Dr. James is a native Washingtonian who grew up on a dairy farm near Custer in the NW corner of the State. He earned B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in agricultural engineering from Washington State University (1970) and University of Minnesota (1975), respectively. He was an assistant professor of agricultural engineering at Cornell University for two years before returning to WSU as an assistant professor of agricultural engineering in 1977. He was promoted to associate professor in 1982 and full professor in 1989. As a faculty member at WSU he received several University, regional, and national awards for outstanding teaching and research. He authored a textbook in irrigation engineering entitled Farm Irrigation System Design and numerous research publications on irrigation engineering, crop water requirements, irrigation scheduling, and water infiltration into soils. He directed a major Kellogg grant for WSU on re-inventing the land-grant university for the 21st century.
Dr. James has held a wide variety of administrative positions at WSU. He was appointed chair of the agricultural engineering department in 1987 and interim associate dean and director of Cooperative Extension in 1991. He became associate dean and director of academic programs in the College of Agriculture and Home Economics (CAHE) in 1993 and was interim dean of the CAHE for one year in 1994-95. He returned to his associate dean position for two years before moving to the Tri-Cities campus in 1998 to serve as campus executive officer and dean. His title was changed to chancellor in 2003. Dr. James has been in his current position since August 2005.
Larry G. James is Associate Executive Vice President at Washington State University