Khandakar Faisal Ibn Murad

I began my academic journey in 2010 with a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering, followed by a Master’s in Irrigation and Water Management in 2012 from Bangladesh Agricultural University. In 2015, I further advanced my education by earning a second Master’s degree in Integrated Water Management from The University of Queensland, Australia, supported by an Australia Awards Scholarship.

Since 2012, I have been serving as a Scientific Officer at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, the largest research institute in Bangladesh. This role has enabled me to engage in numerous nationally and internationally funded research projects focused on various aspects of agricultural water management. My work has spanned diverse areas, from on-farm research to simulation modeling, and has resulted in several research articles published in prestigious journals.

A notable highlight of my career was participating in a CSIRO-funded groundwater management project. This experience allowed me to develop expertise in interpreting and applying remote sensing vegetation index signals to crop phenology and training a supervised machine learning model to predict different rice and land cover types. Additionally, I collaborated on another nationally funded groundwater simulation modeling project aimed at understanding the historical irrigation water use of crops under various management options and their impacts on groundwater resources in Northwestern Bangladesh.

Recently, my interest in hydrological simulation models has grown significantly. Recognizing the need for further international collaboration to advance my research, I applied for a PhD position at James Cook University (JCU) under the supervision of Dr. Bithin Datta, a renowned expert in hydrological modeling. I am pleased to have been admitted with a full-time JCUPRS scholarship. Pursuing a PhD at a prestigious institution like JCU will enhance my ability to conduct independent research and enable me to expand my network and design interdisciplinary research on water resources engineering using state-of-the-art modeling and statistical tools.