The North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute announced its Graduate Research Fellowship recipients for the year 2012-13. Fellowships ranging from $2,000 to $10,000 were awarded to 13 graduate students, including 10 doctoral and three master’s degree students, conducting research in water resources topics at NDSU and the University of North Dakota.
A panel of state water resource professionals reviews the competitive proposals and selects Fellows and award amounts based on the quality of proposals and the priority of the proposed projects for the state and/or region. The proposals are prepared by the students with guidance of their advisers. Regional, state or local collaboration or co-funding is encouraged. Fellowships have a matching requirement of two non-federal dollars to one federal dollar. The general criteria used for proposal evaluation include: scientific merit, originality of research, research related to state and/or region and extent of regional, state or local collaboration and/or co-funding.
Funding for the Fellowship program comes primarily from the annual base grant provided to the Water Resources Research Institute by the U.S. Geological Survey and an additional support of 15 percent of the base grant comes from the North Dakota State Water Commission. The N.D. Water Resources Research Institute is one of 54 institutes each located at a land-grant institution in each state and territory under the umbrella of National Institutes for Water Resources.
For information, contact N.D. Water Resources Research Institute director, G. Padmanabhan, professor of civil engineering, at 1-7043 or g.padmanabhan@ndsu.edu or visit the institute’s website at www.ndsu.edu/wrri.
2012-13 Fellows, their advisers and fellowship research projects are:
- Alex Stalboerger (Fellow), biological sciences; Marinus Otte (adviser); “Tile drain water: identification of sources and quality improvement by a constructed wetland”
- Anusha Balangoda, environmental and conservation sciences; Wei Lin; “Studies of Seasonal Succession of Cyanobacteria and Green algae at Heinrich-Martin Impoundment, North Dakota”
- Atikur Rahman, agriculture and biosystems engineering; Shafiqur Rahman; “Vegetative Filter Strips: A Best Management Practice for feedlot runoff pollution control in North Dakota”
- Hasin Shahad Munna, civil engineering (UND); Howe Lim; “Advancing Hydrologic Simulations and Flood Frequency Analysis of Devils Lake under Climate Change Scenarios”
- Jun Yang, civil engineering; Xuefeng Chu; “Toward Understanding the Hydrologic Processes on Topographic Surfaces with Depressions – Development of a Physical-based Distributed Puddle-to-Puddle (P2P) Hydrologic Model”
- Justin Fisher, biological sciences; Craig Stockwell; “Integrating Life Stage Habitat into Landscape Genetics Model for the Conservation of a Declining Amphibian Species”
- Kate Overmoe-Kenninger, earth science system and policy (UND); Xiaodong Zhang; “Assessment of Water Quality in Devils Lake Using Satellite Imagery”
- Katrin Chambers, soil science; Francis Casey; “Quantifying Estrogens Bound to Soil and Manure Colloids and Assessing Their Bioavailability”
- Leslie Storlie, civil engineering; Wei Lin; “Investigation of Bromate Formation in Ozone Disinfection Systems through Comprehensive Sampling, Water Quality Analysis, and Model Simulation”
- Michael Quamme, civil engineering; Achintya Bezbaruah; “Selenium Removal from Surface and Groundwater Using Iron Nanoparticles”
- Tanush Wadhawan, civil engineering; Eakalak Khan and John McEvoy; “Role of Agricultural Drainage on Transport of Cryptosporidium Oocysts in North Dakota”
- Veselina Valkov, civil engineering; Wei Lin; “Temporal-spatial Distribution (dynamics) of Phytoplankton and Diversity in Relation to Lake Physical and Chemical Condition”
- Xuelian Bai, soil science; Francis Casey; “Sorption, Degradation, and Mobility of 17b-Estradiol-17-Sulfate in Agricultural Soils”