2017 AIARD Future Leaders Class
Esra Alwan is a PhD candidate in the crop and soil sciences department at Washington State University. Her research focuses on identifying and incorporating novel and durable resistance genes in wheat to effectively control diseases and reduce yield losses. Esra was motivated to contribute in improving wheat productivity due to its important role in providing a stable food source to the world population. Over the course of her career, she has had the opportunity to interact globally and extensively with farmers, understand their needs, and assist them to use efficient agricultural strategies. Esra has been mentored by a diverse and successful group of scientists whose dedication and passion for wheat research amplified her desire to serve society from an international platform. She is committed to being an advocate, and inspiring other women to recognize the value of agricultural research in minimizing hunger and malnutrition in societies where it’s often adversely affecting women and children.
Festus Amadu is pursuing an interdisciplinary PhD in Natural Resource Economics in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His research focus is on adoption and impact of climate smart agriculture (CSA) for food security and environmental sustainability. His dissertation research is an ex-post impact evaluation of a CSA intervention in Southern Malawi. Festus is very passionate about agriculture and environmental issues in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), especially in understanding the impacts of agricultural development programs and environmental sustainability. His prior academic training was in Agricultural Economics, with emphasis on food security, and international development. He graduated from University of Sierra Leone in 2004, with Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Agricultural Economics, and two subsequent MS degrees: Agricultural Economics from Njala University (in Sierra Leone), and Agricultural and Applied Economics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Mahendra Bhandari is a PhD student in Agronomy at Texas A&M University. He holds a Master’s degree in plant and soil science from West Texas A&M University where his research was focused on improving water use efficiency in dryland farming system. His work on dryland agriculture, food security and small holder agriculture in Nepal, India and in the United States drove his interest in international agriculture and rural development. His doctoral research focuses on high throughput field phenotyping and water stress management in dryland farming system. After graduation, he wishes to work on developing countries to improve farming system and food security through better technology development.
Jingjing Chen is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Science at Virginia Tech University, where she is advised by Dr. Ryan Stewart. She obtained her B.S. degree (2010) and M.S. (2014) in Soil and Water Conservation and Desertification Control from Southwestern University, China. Her research focuses on the effects of soil hydrophobicity on the movement of water (in liquid and vapor phases) and on larger-scale hydrological process such as infiltration and overland flow generation. As part of this effort she is measuring the hydrological impacts of recent wildfires in the southeastern United States. In her spare time, she is fond of traveling and exploring the U.S., and one of her wishes is to try skydiving.
Alyssa DeVincentis is pursuing a Ph.D. in Hydrologic Sciences at University of California, Davis and is a National Science Foundation trainee in the Climate Change, Water, and Society IGERT program. Her research interests include agricultural groundwater management, adoption of sustainable water conservation practices on farms, and integrating social response to climate change into hydrologic modeling. She is using a mixed-method approach to study the hydrologic impacts of climate-smart agriculture using field measurements, stakeholder interviews, and hydrologic modeling. She is specifically interested in the potential use of cover crops and deficit irrigation to mitigate groundwater overdraft and the effects of new groundwater management legislation in California. Alyssa holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from Rutgers University where she researched the economics of recycling water at horticultural operations. She served in AmeriCorps for a year in Texas before coming to UC Davis.
Adebiyi “Gana” Jelili Adegboyega is a fourth-year PhD Candidate in Community Sustainability, a unique interdisciplinary program at Michigan State University (MSU). Jelili holds three master’s degrees: MA, History and Civilization; Masters of Community and Regional Planning; and MSc. Sustainable Agriculture. At MSU, Jelili doubles as an Environmental Science and Policy Program and Mott Fellow and is associated with four graduate specialization certification programs. These include (1) Environmental Science Policy Program; (2) Gender, Justice, and the Environment, (3) International Development, and (4) Ecological Foods and Farming Systems. Jelili’s broad research interests cut across ecological and organic farming systems, water-food-energy-climate nexus, alternative development strategies, sociology of agriculture and international development. Jelili draws on system thinking and mixed methods to understand and model farmers’ decision-making and the sustainability of complex systems. Jelili is the inaugural recipient of Outstanding Doctoral Student Mentor Award. The award was in recognition of Jelili’s outstanding mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students at MSU.
Abdelaziz Lawani is a Ph.D. Candidate in Agricultural Economics at the University of Kentucky. His research lies at the interactions of development, environmental economics, and machine learning. He is currently working on the use of drones and satellite data to infer economic agents’ behavior from small-scale farmers in developing countries to consumers in the United States. Abdel’s works on drones offer new possibilities for the adaptation of precision agriculture to small-scale farmer’s needs in Africa. His initiative provides tailored services to farmers that allow them to monitor their crop health (density, height, nutrient, or water stress), estimate crop yield, and identify and react quicker to threats (weeds, pests, fungi). He is also evaluating how smart crop-spraying agricultural drones can help farmers accurately apply fertilizer, liquid pesticides, and herbicides. With this climate-smart technology Abdel aims at increasing productivities and improving the resilience and adaptive capacity of vulnerable farming systems in Africa.
Lin Liu is a Ph.D. student studying the crop-soil-climate-management interactions at Michigan State University. Her research interests are in sustainable agriculture, food security, and crop yield forecasting. She uses various approaches, including field experiments, crop simulation models and data analytics, to understanding crop production systems and improving agricultural decision-makings. She has participated in several international projects, where she collaborates with researchers and experts in enhancing crop productivity and food security in the United States, Malawi, and Tanzania. For her Ph.D. degree, she is developing a crop yield forecasting system for the Government of Tanzania. She is also a fellow in the Environmental Science and Policy program at Michigan State.
Colwayne Morris is a PhD Animal Science student at the University of Missouri. Over the past decade he has contributed to the poultry and livestock industry in Guyana as a Veterinary Technician, Farm Supervisor and Senior Field Extension Officer. Colwayne recently graduated from Missouri with an MS in Animal Sciences. His research was centered around phosphorous digestibility of common ingredients used in poultry feed, aimed at reducing the excess amount of phosphorus added to diets and thus reducing the concentrations of phosphorus excreted and causing environmental problems such as eutrophication. Colwayne sees this as his area of contribution to mitigate climate change and global food security. Colwayne is the vice president of the Animal Science Graduate Student Association and volunteers with FFA and 4H clubs within the state of Missouri. Colwayne’s career goal is to become a Monogastric Nutritionist and contribute to the poultry and swine industry internationally.
Stephen Mukembo is a former Ford Foundation International Fellow, and is completing his PhD program in Agricultural Education (focus agripreneurship) this summer at Oklahoma State University (OSU). His dissertation topic is “Equipping youth with agripreneurship and other valuable life skills by linking secondary agricultural education to communities for improved livelihoods: The case of project-based learning in Uganda.” Stephen holds a graduate certificate in entrepreneurship from Spears School of Business (OSU), a master’s degree in international agriculture from OSU, and a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education from Kyambogo University, Uganda. Stephen has more than 10 years of teaching and mentoring of students, both at high school and university; several years of experience in capacity building, including the provision of advisory services related the development of agricultural ventures and small business management. He is passionate about youth and agripreneurship development. After graduation, he plans to pursue a career in international agricultural development.
Pedro Piqueras is graduating with a PhD in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Riverside this June. He is currently a scientific investigator at the university’s Center for Environmental Research and Technology and part of the Aerosol and Climate Research Group under Dr. Asa-Awuku. He conducts most of his research at Atmospheric Processes Laboratory (APL) with the world’s largest indoor atmospheric chamber to understand the implications of air pollution on regional air quality, health and climate. Recently, he became a Research and Innovation Fellowship for Agriculture (RIFA) fellow to study urban emissions’ effects on agriculture in South Africa. This opportunity allowed him to work at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria to develop a phytotoxic assessment in the Mpumalanga Highveld Priority Area, a region known to be one of the largest industrialized areas in Africa and the food basket of the country.
TW “Sammi” Wong is a recent graduate of the International Agricultural Development program at UC Davis with a passion for languages and plant diseases. She studied French and International Studies at the University of Illinois and has worked for the American Embassy in Paris. Sammi also studied Chinese, Spanish, and Turkish. After serving as an AmeriCorps volunteer for an organic farm in Washington State, she was inspired to study agricultural sciences. At UC Davis, she has designed and implemented an agricultural training course in Haiti and has worked as a visiting researcher at CIAT to study Fusarium wilt of bananas in Colombia. Sammi specializes in projects related to agricultural extension, integrated pest management, and science communication. This fall, she will be joining the NC State Plant Pathology Department as a Syngenta Fellow to study a new invasive species of root knot nematode in North Carolina.
Festus Amadu is pursuing an interdisciplinary PhD in Natural Resource Economics in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His research focus is on adoption and impact of climate smart agriculture (CSA) for food security and environmental sustainability. His dissertation research is an ex-post impact evaluation of a CSA intervention in Southern Malawi. Festus is very passionate about agriculture and environmental issues in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), especially in understanding the impacts of agricultural development programs and environmental sustainability. His prior academic training was in Agricultural Economics, with emphasis on food security, and international development. He graduated from University of Sierra Leone in 2004, with Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Agricultural Economics, and two subsequent MS degrees: Agricultural Economics from Njala University (in Sierra Leone), and Agricultural and Applied Economics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Mahendra Bhandari is a PhD student in Agronomy at Texas A&M University. He holds a Master’s degree in plant and soil science from West Texas A&M University where his research was focused on improving water use efficiency in dryland farming system. His work on dryland agriculture, food security and small holder agriculture in Nepal, India and in the United States drove his interest in international agriculture and rural development. His doctoral research focuses on high throughput field phenotyping and water stress management in dryland farming system. After graduation, he wishes to work on developing countries to improve farming system and food security through better technology development.
Jingjing Chen is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Science at Virginia Tech University, where she is advised by Dr. Ryan Stewart. She obtained her B.S. degree (2010) and M.S. (2014) in Soil and Water Conservation and Desertification Control from Southwestern University, China. Her research focuses on the effects of soil hydrophobicity on the movement of water (in liquid and vapor phases) and on larger-scale hydrological process such as infiltration and overland flow generation. As part of this effort she is measuring the hydrological impacts of recent wildfires in the southeastern United States. In her spare time, she is fond of traveling and exploring the U.S., and one of her wishes is to try skydiving.
Alyssa DeVincentis is pursuing a Ph.D. in Hydrologic Sciences at University of California, Davis and is a National Science Foundation trainee in the Climate Change, Water, and Society IGERT program. Her research interests include agricultural groundwater management, adoption of sustainable water conservation practices on farms, and integrating social response to climate change into hydrologic modeling. She is using a mixed-method approach to study the hydrologic impacts of climate-smart agriculture using field measurements, stakeholder interviews, and hydrologic modeling. She is specifically interested in the potential use of cover crops and deficit irrigation to mitigate groundwater overdraft and the effects of new groundwater management legislation in California. Alyssa holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from Rutgers University where she researched the economics of recycling water at horticultural operations. She served in AmeriCorps for a year in Texas before coming to UC Davis.
Adebiyi “Gana” Jelili Adegboyega is a fourth-year PhD Candidate in Community Sustainability, a unique interdisciplinary program at Michigan State University (MSU). Jelili holds three master’s degrees: MA, History and Civilization; Masters of Community and Regional Planning; and MSc. Sustainable Agriculture. At MSU, Jelili doubles as an Environmental Science and Policy Program and Mott Fellow and is associated with four graduate specialization certification programs. These include (1) Environmental Science Policy Program; (2) Gender, Justice, and the Environment, (3) International Development, and (4) Ecological Foods and Farming Systems. Jelili’s broad research interests cut across ecological and organic farming systems, water-food-energy-climate nexus, alternative development strategies, sociology of agriculture and international development. Jelili draws on system thinking and mixed methods to understand and model farmers’ decision-making and the sustainability of complex systems. Jelili is the inaugural recipient of Outstanding Doctoral Student Mentor Award. The award was in recognition of Jelili’s outstanding mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students at MSU.
Abdelaziz Lawani is a Ph.D. Candidate in Agricultural Economics at the University of Kentucky. His research lies at the interactions of development, environmental economics, and machine learning. He is currently working on the use of drones and satellite data to infer economic agents’ behavior from small-scale farmers in developing countries to consumers in the United States. Abdel’s works on drones offer new possibilities for the adaptation of precision agriculture to small-scale farmer’s needs in Africa. His initiative provides tailored services to farmers that allow them to monitor their crop health (density, height, nutrient, or water stress), estimate crop yield, and identify and react quicker to threats (weeds, pests, fungi). He is also evaluating how smart crop-spraying agricultural drones can help farmers accurately apply fertilizer, liquid pesticides, and herbicides. With this climate-smart technology Abdel aims at increasing productivities and improving the resilience and adaptive capacity of vulnerable farming systems in Africa.
Lin Liu is a Ph.D. student studying the crop-soil-climate-management interactions at Michigan State University. Her research interests are in sustainable agriculture, food security, and crop yield forecasting. She uses various approaches, including field experiments, crop simulation models and data analytics, to understanding crop production systems and improving agricultural decision-makings. She has participated in several international projects, where she collaborates with researchers and experts in enhancing crop productivity and food security in the United States, Malawi, and Tanzania. For her Ph.D. degree, she is developing a crop yield forecasting system for the Government of Tanzania. She is also a fellow in the Environmental Science and Policy program at Michigan State.
Colwayne Morris is a PhD Animal Science student at the University of Missouri. Over the past decade he has contributed to the poultry and livestock industry in Guyana as a Veterinary Technician, Farm Supervisor and Senior Field Extension Officer. Colwayne recently graduated from Missouri with an MS in Animal Sciences. His research was centered around phosphorous digestibility of common ingredients used in poultry feed, aimed at reducing the excess amount of phosphorus added to diets and thus reducing the concentrations of phosphorus excreted and causing environmental problems such as eutrophication. Colwayne sees this as his area of contribution to mitigate climate change and global food security. Colwayne is the vice president of the Animal Science Graduate Student Association and volunteers with FFA and 4H clubs within the state of Missouri. Colwayne’s career goal is to become a Monogastric Nutritionist and contribute to the poultry and swine industry internationally.
Stephen Mukembo is a former Ford Foundation International Fellow, and is completing his PhD program in Agricultural Education (focus agripreneurship) this summer at Oklahoma State University (OSU). His dissertation topic is “Equipping youth with agripreneurship and other valuable life skills by linking secondary agricultural education to communities for improved livelihoods: The case of project-based learning in Uganda.” Stephen holds a graduate certificate in entrepreneurship from Spears School of Business (OSU), a master’s degree in international agriculture from OSU, and a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education from Kyambogo University, Uganda. Stephen has more than 10 years of teaching and mentoring of students, both at high school and university; several years of experience in capacity building, including the provision of advisory services related the development of agricultural ventures and small business management. He is passionate about youth and agripreneurship development. After graduation, he plans to pursue a career in international agricultural development.
Pedro Piqueras is graduating with a PhD in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Riverside this June. He is currently a scientific investigator at the university’s Center for Environmental Research and Technology and part of the Aerosol and Climate Research Group under Dr. Asa-Awuku. He conducts most of his research at Atmospheric Processes Laboratory (APL) with the world’s largest indoor atmospheric chamber to understand the implications of air pollution on regional air quality, health and climate. Recently, he became a Research and Innovation Fellowship for Agriculture (RIFA) fellow to study urban emissions’ effects on agriculture in South Africa. This opportunity allowed him to work at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria to develop a phytotoxic assessment in the Mpumalanga Highveld Priority Area, a region known to be one of the largest industrialized areas in Africa and the food basket of the country.
TW “Sammi” Wong is a recent graduate of the International Agricultural Development program at UC Davis with a passion for languages and plant diseases. She studied French and International Studies at the University of Illinois and has worked for the American Embassy in Paris. Sammi also studied Chinese, Spanish, and Turkish. After serving as an AmeriCorps volunteer for an organic farm in Washington State, she was inspired to study agricultural sciences. At UC Davis, she has designed and implemented an agricultural training course in Haiti and has worked as a visiting researcher at CIAT to study Fusarium wilt of bananas in Colombia. Sammi specializes in projects related to agricultural extension, integrated pest management, and science communication. This fall, she will be joining the NC State Plant Pathology Department as a Syngenta Fellow to study a new invasive species of root knot nematode in North Carolina.