2023 Fellowships
The Institute promotes the education and training of water resources research professionals through its fellowship program. Profiles of each graduate fellow, and summaries of her or his thesis/dissertation research project, and publications from this project are accessed through the links below. Visitors are invited to contact the student, research advisor, or the Institute Director for further information on the projects.
The North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute has announced its Graduate Research Fellowship recipients for 2023-2024. The fellowships, ranging from $2,500 to $6,787, were awarded to 24 graduate students, including both doctoral and master’s degree students.
The students will conduct water resources research at NDSU and the University of North Dakota. Fellows, their academic programs, university, faculty advisers and research projects are:
Adewale Ajao
Title: Sustainable management of dams and reservoirs in North Dakota: sediment transport characterization
Program: Civil and Environmental Engineering, UND
Advisor: Yeo Howe Lim
Mousa Almousa
Title: Salts removal as an effective and economical method of Bakken formation treatment
Program: Civil and Environmental Engineering, UND
Advisor: Yeo Howe Lim
Beverly Alvarez-Torres
Title: Polyelectrolyte biopolymers (PEBs) for chloride remediation in water and soils impacted by brine spills
Program: Soil Sciences, NDSU
Advisor: Thomas DeSutter
Kyle D. Boutin
Title: Evaluating the impact of constructed wetlands at the watershed scale
Program: Environmental and Conservation Sciences, NDSU
Advisor: Marinus Otte
Christine Cornish, Ph.D.
Title: Reconstructing glyphosate use in the Prairie Pothole Region: A paleolimnological approach
Program: Environmental and Conservation Sciences, NDSU
Advisors: Marinus Otte and Jon Sweetman
Jordan Dahle
Title: Using InSAR, repeat photography, and GPS to monitor landslides in North Dakota
Program: Environmental and Conservation Sciences, NDSU
Advisor: Benjamin Laabs
Isra Awad Omer Elsamani
Title: Wastewater evaporation mechanism and system dynamics model
Program: Chemical Engineering, UND
Advisor: Yun Ji
Aditya Goyal
Title: Activated carbon modified chitosan membranes/beads for bromate removal from drinking water
Program: Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, NDSU
Advisor: Achintya N. Bezbaruah
Julia Hampton
Title: Detecting scale-specific changes in wetland water quality and ecological communities
Program: Biology, UND
Advisor: Mark A. Kaemingk
Arvin Samadi Koucheksaraee
Title: Enhancing machine learning methods for rainfall-runoff forecasting
Program: Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, NDSU
Advisors: Xuefeng Chu and Marinus L. Otte
Berkay Koyuncu
Title: Cross-stream shear stress distribution in ice-covered rivers
Program: Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, NDSU
Advisor: Trung Bao Le
Fangtian Li
Title: Data mining of hybrid processes for microplastics treatments in wastewater and landfill leachate
Program: Chemical Engineering, UND
Advisor: Yun Ji
Rehnuma Mobin Maisha
Title: Building NRCS Technical Capacity in Irrigation Water Management for Variable Rate Irrigation
Program: Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, North Dakota State University
Advisor: Dean Steele
Dauda Mohammed
Title: Enhanced removal of organic micropollutants in agricultural runoff and wastewater effluent by novel KrCl* excimer lamp (222 nm)
Program: Environmental and Conservation Sciences, NDSU
Advisor: Jiale Xu
Muhammad Ali Moriyani
Title: Social sensing for supporting water infrastructure resilience
Program: Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, NDSU
Advisor: Chau Le
Md Ashif Islam Oni
Title: Towards a low-cost, pervasive metasurface-based dielectric resonator wireless soil salinity and moisture sensing system for precision agriculture
Program: Electrical and Computer Engineering, NDSU
Advisor: Shuvashis Dey
Hannah Patenaude
Title: Looking ahead: a sustainable approach to PFAS removal from drinking water
Program: Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, NDSU
Advisor: Achintya Bezbaruah
Tiansong Qi
Title: Development of a joint modeling framework for assessing the impacts of wetland restoration on hydrologic processes in an impaired wetland-influenced watershed in North Dakota
Program: Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering/Biological Sciences, NDSU
Advisors: Xuefeng Chu and Marinus L. Otte
Md Mirazur Rahman
Title: Smart radiometer for soil moisture detection in view of an efficient irrigation system
Program: Electrical and Computer Engineering, NDSU
Advisor: Shuvashis Dey
Michael Rosati
Title: Determination of water quality parameters in small waterbodies using UAV hyperspectral remote sensing
Program: Civil and Environmental Engineering, UND
Advisor: Yeo Howe Lim
Whitney Sauskojus
Title: Aquatic macroinvertebrates as indicators of restoration success in Prairie Pothole Region wetlands
Program: Environmental and Conservation Sciences and Biological Sciences, NDSU
Advisors: Marinus Otte and Jon Sweetman
Bhuwan Prasad Shah
Title: Automated irrigation for commercial production of watermelon, squash, and muskmelon cultivars in Oakes
Program: Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, NDSU
Advisor: Xinhua Jia
Sai Sri Sravya Vishnumolakala
Title: Utilizing remote-controlled drip irrigation for high tunnel tomato and pepper productions in North Dakota
Program: Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, NDSU
Advisor: Xinhua Jia
Xiaomo Zhang
Title: Developing machine learning and deep learning soil moisture models for precision agricultural applications
Program: Natural Resources Management, NDSU
Advisors: Zhulu Lin and Xin Sun