Patrick I. Coyne, physiological ecologist, was appointed professor and head of the Agricultural Research Center-Hays in April of 1985. In 1994, the research operations at the Southwest Research-Extension Center (Garden City and Tribune) and the Northwest Research-Extension Center (Colby) were merged administratively with the Hays program to form the Western Kansas Agricultural Research Centers. Coyne served as head of the WKARC until March 2006 when he gave up his administrative appointment for a research faculty position based at Hays. His research interests include integrating the components of precision agriculture (GPS, GIS, Variable Rate Inputs, Autoguidance, etc.) to fully exploit its potential and economic benefits and agricultural issues associated with global change, specifically physiological and ecological responses of crops and rangeland to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.