What are your research interests:

My research interest is in groundwater management. Nebraska has a unique system of local natural resources management. Each of 23 Natural Resource Districts (NRDs) was delineated based on river basin boundaries, and each of them designs policies and sets regulations to manage valuable natural resources better. The well-developed system in Nebraska allows me to study and understand better about groundwater management.

What research projects are you working on?

I am working on with Dr. Taro Mieno and Dr. Karina Schoengold to understand the primary factors that determine farmers' well drilling decisions in the nine NRDs located southwest corner of Nebraska. One of the main questions we would like to answer is how the well drilling moratoria affected farmers' well drilling decisions. Figures below illustrate well registration density during 1940-2017. While there are general patterns many of the NRDs follow, there are some differences across NRDs. We are investigating why that is!

What is your career goals?

My short terms career goal is to get a job in the area of groundwater management. I am developing my programming skills in R and research abilities, which stimulates my interests in data analysis and water management.

What is your next step after graduation?

Not known yet

What do you do in your leisure time?

During my leisure time, I enjoy reading novels on various topics and traveling to explore different cities, which gives me a break from research and gives me energy to get back on learning economics. I also like to talk with people from different countries. The Agriculture Economics Department has a diverse group of faculty and students from India, Greece, Thailand, Japan, etc. I learned many fun things about their cultures, opinions, and ideas toward different things, which makes graduate school less stressful.