The North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute has announced its graduate research fellowship recipients for 2009-10. Fellowships ranging from $4,000 to $12,000 were awarded to graduate students from NDSU.
NDSU fellows, areas of study, their advisers and fellowship research projects are:
Dimuthu Wijeyaratne, environmental and conservation sciences, Marinus Otte, “Chemical Fingerprinting of Sediments and Water of the Souris River for Identification of Diffuse Pollution Sources;”
Harjyoti Kalita, materials and nanotechnology, Achintya Bezbaruah and Bret Chisholm, “Iron Imprinted Polymer for Removal and Monitoring of Arsenic;”
Qigang Chang, environmental and conservation sciences, Wei Lin, “Development of GAC-NZVI Adsorbent for Arsenic Removal;”
Rabiya Shabnam, environmental and conservation Sciences, Achintya Bezbaruah and John McEvoy, “Interactions between Microorganisms and Metal Nanoparticles: A New Approach for Groundwater Remediation;”
Sita Krajangpan, civil engineering, Achintya Bezbaruah and Bret Chisholm, “Modification of Iron Nanoparticles by Amphiphilic Polysiloxane Graft Co-Polymer for Arsenic, TCE, and RDX Remediation;”
Halis Simsek, civil engineering, Eakalak Khan, “Fate of Biodegradable Dissolved Organic Nitrogen in Fargo Waste Water;” and
Brianna Schneck, biological sciences, John McEvoy and Mark Clark, “Source Tracking of Cryptosporidium in Rural Watersheds.”
Selection of student fellows and the award amounts are based on competitive proposals prepared by the students with the guidance of their advisers. Projects proposed for fellowship support should relate to water resources research issues in the state or region. Regional, state or local collaboration or co-funding is encouraged. Fellowships have a matching requirement of two non-federal dollars to one federal dollar. A panel of state water resource professionals reviews the proposals and selects the fellows and award amounts based on the quality of proposals and the priority of the proposed projects for the state and region. The general criteria used for proposal evaluation include: scientific merit, originality of research, research related to state or region and extent of regional, state or local collaboration or co-funding.
Funding for the fellowship program comes primarily from the annual base grant provided to the institute by the U.S. Geological Survey. An additional support of 15 percent of the base grant comes from North Dakota State Water Commission. The North Dakota institute is one of 54 institutes located in a land-grant institution in each state and territory under the umbrella of the National Institute for Water Resources.
For more information, contact institute director G. Padmanabhan, professor of civil engineering, at 1-7043, or G.Padmanabhan@ndsu.edu or visit www.ndsu.edu/wrri.
