Job Fugice has worked at IFDC headquarters since November 2006. Hired as a laboratory analyst, he was required to have knowledge of qualitative, quantitative and general chemistry to perform plant and soil analyses. In the past two years, Fugice’s focus has been research chemistry. In IFDC’s Research and Development Division, he has been involved in developing new low-cost fertilizers with improved nutrition and nitrogen efficiency. He has been working with inhibitors and micronutrients for slow-release fertilizer that will improve crop yields based on availability of nutrients for plant uptake. He has also done extensive coating work with polyurethanes, sulfur and epoxies for control-release fertilizer to try to find a better or similar product at lower cost. Recently he has been involved with crop modeling, particularly the Decision Support System for Agro-Technology (DSSAT). His research has been focused on combining the results from the slow- and control-release fertilizers for the DSSAT model. The goal is to use the simulation model with ‘smart fertilizers’ to simulate growth, development and yields using various fertilizers. Fugice holds an MBA in health care management and a B.S. degree in chemistry/biology from the University of North Alabama. Fugice is a Brazilian citizen and speaks Portuguese, Spanish and English.
Selected Publications
Dimkpa, C.O., J. Fugice, U. Singh, and T.D. Lewis. 2020. “Development of Fertilizers for Enhanced Nitrogen Use Efficiency–Trends and Perspectives.” Science of the Total Environment, 731:139113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139113
Dimpka, C.O., J. Andrews, J. Fugice, U. Singh, P.S. Bindraban, W.H. Elmer, J.L. Gardea-Torresdey, and J.C. White. 2020. “Facile Coating of Urea with Low-Dose ZnO Nanoparticles Promotes Wheat Performance and Enhances Zn Uptake Under Drought Stress,” Frontiers in Plant Science, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.00168
Gaihre, Y., U. Singh, W. Bible, J. Fugice, and J. Sanabria. 2020. “Mitigating N2O and NO Emissions from Direct-Seeded Rice with Nitrification Inhibitor and Urea Deep Placement,” Rice Science, 27(5):434-444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsci.2020.03.005
Zhang, S., Y. Yang, Z. Tong, B. Gao, N. Gao, T. Shen, Y. Wan, Z. Yu, L. Liu, X. Ma, Y. Guo, J. Fugice, and Y. Li. 2020. “Self-Assembly of Hydrophobic and Self-Healing Bio- Nanocomposite-Coated Controlled-Release Fertilizer.” ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.