Rate My Professor Charles Privette

Charles V. Privette III serves as Department Chair and Professor in the Agricultural Sciences Department at Clemson University’s College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences, a position he assumed permanently in 2018 after serving as interim chair. With more than 26 years at Clemson, he currently also holds the role of Interim Director of the South Carolina Water Resources Center. Privette earned his B.S. in Agricultural Engineering from Clemson University in 1997, M.S. in Biosystems Engineering from Clemson University in 1998, and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of South Carolina in 2005. Early in his career, he worked six years as a farm safety specialist with Clemson Cooperative Extension Service.

Privette’s research focuses on the hydrologic cycle, water quality assessment, modeling urban growth impacts on water quantity and quality, development of best management practices for turbidity control, remote sensing of surface soil moisture, monitoring surface runoff from agricultural fields for nutrients and pesticides, TMDLs, and low impact designs. His projects have collaborated with the National Park Service on real-time water quality monitoring during Foothills Parkway road construction, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on urban growth modeling, the South Carolina Department of Transportation on BMPs, NASA on satellite-based soil moisture sensing, and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service on agricultural runoff. He holds certifications as a Certified Stormwater Plan Reviewer and Certified Erosion Prevention and Sediment Control Inspector.

In teaching, Privette has delivered courses including Hydrology and Sedimentology, Advanced Hydrology, Irrigation Design, Introduction to Fluid Mechanics, Geomeasurements, and capstone design projects. He has received the Carl M. Lund Professor of the Year for Outstanding Teaching, Clemson University Board of Trustees Award for Faculty Excellence, and Clemson University Board of Trustees Award for Staff Excellence.

Key publications include Busari et al. (2025), 'Advancing Harmful Algal Bloom Predictions using Chlorophyll-a as an Indicator,' Journal of Environmental Management; Busari et al. (2024), 'Investigating the influence of measurement uncertainty on Chlorophyll-a predictions,' Ecological Informatics; Zhang et al. (2024), 'Effectiveness of structural sediment perimeter barrier,' Journal of the ASABE; Busari et al. (2023), 'Chlorophyll a Predictions in a Piedmont Lake in Upstate South Carolina Using Machine-Learning Approaches,' Journal of South Carolina Water Resources; Koparan et al. (2020), 'Adaptive water sampling device for aerial robots,' Drones; Privette et al. (2017), 'Reductions in turbidity and Escherichia coli density using passive polymer treatment,' Agricultural Engineering International: CIGR Journal.