opportunity to compare how these differences affect water movement and water quality. Agricultural and environmental policies in Ireland, including those related to fertilization and livestock stocking rates, also differ from those in Kentucky. These contrasts provide an opportunity to better understand agricultural watersheds by comparing landscapes with shared characteristics but different histories, climates and management practices, laying the groundwork for research with potential global impact.

Research outcomes

The collaboration has produced an empirical risk assessment tool using comparisons from the Kentucky and Ireland watersheds, among other global datasets. The tool was presented in June 2026 at the BIOGEOMON conference in Sweden. In addition, several articles from the work are currently in preparation for journal submission.

This work also has potential applications beyond the research community. In Ireland, agricultural and environmental policies, including those related to fertilization and livestock stocking rates, provide another area where the research could help inform water-quality management.

Although Ford’s Fulbright experience ended in July, the partnerships and research it helped establish are continuing. He plans to return to Ireland to attend Catchment Science 2027, an international conference hosted by the ACP in Wexford that will bring together scientific presentations, panel discussions and contributions from farmers and other stakeholders.

He also plans to continue building collaborations in Ireland and throughout Europe while using the knowledge and data developed through the project to advance water-quality research at UK.

Ford acknowledges the Fulbright Commission in Ireland and Geological Survey Ireland for their support of the award and valuable opportunities to connect with fellow U.S. Fulbright scholars.

For Ford, the value of the Fulbright extends beyond the research findings themselves. His family traveled with him, and his children attended school there, allowing them to become part of the local community and experience a different culture and lifestyle firsthand.

“The Fulbright was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I would highly recommend to anyone considering,” Ford said. “Personally, the program allowed my family and I to immerse in a culture and lifestyle that we could not have experienced with short-term visits.”