Mr. Madison P. Dixon is Associate Director of the Mississippi State University (MSU) Agricultural Autonomy Institute (AAI). Mr. Dixon joined AAI in June 2023 with a passionate vision for combing two of MSU’s largest and most impactful research areas – agriculture and autonomous vehicle systems. Mr. Dixon has served in multiple roles at MSU since 2016 including Graduate Research Assistant, Program Manager, and most recently as Research Director of the MSU Raspet Flight Research Laboratory where he led the development of MSU’s premier Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) research portfolio.

Mr. Dixon has worked in both private industry and academia since 2010 as a subject matter expert in UAS, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and airborne remote sensing. His research interests focus on the interdisciplinary application of autonomous vehicle systems and related technologies to solve modern geospatial and agricultural challenges while creating economic and workforce development opportunities for the State of Mississippi.

Mr. Dixon holds a B.S. degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Delta State University and a M.S. degree in Geosciences from MSU. Mr. Dixon is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) licensed Remote Pilot with multiple FAA Certificates of Authorization/Waiver and over 1,800 hours of UAS operations conducted across the U.S. Mr. Dixon is an active member and former President of the Mississippi Chapter of the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and serves on multiple committees of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). In addition to his role at MSU, Mr. Dixon is a UAS consultant, aerial photographer, and a 5th generation grower of the Dixon farming family of Drew, MS.