Kaweah River Watershed
Projects
Postdoctoral Fellows
Dr. Juan S. Acero Triana
Dr. Acero Triana completed his PhD in Ag & Bio Engineering with a concentration in Computational Science and Engineering at UIUC (US) and an MSc in Applied Hydrometeorology at RSHU (RU). He joined the Department of Environmental Sciences in 2020, where his research studies ecohydrological processes across highly managed agroecosystems and lake-watershed interactions integrating numerical models and data analytics tools. The ultimate goal of his research is to develop robust decision support systems that help decision-makers and stakeholders to assess management alternatives aimed at enhancing watershed ecosystem services under climate and land-use change scenarios.
Dr. Bing Li
Dr. Li is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Riverside, specializing in numerical modeling of hydrologic and biogeochemical processes across field, river, and watershed scales. He earned his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, with expertise in high-performance environmental modeling tools such as HyporheicFOAM and ATS-PFLOTRAN. His research focuses on integrating hydrology, microbial biogeochemistry, and environmental fluid dynamics to understand complex Earth system interactions.
Co-advised by Dr. Daniel Hirmas
Dr. Xinying Ling
Dr. Ling is a postdoctoral scientist at UCR and USDA-ARS Sustainable Agricultural Water Systems in Davis. She completed her PhD in Geosciences at Texas Tech University, focusing on water transport in the vadose zone and hydrological processes in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Her research interests include vadose-zone hydrology, groundwater hydrology, hydrologic modeling, and isotope geochemistry. Her current project involves implementing numerical simulations and isotope tools to understand the hydrological processes in hillslope regions and provide insights into managed aquifer recharge in California.
Dr. Taylor M. McDowell
Co-advised by Dr. Daniel Hirmas
Dr. McDowell completed her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a focus on soil hydrology in semi-arid aeolian landscapes. In 2024, she started as postdoctoral researcher at Texas Tech University co-advised by Drs. Hoori Ajami and Daniel Hirmas. Her postdoctoral research project focuses on describing urban soils and their hydraulic properties in the LA area to better understand their role in an urban watershed. Ultimately, we hope this knowledge will contribute to the implementation of nature-based solutions with the goal of reducing stormwater runoff and flooding.
Dr. Sakiur Rahman
Co-advised by Dr. Jirka Šimunek and Dr. Scott Bradford
Dr. Sakiur Rahman, is a postdoctoral researcher, working with Dr. Jirka Šimunek, Dr. Scott Bradford, and Dr. Hoori Ajami at the Department of Environmental Sciences, at UCR. His research is focused on developing a new computationally efficient integrated watershed simulation code. Sakiur earned his PhD from Kumamoto University and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the RIKEN Center for Computational Sciences in Japan. His research also involves applications of stochastic, data assimilation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) approaches for modeling of hydrological processes. His focus is to create a robust, hybrid modeling framework by integrating AI, numerical models, and isotopes to enhance the understanding and forecasting of hydrological processes.
Graduate Students
Vaishnavi Varikuti
Co-advised by Dr. Daniel Hirmas
I earned my BS degree in Agricultural Sciences from Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, India. After graduation, I was highly aspired to study abroad and thus joined South Dakota State University, Brookings to get my MS degree in Plant Sciences. As a PhD student at Texas Tech University under the supervision of Drs. Daniel Hirmas and Hoori Ajami, my research is focused on understanding the effects of interactions between roots, soil, and bedrock on the evolution of soil hydraulic properties, distribution of soil chemical and physical properties, and hydrological functioning of the critical zone.
Eric Wineteer
As an Environmental Sciences PhD student at UC Riverside, I use remotely sensed data to constrain hydrologic models and better understand groundwater recharge. In my previous position as a consulting engineer, I developed improved statistical downscaling techniques to predict the impact of climate change on water quality, and its implications for infrastructure planning. I have extensive experience in high performance computing, particularly in parallel programming with Python. I recived my B.S. in Civil Engineering and my M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the Northeastern University.
Undergraduate Students
Shwetha Anand
Shwetha is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Statistics. Her research interests lie in applying statistical techniques for data science applications. As part of the Digital Agricultural Fellowship and NSF project, Shwetha is co-advised with Dr. Juan Acero and applies her data science skills in analyzing streamflow data from the Colorado River Basin.
Lily Caplon-Guin
Lily is an undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor's degree in Bioengineering. She is analyzing USGS well data to quantify groundwater dynamics in the Central Valley. She has previous research experience working in an Entomology lab studying population and community ecology of alpine freshwater habitats where she sorted and identified freshwater invertebrates. Lily hopes to pursue a career relating to research in agricultural sciences in the future.
Jose Angel Pulido
Angel is an undergraduate student pursuing a BS degree in Electrical Engineering at UC Riverside. Angel was a Digital Agricultural Fellow in (2023-2024). Angel is currently working as part of the NSF CAREER project on analyzing multiple forcing datasets for the project.
Refugio Zepeda
As an undergraduate Data Science student at UC Riverside, my research interests include the application of data analysis techniques and machine learning models to make predictive models. As part of the Digital Agricultural Fellowship porject, my focus is on understanding evapotranspiration processes in the Kaweah River watershed in southern Central Valley. I will use Python and GIS data to understand the spatial and temporal variability of evapotranspiration.
Alumni
Dr. Srishti Gaur
Postdoctoral Fellow (2024-2025)
Hailey Glamore-Scott
BS in Computer Engineering, Digital Agricultural Fellow (2024-2025)
Valerie Gonzales
BS in Environmental Sciences, Digital Agriculture Fellow (2022-2024), Lab Assistant (2025)
Daniel Hernandez
BS in Computer Science, Digital Agricultural Fellow (2024)
Dr. Matthew Amato
Postdoctoral Fellow (2023-2024) - Co-advised by Dr. Daniel Hirmas
Now: Water Resource Scientist, Delaware River Basin Commission
Visiting Scholar, University of California Riverside
Dr. Lin Chen
Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2024) - Co-advised by Dr. Jirka Simunek and Dr. Scott Bradford
Now: Research Scientist at Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, China
Alyssa Duro
MS student (2020-2023) - Co-advised by Dr. Daniel Hirmas
Thesis title: Topographic Correction of Proximally-Sensed Visible Near-Infrared Reflectance Spectra for High Resolution Soil Organic Carbon Mapping
Dr. Sandra Armengol Vall
Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2023)
Now: Research Scientist at Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia, Spain
Dr. Julio César Pachón Maldonado
Postdoctoral Fellow (2022-2023) -Co-advised by Dr. Daniel Hirmas
Now: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Sydney, Australia
Dr. Yusen Yuan
Postdoctoral Fellow (2022-2023)
Now: Postdoctoral Fellow, New Mexico State University
Dr. Sanghyun Lee
Postdoctoral Fellow (2022)
Now: Assistant Professor, Jeonbuk National University
Clarissa Carretta
BS in Geology, Junior Specialist (2022)
William Scott Burgess
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BS in Mathematics, Digital Agricultural Fellow (2021-2022)
Maxim Shapovalov
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BS in Earth & Planetary Sciences (2021-2022)
Now: MS student, University of Oregon
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Dr. Adam Schreiner- McGraw
Postdoctoral Fellow (2018-2021)
Now: Research Hydrologist, USDA ARS Missouri
Kiarash Ehsani
MS in Environmental Sciences (2019-2020)
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Aarushi Jha
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MS in Environmental Sciences (2018-2020)
Thesis Title: Application of a Semi-Distributed Hydrologic Model to Understand Hydrologic Flux Partitioning of an Arid, Highly Managed Watershed
Jacob Palmer
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M.Eng in Chemical and Environmental Engineering
Now: PhD Student at Texas State University, San Marco
Dr. Conrad Wasko
Visiting scholar, University of Melbourne
Dr. Clare Stephens
Visiting scholar, University of New South Wales
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Kelly Perez (2019): (UCR, undergraduate researcher, groundwater monitoring)
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Carly Pierce (2018): (UCR, undergraduate researcher, Land cover change)
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Mohamed Eissa (2017): (UCR, undergraduate researcher, Semi-distributed modeling)
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Kyle Fructuoso (2017): (UCR, undergraduate researcher, Seawater intrusion)
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Austin Fimbres (2017): (UCR, undergraduate researcher, Stream flow analysis)
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Huihai Wang (2017): (UCR, undergraduate researcher, Hydrologic modeling)