ND Water Resources Research Institute 2019-2020 Graduate Research Fellowships Awarded

The North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute (ND WRRI) announced its Graduate Research Fellowship recipients for the year 2019-2020. The fellowships ranging from $1,500 to $13,440 were awarded to 15 graduate students, including nine Ph.D. and six M.S. students, who will conduct water resources research at NDSU and UND.

A panel of state water resource professionals reviewed the applications and selected the Fellows and award amounts. The proposals were prepared by the students with the guidance of their advisors. The general criteria used for proposal evaluation include: scientific merit, originality of research, research related to the state water resources issues, and extent of state or local collaboration and/or co-funding.

Funding for the Fellowship program comes primarily from the annual 104(B) base grant provided to the ND WRRI by the U.S. Geological Survey and an additional support of approximately 27 percent of the annual base grant comes from the North Dakota State Water Commission. The ND WRRI is one of 54 institutes each located in a land grant institution of each state and territory under the umbrella organization of National Institutes for Water Resources.

For information, contact ND WRRI Director, Xuefeng Chu, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at 701-231-9758 , xuefeng.chu@ndsu.edu, or visit the ND WRRI website, http://www.ndsu.edu/wrri.

2019-2020 ND WRRI Fellows, and their academic programs, university, faculty advisors, and research projects follow:

• Erika Olson, Natural Resource Management, NDSU, Dr. Christina Hargiss
  Understanding E. coli and Water Quality in Stormwater Retention and Detention Basins in Fargo as part of the Red River Watershed
• Mohammad Hadi Bazrkar, Civil & Environmental Engineering, NDSU, Dr. Xuefeng Chu
  Drought Identification and Prediction for Cold Climate Regions
• Hakan Kadioglu, Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering/Natural Resource Management, NDSU, Dr. Halis Simsek
  Effect of Different Water Table Levels on Canola Growth and Quality Parameters
• Hoang Nu Kim Pham, Civil & Environmental Engineering/Environmental and Conservation Science, NDSU, Dr. Achintya Bezbaruah
  Application of Green Iron Nanoparticles Synthesized using Barley Polyphenols to Combat Lake Eutrophication
• Jiyang Zhang, Earth System Science and Policy, UND, Dr. Haochi Zheng
  Evaluation of the Costs between Devils Lake Flooding Adaptations and Sheyenne River Salinity Damages resulted from Devils Lake Outlet Operations
• Justin Waraniak, Biological Sciences/Environmental and Conservation Sciences, NDSU, Dr. Craig Stockwell
  Natural and anthropogenic landscape effects on amphibians in the northern Great Plains: Genetic population structure, connectivity, and local adaptation in northern leopard frog (Rana pipiens)
• Lan Zeng, Civil & Environmental Engineering, NDSU, Dr. Xuefeng Chu
  Development of a puddle-based-unit oriented SWAT (SWAT-PBU) model and its application in North Dakota
• Mathew Cox, Civil Engineering, UND, Dr. Yeo Howe Lim
  Developing Design Guidelines for Spur Dikes in Curved Trapezoidal Channels based on a Validated Two-Dimensional HEC-RAS Model
• Matthew Tuftedal, Atmospheric Sciences, UND, Dr. David Delene
  Precipitation Evaluation of the North Dakota Cloud Modification Project (NDCMP) using Rain Gauge Observations
• Pavankumar Challa Sasi, Civil Engineering, UND, Dr. Feng “Frank” Xiao
  Enhanced Removal of Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances from Water
• Rebecca Bradley, Biological Sciences, NDSU, Dr. Matthew Smith
  Influence of wetland water quality on amphibian stress and reproductive success in Eastern North Dakota
• Talon Mack, Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering, NDSU, Dr. Xinhua Jia
  Using UAV and Thermal Imaging to Determine Soil Moisture in Red River Valley
• Tong Lin, Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering/Environmental and Conservation Sciences, NDSU, Dr. Zhulu Lin
  Water Resources Impacts and Management in the Bakken Region of Western North Dakota
• Tonoy K Das, Civil & Environmental Engineering/Environmental and Conservation Science, NDSU, Dr. Achintya Bezbaruah
  Fabrication of Point of Use Treatment Systems for Aqueous Arsenic and their Evaluation
• Zachary Phillips, Environmental and Conservation Sciences/Geosciences, NDSU, Dr. Stephanie Day
  Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding Fluvial Geomorphology of Post-glaciolacustrine Meandering Rivers: A Case Study of the Red River