Our Alumni

Deepak Ghimire earned his B.S. in Agriculture from the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He traveled thousands of miles from Nepal to Nebraska to pursue his graduate studies. Ghimire earned his M.S. degree in Agronomy with a specialization in Soil and Water Sciences under the supervision of Dr. Maharjan. During his M.S., Ghimire worked on a winter wheat fertility project where he conducted field experiments to evaluate the effects of different N fertilizer rates and application timing on winter wheat grain yield and quality. Ghimire also used crop sensors (hand-held and drone-mounted) to assess the potential of its use to predict in-season fertility status as well as wheat yield and quality.

Ghimire continued his education at the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, UNL, and is currently working on his Ph.D. degree. His current research work revolves around the critical theme of optimizing nitrogen management to maximize crop yield as well as to ensure environmental sustainability in major row crops of western Nebraska. His research interests include the use of advanced tools and technology for efficient nitrogen management, harnessing the power of data to leverage solutions to farmers, climate-smart agriculture, and environmental sustainability.



PUBLICATIONS



https://twitter.com/agrideepak093



https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepak-ghimire

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Joviale Uwase was a UNL CUSP Scholar in 2017 majoring in Integrated Science with a concentration in Mechanized Systems and Management. Uwase participated in two research projects that involved coal combustion residue as a potential soil amendment. One of the projects had an objective of measuring nitrogen losses from fertilized fields via greenhouse gas emission and volatilization. The second project was laboratory incubation study where more detailed measurement of nitrogen losses in soil was conducted. The experimental set-up was equipped to collect greenhouse gas emission, ammonia volatilization and nitrate leaching.

Lithma Kariyawasam was born and raised in Sri Lanka, where she earned her B.S. in Agriculture from the University of Jaffna in Sri Lanka. After graduation, she gained valuable academic experience working as a teaching assistant at the same university for a year. In 2022, she embarked on an important journey to Nebraska, joining the Panhandle Research, Extension, and Education Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) in Scottsbluff as a research scholar under the mentorship of Dr. Maharjan. This opportunity marked a significant milestone in her academic career.

Lithma pursued a M.S. degree in Agronomy with a specialization in Soil and Water Sciences in the Department of Agronomy at UNL, also under the guidance of Dr. Maharjan. Her research focus was on developing innovative strategies for managing soil health in croplands. The primary objective of her major project was to identify critical soil health indicators to assess the soil health gap in croplands.
Her research interests include novel approaches to soil health assessment, establishing soil health benchmarks, improving soil health management for farmers, promoting soil conservation, and advancing environmental sustainability.

Publications

Kariyawasam Hetti Gamage, L.R., Gnanavelrajah, N., Ketheesan, B. and Kajeevan, K., 2023. Chlorella sp. Cultivation Using Parboiled Rice Effluent and Utilization of the Microalgae as Coorganic Fertilizer for Brinjal (Solanum melongina). Waste and Biomass Valorization, 14(12), pp.4243-4256. DOI: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667006224000169?via%3Dihub

Das, S., Hird, A., Maharjan, B., Stephenson, M. and Kariyawasam, L., 2024. Reference site selection based on state-and-transition models for soil health gap evaluation within cropland reference ecological units. Soil Security, 16, p.100142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soisec.2024.100142

Contacts

lkariyawasamhettig2@huskers.unl.edu

402-617-1692

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lithma-kariyawasam

Nicole Ishimwe Ange was a UNL CUSP Scholar in 2018 majoring in Integrated Science with two concentrations - Conservatino Agriculture and Mechanized Systems Management with a minor in Leadership.

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Rex Nielsen is a third-generation rancher, manager and one of the owners of the Spear T Ranch Corporation which has been in the Nielsen family for eighty-five years. Nielsen earned a B.S. from Chadron State College as well as other undergraduate degrees from Nebraska Western College and Western Nebraska Technical College. He also has had significant interest and involvement in Nebraska water issues. Nielsen served the PREEC Soils Lab for over 40 years, retired in March 2023 and continues to facilitate research efforts on the family ranch.

https://preec.unl.edu/dr-saurav-das

https://twitter.com/thedassaurav

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-saurav-das-019343b4/

Tonny Ruhinda was a UNL Cusp Scholar in 2017 from Kigali, Rwanda in East Africa. Ruhinda worked primarily on a variable rate irrigation project that involved spatially varying water across a field using speed and nozzle control. With this knowledge, he will return home and continue to develop the agriculture sector.