Climate Researchers
Xiaomao Lin
Dr. Xiaomao Lin is an assistant professor K-State’s Department of Agronomy, where he specializes in agricultural climatology, climate science, and bio-atmospheric interactions. He is part of the team working on moving towards a real-time drought assessment and forecasting system for Kansas, including the Kansas weather library and mesonet program.
Dr. Lin attended Chengdu University of Information and Technology in China, where he received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He received his master’s degree in agricultural meteorology from Agricultural University in China. After this, he moved to the University of Nebraska, where he obtained his doctorate in agricultural meteorology. Dr. Lin joined the K-State faculty in 2013.
Learn more about Dr. Lin’s research.
Vahid Rahmani
Dr. Vahid Rahmani is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. His research interests include climate change and variability impacts on water resources management, extreme weather event analysis, and water supply and policy. Dr. Rahmani’s group works to understand and improve water quality and availability by investigating large reservoirs and small impoundments sedimentation and how wetland development upstream from federal reservoirs can improve water quality.
Dr. Rahmani attended Amirkabir University of Technology in Iran, where he received his bachelor of science degree in civil and environmental engineering. He received his master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from Shiraz University in Iran. He came to K-State for his doctoral studies in biological and agricultural engineering, with a focus on water resources engineering. He has been a faculty member since 2016.
Get more information about Dr. Rahmani.
Charles Rice
Dr. Charles Rice is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agronomy specializing in the relationship between soil quality/microbiology and climate change in grassland and agricultural ecosystems. Dr. Rice’s work with KCARE includes acting as project co-director for Great Plains Grazing, a project researching how changing climate, land use, and markets affect beef cattle production in the Southern Great Plains. This work includes his studies on greenhouse gas flux from beef cattle grazing systems in the tall grass prairie, the effect of grassland grazing systems on microbial communities, and management practices for minimizing the environmental footprint of beef cattle grazing systems. Dr. Rice is also a member of an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional team seeking to develop models leading to wide-scale changes in the management of the declining Ogallala Aquifer. This important work will inform aquifer management world-wide.
Dr. Rice was co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and his research has been supported by more than $15 million in grants from multiple agencies. He has been at K-State in the Agronomy Department since 1988. He is also a professor in the Department of Soil Science at Federal University of Santa Maria in Brazil.
Eduardo Santos
Dr. Eduardo Santos’ research focuses on the transport of mass and energy between the land surface and the atmosphere. This work measures fluxes of trace gases between agricultural systems or natural vegetation to the atmosphere which can lead to improved predictions of future climate scenarios. These investigations also can indicate mitigation strategies to minimize greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production systems. An assistant professor of micrometeorology in the Department of Agronomy, Dr. Santos also works on KCARE-affiliated projects, including research on nitrogen fertilizer volatilization from topdressing wheat.
Dr. Santos completed his Bachelor of Science degree in agronomy from the Federal University of Espírito Santo in Brazil. He went on to research methods to measure and estimate leaf wetness duration – an important variable for plant disease epidemiology – for his master’s degree at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. Dr. Santos attended the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, for his doctoral studies in land resource science. He has been a faculty member at K-State since 2012.
Learn more about Dr. Santos and his research.
