SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH / CROPS · SOILS · ENVIRONMENT
Research on crops, soils, and the environment.
I study how crops respond to soils, water, weather, and management. My work combines field measurements, satellite and UAV observations, process-based models, and machine learning.
Current projects examine plant growth and water stress, soil mapping, model performance in new fields, and the use of crop simulations to compare management options.
01 ABOUT & BACKGROUND
Postdoctoral Researcher · Department of Agronomy, Purdue University
I trained in agricultural engineering and have worked on crop, water, climate, and soil research at Purdue since 2017.
My earlier work examined citrus irrigation and water stress, evapotranspiration, drought, and land–atmosphere interactions. I later studied climate impacts on crop production, rice adaptation, and models of soybean and cotton physiology.
Since October 2025, I have worked with Dr. Siddhartho Paul in Purdue Agronomy on digital soil mapping, sampling design, and remote sensing. I continue to collaborate on crop modeling and plant physiology, and to develop research software for field analysis.
02 RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
My work focuses on crop and environmental models, remote sensing and spatial prediction, and field-scale simulation.
I use process-based models to study how crop growth and water use respond to plant traits, soils, weather, and management. I compare model structures, estimate parameters from physiological measurements, and test how machine learning can improve selected parts of these models.
I combine soil and field measurements with UAV and satellite imagery to map soil properties, crop conditions, and ground cover. I also test how models perform when applied to different fields, seasons, or sensors, particularly when only a few local observations are available.
I develop tools that combine soil, weather, and satellite data with crop simulations to examine variation within fields. I study when representing this variation changes predicted crop responses or the results of management scenarios, and how to communicate uncertainty in those results.
03 SELECTED RESEARCH & SOFTWARE
Selected ongoing studies and software tools. Project and manuscript status is noted for each entry.
ONGOING · MANUSCRIPT IN PREPARATION
A process-based plant model of photosynthesis, carbon allocation, and growth, with parameters linked to measurable traits. I developed the first version with Diane Wang and Bryan Runck and am leading the first manuscript.
ONGOING · DIGITAL SOIL SCIENCE
I test whether soil-property models trained in one field can predict conditions in another when local samples are limited. Related work examines how ground, UAV, and satellite images can be used to map residue and ground cover.
EXPERIMENTAL PLATFORM · ONGOING
An experimental tool that runs crop simulations using field information, weather, and satellite data. It allows users to explore management scenarios through a natural-language interface, with answers linked to model results. I plan to test simulations at different spatial resolutions.
DEPLOYED RESEARCH APPLICATION
A web application that uses soil and environmental data to evaluate sampling locations, map field variation, and identify management zones. It is deployed on Purdue research-computing infrastructure.
ONGOING · COLLABORATIVE STUDY
I use the TREES model and field measurements of gas exchange, leaf water potential, soil water, and canopy temperature to study differences in cotton water use among genotypes. The work includes parameter estimation and uncertainty analysis.
EARLIER RESEARCH
U.S. public rice breeding and future climate yield performance
PNAS · collaborative publicationGlobal processing-tomato production under warming
Nature Food · collaborative publicationCitrus water stress, evapotranspiration, and satellite-data fusion
Field measurement & remote sensing04 PUBLICATION ARCHIVE
Publication titles, authors, journals, and years follow the supplied 2026 CV. “Find article” opens a Google Scholar title search rather than an unverified DOI. Manuscripts in preparation or under review are not counted as published articles.
05 ACADEMIC PATH
My appointments at Purdue include work in climate and hydrology, crop modeling and physiology, and digital soil science.
Purdue University · Department of Agronomy
Purdue University · Department of Agronomy
Purdue University
Purdue University / Indiana State Climate Office
EDUCATION
Shiraz University · 2022
M.S. · Irrigation & Drainage · 2013
B.S. · Agricultural Engineering · 2009
SELECTED RECOGNITION
First place, IoT4Ag track, Purdue Symposium of Digital Agriculture hackathon — team GEMS
NASA Adaptive Management Opportunity Score (AMOS) proposal submitted — Co-PI (proposal status, not an award)
06 TEACHING & MENTORING
I teach computational methods by starting with the agricultural question, the available data, and the assumptions behind each method.
I have assisted with Weather and Climate, guest lectured in Plants, Data & Computational Thinking and Geospatial Informatics, and mentored students in crop modeling, programming, and geospatial analysis. I emphasize checking assumptions, interpreting results, and explaining uncertainty.
COURSE INTERESTS
These are areas of teaching interest, not claims of courses currently taught as instructor of record.