Savannah Domenech

2026 Joseph Jordan Fellowship Winner

The Idaho Water Resources Research Institute is proud to announce the 2026 recipient of the Joseph Jordan IWRRI Student Research Fellowship, Savannah Domenech. Established by the family of Joseph Jordan, the fellowship provides financial assistance and hands-on experience to University of Idaho students pursuing careers in water resources management. Fellows work directly with agencies, Tribes, nonprofits, and industry partners to address real-world water challenges. Savannah is working with a team whose research collaborates with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ)…

2025 recipients of the Joseph Jordan IWRRI Student Research Fellowship

2025 recipients of the Joseph Jordan IWRRI Student Research Fellowship

The Idaho Water Resources Research Institute is proud to announce the 2025 recipients of the Joseph Jordan IWRRI Student Research Fellowship, Dinesh Gulati and Turker Anlaroglu. Established by the family of Joseph Jordan, the fellowship provides financial assistance and hands-on experience to University of Idaho students pursuing careers in water resources management. Fellows work directly with agencies, Tribes, nonprofits, and industry partners to address real-world water challenges. This year, both students contributed to a WaterSMART-funded project in collaboration with the…

Marina Steiner, a graduate student in the M.S. Water Resources, Science and Management program is photographed at the TerraGraphics International Foundation office in Moscow, ID March 5, 2025. For her research project, she is partnering with TerraGraphics International Foundation (TIFO) to address drinking water contamination in Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan.

U Of I Soil and water systems graduate student travels to Uzbekistan to help determine scope of water quality issues

Marina Steiner, a graduate student with Greg Moller in the Soil and Water Systems Department, travels to Uzbekistan to help determine scope of water quality issues, read more.

Amin Mirkouei with team

U of I Researchers Design Biochar-based Water Treatment System

A University of Idaho team, led by Professor Amin Mirkouei and supported by two recently graduated doctorate students, Rance Bare and Ethan Struhs, collaborated with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (Ken Overturf), U of I Aquaculture Research Institute (Brian Small) and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (Martha Chacón-Patiño, Amy Mckenna and Huan Chen) to design and custom-build an economical and sustainable water treatment system. This system was specifically developed to remove micronutrients, primarily phosphorus and nitrogen, from the wastewater…

Meetpal Kukal

U of I researcher coins ‘thirstwaves’ as new framework emphasizing prolonged, extreme water stressors

Meetpal Kukal proposed the term “thirstwaves” to describe prolonged periods of agricultural exposure to extreme atmospheric evaporative demand for water. Read more in the University of Idaho news feature or read the paper published March 20.

Mason Bull in the field

BSU Student Analyses Wildfire impacts on Snowpack

Master’s student Mason Bull recently won the Boise State University three-minute thesis competition and placed third at the state competition. Mason was partially funded by a research initiation grant from the Idaho Space Grant Consortium (Idaho NASA EPSCoR). His research is using the Landsat record to classify landscape composition and quantify landcover and vegetation change in one watershed in the Kenai Mountains of south-central Alaska and the Sawtooth Mountains of southwest Idaho. He is finding that places in Idaho that…

University of Idaho StreamLab

IWRRI Grant Recipients Work on Sediment Transport Physics

Gianluca Blois, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Idaho’s Boise campus, works at the Center for Ecohydraulics Research (CER) with students to study how water moves through streams and rivers. Their research focuses on how stationary objects, like plants, affect water flow and the movement of sediments. This study used a specialized laboratory flume—a controlled stream environment—to measure water speed and pressure in aquatic systems. While scientists have long studied how landscape features like riverbanks and terrain…

Two skiers ascend wintery hillside

BSU Team Develop New Approaches to Estimating Contributions to Streamflow

Boise State University faculty Anna Bergstrom and her team investigated rain and snowmelt contributions to streamflow in the Mores Creek Watershed spanning the rain-snow transition zone in southwestern Idaho. Researchers commonly use naturally occurring water isotopes to track water sources allowing for the quantification of if streams are sourced from rain or snow. By developing new approaches to define rain and snow isotopic signatures, Bergstrom and team found that streamflow contribution estimates can vary by up to 20%, depending on…

IWRRI Grant Recipients Work on Irrigation Efficiency in Southern Idaho

IWRRI Grant Recipients Work on Irrigation Efficiency in Southern Idaho

University of Idaho faculty Karen Humes and Russell Qualls, along with their students, analyzed 30 years of crop water use data in southern Idaho to understand variations in irrigation application needs. Their research examined how differences in wet versus dry years and cool versus warm years influence crop water use and irrigation needs. By considering forecasted climate conditions, farmers can make informed decisions about crop selection and irrigation allocation, optimizing water use and improving overall agricultural efficiency.