Femeena Pandara Valappil, Ph. D., P.E.

Assistant Research Professor

Earth and Environmental Systems Institute

The Pennsylvania State University, U.S.A

I was born and raised in India, where I completed my Bachelors in Civil Engineering and Masters in Water Resources Engineering. After moving to the United States, I earned my Ph.D. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from Purdue University in 2019. My graduate-level research was primarily focused on ecohydrological and water quality modeling, spatial optimization, stream solute transport, and land use/climate change impacts on watershed.
My most recent work at Penn State University with Dr. Rachel Brennan, focused on the use of duckweed to promote a circular agricultural system by upcycling wastewater nutrients into valuable products. I also work broadly on life cycle assessment and dynamic systems modeling for solving issues at the water-energy-food nexus. I recently joined the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Penn State where I work on the PCHES project with Dr. Rob Nicholas on hydrological modeling using the Water Balance Model for evaluating multi-sector dynamics in coupled human-earth systems.

Curriculum Vitae

New paper on duckweed's potential as a crop fertilizer!

Our new paper titled "Nutreint Cycling with Duckweed for the Fertilization of Root, Fruit, Leaf, and Grain Crops: Impacts on Plant-Soil-Leachate Systems" is out in Agriculture (Authors: Fernandez Pulido, C. R; Femeena, P. V.; and Brennan, R. A.). This was part of Fernanadex Pulido's Masters work at Penn State, looking at how applying duckweed as a fertilizer to different crops would impact nutrient leaching, crop uptake, soil fertility, and yield, when compared to conventional synthetic fertilizers.

Officially a Professional Engineer!

I finally got my P.E. license (Civil - Water Resources & Environmental) approved through Maryland Board. This has been a long process, so feels awesome!

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