Carl Schimenti serves as the Urban Environmental Specialist for the Cornell Turfgrass Team, a role he’s held since 2022 after joining the team in 2016. He manages a broad portfolio of research projects, including schoolyard stewardship in K–12 facilities, statewide New York golf course reports, best management practice (BMP) tracking, modeling tools for pesticide risk and nutrient use, growth rate trials on lawn-height plots, and urban greenspace monitoring on Cornell’s Ithaca campus.
Before stepping into his current role, Schimenti served as the team’s Extension Support Specialist for six years. That position laid the groundwork for much of the statewide collaboration and applied field research the program is known for today.
Cornell is a familiar place for Schimenti. He earned his degree in environmental engineering (’14) and competed on the university’s golf team. His introduction to turfgrass science came through Frank Rossi, after being connected by the Cornell golf course superintendent, Dave Hicks.
After graduation, he pursued professional golf, competing for two years on Florida mini-tours. When he returned to Ithaca to prepare for his FE and PE engineering exams, he helped graduate student Alec Moore with early shoe traction trials—an opportunity that led him back into the field and eventually into his full-time position with the team.
“I can apply engineering principles to turfgrass,” he explains. “At the beginning Frank told me, ‘I’ll teach you turf, so you can be an engineer in turf.’”
Schimenti’s work has steadily evolved. His contributions now span pesticide risk modeling, water quality research, nutrient use strategies, and expanding the team’s scope from golf to sports fields and broader urban green spaces. As urban environmental specialist, he bridges research and practice in both natural and built landscapes.
Communicating his research through his extension role has elevated the team’s impact for superintendents, field managers, and homeowners. Since joining the team, Schimenti has been a key voice on the weekly Spring Turfshow and organizing the ShortCUTT newsletter for many years.
Today, he has reclaimed his amateur golf status, but his perspective has changed. “When I’m walking a golf course with a superintendent, I see the course differently. I’m looking at the grass in a completely different way than when I’m just playing it.”
You can reach Carl Schimenti at css223@cornell.edu