Texas A&M AgriLife announces Fulbright Award winner
Srinivasan named awardee for environmental sciences
Texas A&M University and Texas A&M AgriLife are pleased to announce that Raghavan Srinivasan, Ph.D., who wears many hats in Texas A&M’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, was honored with a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award.
Srinivasan’s award is in Environmental Sciences, Effects of Climate and Land Use Change on Hydrology and Water Quality of Canadian River Basins, for the 2020-2021 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
Within Texas A&M AgriLife, Srinivasan serves as the resident director of the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Temple, he is a professor and Regents Fellow in the Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology, and he is the director for the Spatial Science Laboratory in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
As a part of the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, Srinivasan will be one of over 800 U.S. citizens who conduct research and/or teach abroad for the 2020-2021 academic year.
According to the program, Fulbrighters engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions. Upon returning to their home countries, institutions, labs and classrooms, they share their stories and often become active supporters of international exchange, inviting foreign scholars to campus and encouraging colleagues and students to go abroad.
Fulbright Scholar alumni join a network of thousands of esteemed scholars, many of whom are leaders in their fields. Fulbright alumni include 60 Nobel Prize laureates, 88 Pulitzer Prize recipients and 37 who have served as a head of state or government.
Taking research abroad
Srinivasan, one of the primary developers of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool, SWAT, will collaborate with Canadian university faculty, graduate students and government agencies to develop SWAT models and the Hydrologic and Water Quality System, HAWQS, for Canadian watersheds and river basins.
The work will entail collecting and improving existing SWAT models, developing new SWAT models for the Regina and other river basins, implementing a Canadian version of HAWQS, and conducting a one-week short course to train Canadian scientists in the use of SWAT and HAWQS. The research will facilitate improved assessments of soil and water resources in Canada.
“Dr. Srinivasan’s outstanding research integrating spatial sciences and computer-based modeling has transformed our understanding of soil and water with national and international impact. He is truly representative of the teaching, research and service mission of Texas A&M AgriLife and of the Fulbright Program,” said Patrick J. Stover, Ph.D., vice chancellor of Texas A&M AgriLife, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research.
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to forge lasting connections between the people of the U.S. and the people of other countries, counter misunderstandings and help people and nations work together toward common goals. Since its establishment in 1946, the Fulbright Program has enabled more than 390,000 dedicated and accomplished students, scholars, artists, teachers and professionals of all backgrounds to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas, and find solutions to shared international concerns.
The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the program, which operates in more than 160 countries worldwide.
Fulbrighters address critical global challenges in all disciplines while building relationships, knowledge and leadership in support of the long-term interests of the U.S. In the U.S., the Institute of International Education supports the implementation of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program on behalf of the U.S. Department of State, including conducting an annual competition for the scholarships.
