One of the most prominent agricultural engineers in the world has left Iowa State. There’s just one thing he wanted everyone to know before he left: He wanted to stay.

Graeme Quick, former adjunct professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, recently returned to Australia and said he is worried the heavy burden of recent retirements from within the department will nearly ruin it.

“It’s an unmitigated disaster,” he said. “It’s a very sad situation, and something needs to be done. We’ve got all these young students coming in that want to learn about farm machinery and no one to teach it to them.”

Reaction to Quick’s departure is varied. Daniel Frohberg, graduate student in agricultural and biosystems engineering, said the situation wasn’t handled well.

“This opens up a lot of variables with some of the graduate students,” he said. “It could end up reducing project research as a whole; the department will lose opportunities. I’d hate to guess at the number of contacts [Quick] had. He was very globally connected.”

Ramesh Kanwar, chairman and professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, said he stands by previous statements he’s made to the Daily concerning the departure of Quick and four other retiring professors.

“In the long run, we’ll all be better off,” he said. “Change had to occur. We’ve faced this situation before … new people bring advanced technologies.”

Quick said he has been wrongly lumped together with the other professors in the department who accepted early retirement.

“I’m not retiring,” he said. “I was not offered any retirement package.”

Quick said he also disagrees with those who say the department will only be temporarily affected.

“How can they say that losing 127 years of experience won’t damage the department?” he said. “They’re bringing in someone to replace me that has only recently received his Ph.D. It’s an insult to the students.”

Kanwar said he agrees the changes will have some immediate impact, but he said it was bound to happen. Kanwar said the decision was not his alone.

“This was a department decision,” he said. “The majority of the faculty agree with this.”

Quick, whose contract as an adjunct professor expired this year, said he offered to stay on with the department for three more years to help phase in new professors.

He said the department was within its rights to not renew his contract.

“As an adjunct instructor, they have every legal right to let me go,” Quick said.

Charles Schwab, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, said it was always assumed that Quick would leave.

“He was initially hired as a sort of stop-gap the last time the department saw this much talent leaving,” Schwab said.

Wesley Buchele, retired professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, said it was his idea to bring Quick to Iowa State seven years ago — but he said it was a mistake to allow him to be hired as an adjunct instructor.

“I now know it was a terrible idea,” he said. “We should have found a way to make his position permanent.”

Buchele said he couldn’t guess at the reasoning behind the decision.

“I have no idea what the department is thinking,” he said. “If they want to move the department toward bioengineering, I think that’s fine,” he said. “My only concern is that we’re leaving the Iowa farmers high and dry … Dr. Quick is one of the most famous ag engineers in the world, and what’s so bad is that he has ongoing research in important areas.”

Stewart Melvin, one of the recently retired agriculture and bioengineering professors and former chairman of the department, said he sympathized with Quick, but agreed that change was inevitable.

“It’s a situation where the glass is half-empty or half-full,” he said. “It is an opportunity to hire new people, and a chance to make changes.”

Melvin agreed, however, that Quick’s departure was the most controversial.

“I was surprised they decided to let him go. If I was department chair, I would try to keep him,” he said. “The other issue is that Iowa State has always had a very strong power machinery section, and Quick is concerned that we are going away from that … most ag schools around the country are seeing their departments try and take the agriculture out of their name, and that’s a threat in the future. We need to say ‘Wait a minute, this is our strength.'”

Quick said his retention would have fit Iowa State’s goals.

“If we’ve got President [Gregory] Geoffroy saying he wants to try to retain and recruit the best in the field; well, I’m at the top here,” said Quick, who was recently awarded the Cyrus Hall McCormick and Jerome Case Gold Medal by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers.

Both Kanwar and Schwab said they have selected the best in the field to replace Quick. Lei Tang will take his place.

“The new person is in the same area as Quick, but also in new emerging areas,” Kanwar said.

Quick disagreed.

“Sixty-two percent of the students coming here want to learn about farm machinery,” he said. “Now, they’ve got no one to teach it to them.”