NM WRRI Announces 2019 Student Water Research Grants

by Catherine Ortega Klett, NM WRRI Senior Program Manager

NM WRRI received 24 proposals in response to the 2019 Student Water Research Grant Request for Proposals ‒ 20 from New Mexico State University, two from New Mexico Tech, one from the University of New Mexico, and one from New Mexico Highlands University. Funding for 13 grants were made with state appropriations and three grants were made with Bureau of Reclamation-New Mexico State University Cooperative Agreement funding.

Johnson Adio, Natural Resources Management, NMHU, MS; (Dr. Jennifer Lindline) Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment of the Rio Mora at the Rio Mora National Wildlife Refuge, Mora County, NM

Isuru Sachitra Abeysiriwardana Arachchige, Civil Engineering, NMSU, PhD; (Dr. Nirmalakhandan) Domestic Wastewater Treatment Using Algal Systems in Winter Climate

Alireza Bandegi, Chemical & Materials Engineering, NMSU, PhD; (Dr. Reza Foudazi) Electrochemical-Assisted Ultrafiltration Membranes for Simultaneous Removal of As, Cd and Cr

Hengameh Bayat, Chemical & Materials Engineering, NMSU, PhD; (Dr. Umakanta Jena) Wastewater Treatment Using Food Waste Char Obtained from Hydrothermal Liquefaction as a Low-Cost Adsorbent Material

Victoria Blumenberg, Animal & Range Sciences, NMSU, PhD; (Dr. Amy Ganguli) Stable Isotope Analysis to Determine the Usefulness of Surface Water as a Proxy for Precipitation in a Semi-Arid, Mountainous Environment

Moticha M. Franklin, Chemistry & Biochemistry, NMSU, BS; (Dr. Antonio S. Lara) Surface Area of a Local Clay Material to Elucidate Uranium Abatement for Potable New Mexico Water Management

Alyssa Latuchie, Economics, UNM, PhD; (Dr. Janie Chermak) A Survey: New Mexicans’ Willingness to Pay for Produced Water Treatment for Beneficial Re-Use

Kimberly McNair, Biology, NM Tech, MS; (Dr. Linda DeVeaux) Tracking CRE in the Rio Grande: Determining Correlation Between the Appearance of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria in Surface Waters and Local Infection Rates

Esmaiil Mokari, Plant & Environmental Sciences, NMSU, PhD; (Dr. Manoj Shukla) Developing a 2/3D Model for Improving Fertigation Scheduling Under Salinity Stress for Pecan

Srimali Preethika Munasinghe-Arachchige, Civil Engineering, NMSU, PhD; (Dr. Nirmalakhandan) Assessment of Disinfection Byproducts (DBPs) Formation in Algae-Treated Wastewater for Safer Reuse in Unrestricted Applications

Juliano Penteado de Almeida, Civil Engineering, NMSU, PhD; (Dr. Pei Xu) Enhanced Water Recovery and Membrane Scaling Mitigation for Desalination Using Innovative Electromagnetic Field (EMF) and 3D Printed Open Flow Channel Membranes

Jackson Powers, Plant & Environmental Sciences, NMSU, MS; (Dr. Ryan Goss) Herbicide Phytotoxicity Under Drought Conditions in Warm and Cool Season Turfgrass

Madeline Richards, Earth & Environmental Sciences, NM Tech, MS; (Dr. Daniel Cadol) Modeling Rainfall-Runoff Relationships in Conjunction with Sediment Transport Measurements in Ephemeral Channels

Michael Whiting (Gaurav Jha, student mentor), Geology, NMSU, MS; (Dr. April Ulery) Monitoring Toxic Metal Uptake by Corn Grown in Agricultural Fields Across Animas and San Juan Rivers

Jiuling Yu, Chemical & Materials Engineering, NMSU, PhD; (Dr. Hongmei Luo) Wasterwater-Treatment Algae-Derived Hydrochar for Heavy Metal Adsorption and Recycling

Muchu Zhou, Chemical & Materials Engineering, NMSU, PhD; (Dr. Reza Foudazi) Design of Optimized Produced Water Treatment Units for the Agricultural Irrigation