2025 Fellowships
The North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute has announced its Graduate Research Fellowship recipients for 2025-2026. The fellowships were awarded to nine graduate students. The funds were provided by the United States Geological Survey and the North Dakota Department of Water Resources.
The Institute promotes the education and training of water resources research professionals through its fellowship program. Profiles of each graduate fellow, along with summaries of their thesis or dissertation research projects and publications from these projects, can be accessed below. Visitors are encouraged to contact the student, research advisor, or the Institute Director for further information on the projects.
These students will conduct water resources research at North Dakota State University and the University of North Dakota. The fellows, their academic programs, universities, faculty advisors, and research projects are as follows:
Name: Paige Arsenault (M.S. student)
Title: Wetland Characteristics and Waterfowl Production of Alternative Agricultural Practices
Program: Department of Biology, University of North Dakota
Advisor: Mark Kaemingk
Name: Debarshi Dasgupta (Ph.D. student)
Title: Through The Looking Glass: Exploring Soil Microbiomes To Mitigate Groundwater Contamination In Agroecosystems
Program: Microbiological Sciences, North Dakota State University
Advisor: Samiran Banerjee
Name: Aditya Goyal (Ph.D. student)
Title: Phosphate Removal from Water Using Calcium Peroxide Nanoparticles
Program: Materials and Nanotechnology, North Dakota State University
Advisor: Achintya Bezbaruah
Name: Hesham Mahmoud (Ph.D. student)
Title: Groundwater Head Response to Seasonal Snowmelt, Rainfall Recharge, and Climate Variability in a Cold Region Unconfined Aquifer (Oakes Aquifer)
Program: Geological Engineering, North Dakota State University
Advisor: Taufique Mahmood
Name: Matthew Maldonado (M.S. student)
Title: Evaluating the influence of temperature and precipitation regimes on angler effort and expenditures
Program: Department of Biology, University of North Dakota
Advisor: Dr. Mark Kaemingk
Name: Shirsa Mazumdar (Ph.D. student)
Title: Bio-Adsorbent-Embedded Ceramic Filters: A Point-of-Use Solution for Phosphate and Sulfate Removal
Program: Materials and Nanotechnology, North Dakota State University
Advisor: Achintya Bezbaruah
Name: Amresh Selukka Nagarajan (Ph.D. student)
Title: Carbon quantum dots from agricultural waste for the removal of heavy metals in produced water
Program: Civil Engineering, North Dakota State University
Advisor: Jiale Xu
Name: Michael Rosati (Ph.D. student)
Title: Assessing Groundwater Dynamics of North Dakota’s Alluvial and Glacial Aquifers using InSAR and Subsidence Analysis
Program: Environmental Engineering, University of North Dakota
Advisor: Howe Lim
Name: Arvin Samadi-Koucheksaraee (Ph.D. student)
Title: Enhancing Daily Streamflow Forecasting: A Coupled GPR-EBBO Hybrid Machine Learning Method
Program: Civil Engineering with the option of Water Resources, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, North Dakota State University.
Advisor: Dr. Xuefeng Chu