Yadu Pokhrel
Red Cedar Distinguished Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), College of Engineering
Professor - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) in the College of Engineering
Agbioresearch
Engr Rsch Complex, 1449 Engineering Research Ct Room A134
Biography
Dr. Yadu Pokhrel is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and holds title of Red Cedar Distinguished Professor. He obtained his PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan and received postdoctoral training at Rutgers University. Dr. Pokhrel’s research takes a transdisciplinary approach to studying the complex interactions and feedback among water, energy, ... and food systems under compounding climatic and human stressors—from global to local scales. He uses integrated models and remote sensing data to examine how changes in climate extremes (e.g., floods and droughts) affect water, energy, agricultural, infrastructure, and livelihood systems. His research projects, funded primarily by the NSF and NASA, span several global regions including the US, South/Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America. He has published 100+ peer-reviewed articles, with 20+ in Nature, Science, and PNAS journals. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and Fulbright US Senior Scholar Award. He has also received numerous awards at MSU including the University Teacher Scholar Award, John K. Hudzik Emerging Leader in Advancing International Studies and Programs Award, Withrow Global Leadership Award, Withrow Distinguished Junior Scholar Award, and MSU Lilly Teaching Fellow Award. He serves as an Editor for Earth Interactions and an Associate Editor for Water Resources Research and Journal of Hydrology.
Read MoreEducation
Ph.D., Civil Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Japan 2011
M.S., Civil Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Japan 2008
B.S., Civil Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal 2005
Awards
“John K. Hudzik Emerging Leader in Advancing International Studies and Programs Award”, MSU (2024)
“Withrow Global Leadership Award”, Michigan State University (2024)
“US Fulbright Scholar Award” to National Taiwan University, Taiwan (2022-2023)
MSU “Lilly Teaching Fellow” (2020-2021)
... Read MorePublications
Bhattarai, Nishan, David B. Lobell, Balwinder Singh, Ram Fishman, William P. Kustas, Yadu Pokhrel, and Meha Jain (2023), Warming temperatures threaten to quadruple groundwater depletion rates in India, Science Advances, 9(35), eadi1401.
McDermid, S., Nocco, M., Lawston-Parker, P., Keune, J., Pokhrel, Y., Jain, M., Jägermeyr, J., Brocca, L., Massari, C., Jones, A.D., Vahmani, P., Thiery, W., Yao, Y., Bell, A., Chen, L., Dorigo, W., Hanasaki, N., Jasechko, S., Lo, M.-H., Mahmood, R., Mishra, V., Mueller, N.D., Niyogi, D., Rabin, S.S., Sloat, L., Wada, Y., Zappa, L., Chen, F., Cook, B.I., Kim, H., Lombardozzi, D., Polcher, J., Ryu, D., Santanello, J., Satoh, Y., Seneviratne, S., Singh, D., Yokohata, T., (2023), Irrigation in the Earth system, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 4(7): 435-453.
Dang Huy, Yadu Pokhrel, Sanghoon Shin, Jac Stelly, Daniel Ahlquist, and Duong Du Bui (2022), Hydrologic balance and inundation dynamics of Southeast Asia's largest inland lake altered by hydropower dams in the Mekong River basin, Science of the Total Environment, 831, 154833.
Kabir, Tamanna, Yadu Pokhrel, and Farshid Felfelani (2023), Climatic and Anthropogenic Controls on Groundwater Dynamics in the Mekong River basin, Journal of Hydrology, 129761.
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