His fields of expertise included soil physics, gas properties, acoustics, fluid mechanics, and blackbody radiation.

[1] In 1923, Buckingham published a report which voiced skepticism that jet propulsion would be economically competitive with prop driven aircraft at low altitudes and at the speeds of that period.

Using an empirical formula based on his data, Buckingham was able to give the diffusion coefficient as a function of air content.

The outcomes of his research on gas transport were to conclude that the exchange of gases in soil aeration takes place by diffusion and is sensibly independent of the variations of the outside barometric pressure.

He found that soils of various textures could strongly inhibit evaporation, particularly where capillary flow through the uppermost layers was prevented.