Dr. Rafiq Islam
SWBR Program Leader
Kateryna Chorna, of Ukraine, has recently joined the Soil, Water, and Bioenergy Resources Program as a short-term exchange scholar for a two-month period at The Ohio State University South Centers.
In 2016, the Institute of Water Problems and Land Reclamation and The Ohio State University signed a memorandum of understanding and are partnering together on a Civilian Research Defense Foundation (CRDF) project. CRDF Global, Ukrainian Ministry of Education, and The Ohio State University funded her fellowship under a grant program entitled “Impact of sustainable agricultural management practices on soil quality and crop productivity.”
During her fellowship period, she will be involved in applied research activities and Extension activities associated with climate-smart agriculture, as well as working with modern laboratory equipment and learning analytical techniques. She will also be trained on writing peer-reviewed articles, grant proposal, factsheets, and news articles as part of her professional development.
Chorna was born in Crimea in the then-Soviet Union. She graduated from the National Academy of Nature Protection and Resort Construction, Department of Water Resources and Energy in Simferopol, Crimea in the then-Ukraine. In 2011, she received a specialist diploma as an Expert of Science in Hydraulic Engineering and Land Reclamation. From July 2011 through December 2013, she was employed as the lead engineer on Metrology in the Salgir Water Management Department in Simferopol. She was responsible for the management and accounting of water used for irrigation, water supply to urban areas and power plants, preparation of technical passports, certification of gauging stations, calibration of water-use recording devices, and leveling of undulating landscapes.
She is currently employed as one of the researchers in the Institute of Water Problems and Land Reclamation under the Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv since December 2013.
Chorna is assigned to work in the Department of Sustainable Use and Development of the Reclaimed Areas especially in the areas of climate data, organizational condition of land use, projected and actual irrigated areas, water-supply volumes, producing maps using remote sensing, and ancillary data to determine and evaluate relationship between meteorological parameters and crop-growing potentials in Ukraine.