Catie Finkenbiner, a graduate student in UNL's School of Natural Resources, has been selected to receive a $25,000 Monsanto Graduate Student Scholarship. The company's scholarship program recognizes high-achieving, underrepresented students pursuing degrees in agriculture and STEM-related fields.
"I saw this scholarship as an opportunity to fund my master's degree research," said Finkenbiner, who majored in water science as an undergraduate at UNL.
Her graduate research focuses on improving the cosmic-ray neutron soil moisture method, which has the potential to allow for real-time soil moisture mapping of hundreds of center-pivots using the mobile cosmic-ray probe.
Trenton Franz, assistant professor of hydrogeophysics, said that Finkenbiner has a strong work ethic that's essential for conducting field research.
"She is a dedicated researcher who is willing and excited to take on any new tasks from downloading and processing global soil datasets, mapping agricultural fields with an ATV, soil sampling with a split tube auger, and learning new matlab processing algorithms," Franz said. "I look forward to the next few years as we tackle more exciting research topics in natural and agro-ecosystems."
Research like Finkenbiner's will become increasingly important as the global population is set to hit nine billion people by 2050.
"In order to achieve global food security, proper water management in agriculture is essential," Finkenbiner said. "Integrating this technique into soil moisture management has the potential to increase the efficiency of irrigation water used in agriculture."
The Monsanto Graduate Student Scholarship is awarded to ten graduate students annually. Recipients must be enrolled in a master's program in a STEM-related field with a minimum 3.0 GPA. In addition to academic performance, selection is based upon demonstrated leadership, communication, extracurricular activities, involvement with student professional organizations and community service.
— Mekita Rivas, Natural Resources