The North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute has announced the Graduate Research Fellowship recipients for 2016-17. Fellowships ranging from $1,500 to $10,000 were awarded to 15 graduate students, including five doctoral and 10 master's degree students, who are conducting research in water resources topics at NDSU and the University of North Dakota.
A panel of state water resource professionals reviewed the applications and selected the fellows and award amounts. The general criteria used for proposal evaluation include qualifications of the students, scientific merit, originality of research, research related to state and/or region, and extent of regional, state or local collaboration and/or co-funding. The proposals were prepared by the students with the guidance of their advisers.
The fellows, academic programs, university, faculty advisers and research projects are:
• Alexis Steinman, natural resources management, NDSU, Christina Hargiss of the School of Natural Resource Sciences, "A Comparison of Wetlands across the Urban-Peri-Urban-Rural Gradient."
• Boonsiri Dandumrongsin, environmental and conservation sciences, NDSU, Halis Simsek of the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, "Contribution of Soluble Microbial Products on Dissolved Organic Nitrogen and its Biodegradability in Wastewater Effluent."
• Debjit Roy, agricultural and biosystems engineering, NDSU, Xinhua Jia of the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, "Snowmelt Water Infiltration into Frozen Soils in the Red River of the North Basin."
• Luisa Torres, civil and environmental engineering, NDSU, Eakalak Khan of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Om Yadav of the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, "Holistic Risk Assessment of Surface Water Contamination Due to Lead-210 Found in Produced Water from Unconventional Oil Production in North Dakota."
• Mohammad Hossain, environmental and conservation sciences, NDSU, Achintya Bezbaruah of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, "Biopolymers for Phosphate Removal from Eutrophic Lakes."
• Marina Martin, environmental and conservation sciences, NDSU, Eakalak Khan of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and John McEvoy of the Department of Veterinary and Microbiological Sciences, "Tamoxifen and Endoxifen Detections in Wastewater and Receiving Waters in North Dakota."
• Soklida Hong, environmental and conservation sciences, NDSU, Eakalak Khan of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Jayaraman Sivaguru of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, "Glutaraldehyde Removal from Flowback and Produced Water Using Photolysis."
• Swati Sharma, agricultural and biosystems engineering, NDSU, Halis Simsek of the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, "UV Light Effect on Bioavailability of Dissolved Organic Nitrogen in a Trickling Filter Process."
• Tong Lin, agricultural and biosystems engineering, NDSU, Zhulu Lin of the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, "Assessing the Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing at Bakken on Regional Water Resources."
• Umma Salma Rashid, civil and environmental engineering, NDSU, Achintya Bezbaruah of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, "Injectable Nanoparticle-based Permeable Reactive Barriers for Groundwater Contaminant Remediation."
• Ursinio Puga, civil and environmental engineering, NDSU, Wei Lin of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, "Comparative Ultraviolet Disinfection Study for Wastewater Applications for the City of Fargo, North Dakota."
• Afshin Shabani, earth system science and policy, UND, Xiaodong Zhang of the Department of Earth Systems Science and Policy, "Modeling Water Balance and Flows of Sediment and Nutrient in Devils Lake Watershed Using SWAT."
• Bahareh Shoghli, civil engineering, UND, Howe Lim of the Department of Civil Engineering, "Impacts of Climate Change on Embankment Dams in the Upper Midwest Region: Critical Design Parameters and Adaptation Measures."
• Benjamin York, geology and geological engineering, UND, Philip Gerla of the Harold Hamm School of Geology and Geological Engineering, "Effect of Glacial Isostatic Adjustment on Rivers and Drainage Basins in the Red River Valley."
• Courtney Jackson, geography and geographic information science, UND, Paul Todhunter of the Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, "Effects of Climate Change, Agricultural Land Use Change, and Dynamic Contributing Area on Streamflow Input to Devils Lake: A Case Study of the Mauvais Coulee Sub-Basins."
Funding for the Fellowship program comes primarily from the annual base grant provided to the institute by the U.S. Geological Survey and 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 located in 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.