Maisonnave, Roberto
Roberto Maisonnave
Roberto Maisonnave is an expert in agriculture-related environmental issues. His work focuses on water, soil, and air quality. Maisonnave specializes in manure nutrient management and agronomic utilization. He has worked on the planning and design of advanced animal waste treatment systems, including feed yards, dairies, poultry, and pig farms. Maisonnave received certifications from multiple U.S. environmental departments including Nutrient Management Planner, Odor Measurements, Public Water Systems and Crop Adviser (ODAFF, KDHE, CDHE). He currently assists farmers, officials, and companies through professional environmental engineering consulting services.
“At some point, you have to prove why you are here.” Roberto Maisonave, 2004.
Maisonnave, R.; Lamelas, K. y G. Mair., Rodriguez, N., de Febrero, T. (2019). Comprehensive Physiochemical Characterization of Poultry Litter: A First Step Towards Manure Management Plans in Argentina. https://lpelc.org/comprehensive-physiochemical-characterization-of-poult….
Maisonnave, R.; Lamelas, K. y G. Mair. (2016). Buenas prácticas de manejo y utilización de cama de pollo y guano. Ministerio de Agroindustria de la Nación Argentina.
García, A. R., Maisonnave, R., Massobrio, M. J., & Fabrizio de Iorio, A. R. (2012). Field‐Scale Evaluation of Water Fluxes and Manure Solution Leaching in Feedlot Pen Soils. Journal of environmental quality, 41(5), 1591-1599.
Roberto Maisonnave was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His mother, Dina Maisonnave, was a homemaker, and his father, Jorge Maisonnave, was an accounting manager in a large automotive company. During his childhood, Maisonnave spent a lot of his time tending to his father’s farm and had an early connection with agriculture.
His appreciation of agriculture led Maisonnave to study it in college, where he attended the University of Buenos Aires starting in 1991. As an undergraduate at the Agronomy College, Maisonnave took the class “American Socio-cultural Systems: hunters and fruit collectors.” He performed well in the class and impressed his professor, who later invited him to join his research group. His teacher received a fellowship from a U.S. organization, Earth Watch, to finance Maisonnave’s studies. Maisonnave’s Earth Watch group traveled to the Paraguay-Bolivia-Brazil frontier and spent a month in an Indigenous village close to the Paraguayan town of Bahia Negra. The people of the village are the Chamacocos, and Maisonnave led an evaluation of their potential to incorporate agricultural activities at the family and community level. Although this research project was not a required component of Maisonnave’s concentration program, his participation with this group significantly added to the richness of his undergraduate experience.
Maisonnave wrote his undergraduate thesis on arsenic water pollution in rural areas. His thesis earned him significant recognition, which opened doors for him and his future endeavors. Maisonnave received a B.S. in agricultural engineering in 1998 and began his master’s studies at the University of Buenos Aires. While studying for his master’s degree, Maisonnave worked as a teaching assistant, where he became interested in the environmental field. As a teaching assistant, he presented at the University of Buenos Aires and directed water, soil, and sludge samples. Maisonnave held this position from 1998 to 2002. In 2002, he received his M.S. in Environmental Science.
Maisonnave is proud of the level of education that he has received from the University of
Buenos Aires. He feels fortunate for the opportunities because many people in Argentina do not have the funds to pursue an education, nor do they have access to the opportunities that he has had.
Through his work as a teaching assistant and researcher at the University of Buenos Aires, Maisonnave gained significant research experience and industry contacts. While working towards his master’s degree, he studied feed yards, an alternative to grazing cows where they are instead kept in small pens. The practice causes serious environmental impacts on surface and ground waters. Maisonnave was the first to study feed yards and their implications in Argentina.
The World Bank and the Argentinian government recognized Maisonnave’s work on feed yards and awarded him a fellowship. Following the fellowship, Maisonnave received a three-month internship with Texas A&M University. After completing the internship, Maisonnave returned to Argentina to finish the research for his dissertation and complete his master’s degree.
Maisonnave has been fortunate enough to have many great opportunities, but he has not always been able to seize all of them. Maisonnave was accepted to a four-year Ph.D. fellowship program with the University of Buenos Aires. Texas A&M then offered him a Ph.D. fellowship as well. While deciding which university to attend, a friend at Texas A&M notified him that an agribusiness firm, Seaboard Foods, was looking for someone with his work and research experience. It was not an easy decision, but Maisonnave ultimately chose to work at Seaboard Foods because he felt the experience would benefit his career trajectory. Turning down a fellowship at the University of Buenos Aires was one of his hardest decisions because he was one of 50 accepted individuals out of 1,600 who applied. He was grateful to receive his position at Seaboard Foods but also disappointed it meant closing the door to a Ph.D. for the rest of his life. He was not sure if he would be successful in his new position in the corporate world.
From 2002 to 2012, Maisonnave worked as a nutrient management specialist and environmental soil scientist at Seaboard Foods in Guymon, Oklahoma. Seaboard Foods is one the largest producers of pigs, producing one million pigs annually. He oversaw sites in Kansas, Colorado, and Texas and a state-of-the-art hog manure waste treatment system. The manure is used as organic fertilizer for crops and is given to farmers to save money on commercial fertilizers. Maisonnave was also Seaboard Foods’ soil scientist and worked closely with management plants.
Maisonnave strives to constantly improve himself. His work at Seaboard Foods provided a challenging work environment in which Maisonnave was proud to succeed. Working at Seaboard Food was a great fit and demonstrated that Maisonnave’s hard work point paid off. For Maisonnave, his most significant achievement was his ability to succeed in the corporate world despite the barriers that he has faced. It was difficult for him to transition from academia to the corporate world, especially because of the language and cultural differences. However, all of these things have enriched his experience.
In 2013, Maisonnave formed his consulting firm, Ambient Agro, LLC, where he assists companies in the planning and design of advanced animal waste treatment systems, including feed yards, dairies, and pig farms.
In 2019, Maisonnave started a position in Spain with Mecaniques Segales. This company provides innovative solutions to serve livestock breeders by developing machinery to make the processes more accessible and profitable.
Maisonnave credits his mentor, Dr. John Sweeten of Texas A&M University, as a significant influence on him throughout his endeavors. Sweeten hosted him when he came from Argentina, recommended him for the position at Seabord Foods, and has always supported Maisonnave’s hard work and dreams. Dr. Alicia Fabrizio de Iorio, with the Chemistry Lab at the University of Buenos Aires, was the first person to introduce Maisonnave to the Environmental Sciences world and still supports his projects.
Maisonnave knows the importance of being a mentor as well. He is familiar with the difficulties of working in a foreign country, so he mentors individuals hired to raise the pigs from countries such as Mexico and Peru. He helps them transition to the United States from their respective countries by advising them on how to secure loans for cars and homes. He shows them how to work with companies and teaches them about environmental issues.
Maisonnave advises minorities considering a career in the environmental field to study the requirements of the programs they are interested in. He also notes that people probably expect more from him because he is a minority. He says, “At some point, you need to prove why you are here” (2005).
Roberto Maisonnave. n.d. Home [LinkedIn Page]. LinkedIn. Retrieved July 21, 2023 from https://www.linkedin.com/in/roberto-maisonnave-0a684252/.
Taylor, Dorceta (Ed.). 2005. The Paths We Thread: Profiles of the Careers of Minority Environmental Professionals. Minority Environmental Leadership Development Initiative, University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment.