Visiting Scholars

 

  Meshal Abdullah, Ph.D. (Research Gate)
Dr. Meshal Abdullah is a visiting scholar at Texas A&M University’s Department of Ecosystem Science and Management. He is also director of EcoLife Sciences Research and Consultation (ELS) in Kuwait and a faculty at the American University of Kuwait (AUK). Dr. Abdullah received Ph.D. degree in Ecosystem Science and Management, certified in Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing, from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas in December 2015. Dr. Abdullah began his career in 2005 as a Research Scientist at the Central Committee to Supervise the Implementation of Projects Related to Environmental Remediation in Kuwait. His research interests revolve around restoration ecology, community ecology, ecological and climate change modeling, and spatial analysis using remote sensing and GIS. He typically integrates field-based experiments with lab-based spatial analysis and modeling.
Sang-Hyun Lee, Ph.D. (Research Gate)
Sang-Hyun Lee is a visiting scholar at Texas A&M University’s Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. He earned BS, MS, and PhD degree in Rural Systems Engineering at Seoul National University, Republic of Korea, where he was involved in a variety of water management projects involving climate change and the  interaction between water and food security. These projects included: 1) assessment of climate change impact on water resources under various projected climate scenarios, 2) estimation of potential water requirements for meeting the target of food self-sufficiency, and 3) evaluation of vulnerable importers and influential traders in global food and virtual water trade using network analysis. Currently, Dr. Lee’s interests lie in the water, energy, food, and trade nexus, with emphasis on consideration of the relationship between factors such as water footprint, virtual water trade, global drought, and climate change. As a visiting scholar at Texas A&M University, he participated in a project to develop the Water-Energy-Food Nexus Tool for assessing the holistic impact of the phosphate industry on national and global resource security in Morocco. And in the research about the application of a Water-Energy-Food Nexus approach to bridging the anticipated water gap in Texas. Dr. Lee’s research has persuaded him that understanding both the crop water-use process and network approach tools (system dynamics and GIS) are essential to grasping how these factors interact with water management in complex systems.
  Gulden Ozgunaltay Ertugrul, Ph.D. (Research Gate)
Assistant Professor Gulden Ozgunaltay Ertugrul joined Texas A&M University’s WEF NEXUS research team as a visiting research scholar in August, 2017. Professor Ertugrul holds a B.S. (2001), M.S. (2006) and PhD (2013) in Agricultural Machinery from Ege University, Izmir-Turkey. Her primary areas of interest are the Relations of Mechanization in Level-Agricultural Production Systems, and Occupational Health-Safety in Agriculture. Gulden teaches undergraduate courses in Technical Drawing and Agricultural Mechanization, at Ahi Evran University (Turkey), where she also serves in multiple administrative roles, most recently and currently, as Chairperson, Division of Agricultural Machinery Systems in the Department of Biosystems Engineering and as the University’s Coordinator for the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience (IAESTE). Gulden leads a study on sustainability assessment of crop production and works with Mohtar’s WEF Nexus Research Group, applying the Water-Energy-Food Nexus Approach to the Central Kizilirmak Basin. Dr. Ozgunaltay Ertugrul can be contacted at gozgunaltay @ ahievran.edu.tr
Omer Ertugrul, Ph.D. (Research Gate)
Assistant Professor Omer Ertugrul is a visiting scientist at Texas A&M University’s Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. He holds a B.S. (2002), M.S. (2005) and PhD (2010) in Agricultural Machinery from Ege University, Izmir-Turkey. Currently Assistant Professor of Biosystems Engineering at Ahi Evran University, Kirsehir-Turkey, Professor Ertugrul serves as Chairperson of the Division of Agricultural Energy Systems in the Department of Biosystems Engineering and formerly was Associate Director of the Graduate School of Natural & Applied Sciences (2015 – 2017). His research focuses on agricultural mechanization and modelling; he also teaches undergraduate courses: Agricultural Mechanization, Renewable Energy Sources, and Energy Farming. Omer joined Mohtar’s WEF NEXUS team to conduct a study titled “Assessing the Sustainability of Crop Production in The Central Kizilirmak Basin-Turkey: A Water, Energy and Food Nexus Approach”. Dr. Ertugrul can be reached at oertugrul @ ahievran.edu.tr

Previous Visiting Scholars

Picture of Dr. Al-Omari Abbas Al-Omari, Ph.D. (Research Gate)
Dr. Al – Omari is a senior researcher at the Water, Energy and Environment Center of the University of Jordan.  He received Ph.D. degree from Washington State University (1999) with a dissertation on inverse chlorine modeling in municipal water supplies. He also holds an MS in Civil Engineering (1994) from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara. Dr. Al -Omari’s research interests are in water quality modeling in water distribution systems such as modeling the propagation and the decay of constituents found in drinking water supplies i.e. chlorine and tri-halomethanes, water energy nexus, and water energy food nexus, optimum water allocation among competing demands, Non-Revenue Water, surface water quality modeling, water resources management in addition to water and wastewater treatment and reuse. Dr. Al-Omari has many publications in refereed journals and international conferences in addition to many unpublished technical reports. He participated in organizing several international conferences and workshops, and has served as a scientific committee member in several international conferences. He is a reviewer for several international journals. Al-Omari has supervised graduate students from Jordan and abroad and is well connected with regional and international water scientists and experts.  He received a Fulbright grant to join the WEF Nexus team at Texas A & M for the academic year 2017/2018.
A_DEGIRMEN-1 Adnan Degirmencioglu, Ph.D. (Research Gate)
Professor Degirmencioglu was a visiting scientist at Texas A&M University’s Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering in 2015-16. Degirmencioglu’s expertise is in power and machinery, focused mostly on Dimensional Analysis, Mathematical Modelling and Optimization. He teaches Undergraduate Courses in Statics & Dynamics, Strengths of Materials & Machine Components, and graduate courses in Mathematical Modeling Applications, Advanced Soil and Plant Mechanics and Power transmission Mechanics. He has published several peer-reviewed papers and attended many international conferences, and given oral presentations. He served at Ege University as chairperson of the Department of Agricultural Engineering & Technology (2009-2011). Adnan joined the Texas A&M WEF NEXUS team to conduct a study titled “Strategic Planning of Natural Resources: Dynamic Modeling of Water, Energy and Food Nexus for the Gediz Basin- Turkey” and is expected to help enable a Nexus case for the country of Turkey in the future. He holds a B.S. (1983) and M.S. (1985) in Agricultural Machinery from Ege University, Izmir-Turkey, and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering from Michigan State University (1997).
martin_219 Martin Keulertz, Ph.D. (Research Gate)Visiting Assistant Professor in the Food Security Programme, American University of Beirut. Keulertz teaches MSc students obout food security issues facing the MENA region and the world. His research interests center around strategies for food and water security in the MENA region and how a rapidly growing region can address its future food requirements through sustainable and adapted domestic production as well as agricultural trade. Martin was a post-doctoral research associate in the Department for Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University where he worked on  policy aspects of the water-energy-food nexus. Dr. Keurletz holds a Ph.D. at King’s College London, University of London (2013). Martin’s research interests include water, energy and food policy, agricultural subsidies, natural resources cost accounting and international agricultural trade. He has published numerous peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and enjoys organizing academic conferences to promote networks between scientists, policy-makers and private sector decision-makers.

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