Fargo, N.D. – An NDSU environmental and conservation sciences doctoral student has been selected to receive a high-tech instrument to help conduct forest resource research. Buddhika Madurapperuma has been selected to participate in the 2012 Alexander Goetz Instrument Support Program, which is awarded to fewer than 10 individuals per year and encourages novel, unconventional and/or fundamental research in the field of remote sensing and near-infrared spectroscopy.

“This is indeed a great honor for Buddhika in recognition of his groundbreaking research work he had conducted on forestry resource and management,” said Peter Oduor, associate professor of geology and geography.

Madurapperuma will receive a FieldSpec 4 spectroradiometer system, which will be used to acquire the spectral signatures of Russian olive and its associated plant communities such as cottonwood and silver buffaloberry. He will conduct a two-month field research at a wildland-urban interface and receive a $500 grant for publishing or presenting his research. Madurapperuma has conducted forest resource research with funding by the U.S. Forest Service and Cooperative Forestry Assistance grants with flow-through funding from North Dakota Forest Service.

The Alexander Goetz Instrument Support Program recognizes the longstanding contribution of Alexander Goetz in the field of remote sensing. He was a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, for 21 years. Analytical Spectral Devices Inc. sponsors the program.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.