Grad student Michael Marshall has recently been awarded a prestigious U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mendenhall Research Fellowship. This two-year fellowship gives recent PhD graduates the opportunity to work closely with senior researchers at the USGS. Michael was one of just three students chosen in a national competition for this honor. The title of his proposal was “Water productivity mapping for irrigated crops in California using farm-level assessments and remote sensing,” and he intends to use the latest approaches in field methods and remote sensing modeling techniques to estimate water productivity for California’s primary crop producing region. In his dissertation work under Joel Michaelsen, Michael is modeling evapotranspiration to inform crop and seasonal rainfall forecast models. Evapotranspiration will be a key input to the water productivity model as well. A map of water productivity and a cost benefit analysis will be used to aid farmers and state and federal government mitigation efforts to improve water-use efficiency. Michael received two other major awards last year as well, including the Switzer Environmental Fellowship and the Graduate Research Mentorship Fellowship. “Not just a pretty face,” to quote a geog staff member!
The USGS inaugurated the postdoctoral research program called the Mendenhall Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program in 2001 in honor of Walter C. Mendenhall (1871-1957), the fifth Director of the USGS. President Hoover appointed Mendenhall as the Director in 1930 when the USGS’s budget was $2.87 million. Today, the total USGS budget is over $1 billion. Mendenhall’s study of the principles of ground water hydrology helped to establish it as a field of scientific endeavor; he was also the USGS Chief Geologist for 8 years prior to his appointment as Director (source).
Marshall 02.jpg<|>900<|>Mike at his computer{|}wateruse.jpg<|>1350<|>A map of consumptive water use of irrigated crops which highlights the large use in the central valley (a target area for Mike’s research). Source:
