The North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute announced its Graduate Research Fellowship recipients for 2017-18. Fellowships ranging from $1,800 to $10,800 were awarded to 15 graduate students – nine doctoral and six master’s students – conducting research on water resources topics at NDSU and the University of North Dakota.
The fellows, academic programs, university, faculty advisers and research projects are:
• Afshin Shabani, earth system science and policy, UND, Xiaodong Zhang of the earth systems science and policy department, “Assessing Devils Lake Water Quality with Remote Sensing and Coupled SWAT and CE-QUAL-W2 model”
• Ali Rashid, agricultural and biosystems engineering, NDSU, Xinhua Jia of the agricultural and biosystems engineering department, “Crop Evapotranspiration Measurement by Eddy Covariance, Bowen Ratio and Soil Water Balance for a Control Drained and Sub-irrigated Field”
• Bosen Jin, civil engineering, UND, Frank Xiao of the civil engineering department, “Perfluoroalkyl Substances in Surface Runoff of the Red River Basin”
• Cody Ritt, environmental engineering, NDSU, Achintya Bezbaruah of the civil and environmental engineering department, “Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for Phosphate Removal from Wastewater”
• Diane Van Hoy, geology and geological engineering, UND, Taufique Mahmood of the geology and geological engineering department, “Hydrological Responses to Climate Change in a Terminal Lake Basin”
• Hoang Pham, environmental and conservation sciences, NDSU, Achintya Bezbaruah of the civil and environmental engineering department, “Application of Green Iron Nanoparticles Synthesized Using Barley Polyphenols to Combat Lake Eutrophication Problem”
• Kendall Grimm, civil engineering, NDSU, Xuefeng Chu of the civil and environmental engineering department, “Modeling of Runoff Contributing Areas and Hydrologic Connectivity and Applications in North Dakota”
• Marina Martin, environmental and conservation sciences, NDSU, Eakalak Khan of the civil and environmental engineering department and John McEvoy of the microbiological sciences department, “Endoxifen in Wastewater and Surface Water in North Dakota: Detection and Biodegradation”
• Mohsen Tahmasebi Nasab, civil engineering, NDSU, Xuefeng Chu of the civil and environmental engineering department, “Development of a Macro-Scale Physical-Based Gridded Hydrologic Model (GHM) and Applications in North Dakota”
• Nicholas Lindstrom, civil engineering, UND, Frank Xiao of the civil engineering department, “Enhanced Natural Wetland Growth Due to Nearby Constructed Wetlands in the Northern Prairie Pothole Region”
• Swati Sharma, agricultural and biosystems engineering, NDSU, Halis Simsek of the agricultural and biosystems engineering eepartment, “Nutrient Removal from Domestic and Livestock Wastewaters Using Integrating Electro-coagulation and Biological Processes”
• Umesh Acharya, soil sciences, NDSU, Amitava Chatterjee of the School of Natural Resource Sciences, “Study On-farm Evaluation of Interactive Effect of Subsurface Tile Drainage, Tillage and Crop Rotation on Nitrate Leaching”
• Umma Salma Rashid, civil engineering, NDSU, Achintya Bezbaruah of the civil and environmental engineering department, “Removal of Trichloroethylene and Fluoride from Water by Nanoscale Zero-valent Iron Supported on Novel Activated Carbon”
• Yavuz Fidantemiz, agricultural and biosystems engineering, NDSU, Halis Simsek of the agricultural and biosystems engineering department, “Effect of Water Level on Soybean Growth with High Salinity Water”
• Zachary Phillips, environmental and conservation sciences, NDSU, Stephanie Day of the geosciences department, “Holocene Palaeoflood and Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) Influence on Fluvial Geomorphology of the Red River Basin”
A panel of state water resource professionals reviewed the applications and selected the fellows and award amounts. The proposals are prepared by the students with the guidance of their advisers. Regional, state or local collaboration or co-funding is encouraged.
The general criteria used for proposal evaluation include qualifications of the students, scientific merit, originality of research, research related to state or region and extent of regional, state or local collaboration or co-funding. Funding for the Fellowship program comes primarily from the annual base grant provided to the institute by the U.S. Geological Survey and an additional support of 20 percent of the base grant comes from the North Dakota State Water Commission.
The North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute is one of 54 institutes, each located at a land-grant institution of each state and territory under the umbrella organization of National Institutes for Water Resources. For information, contact Eakalak Khan, institute director and professor of civil and environmental engineering, at 231-7717, or eakalak.khan@ndsu.edu, or visit the institute's website.
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