Educational backgroundPh.D. (Pursuing) B.S., Biological & Agricultural Engineering |
Research Interests
Contaminant fate and transport; urban gardens; hydrology; soil water physics and chemistry; Graph Theory; Bayesian Modeling; HDYRUS; remote sensing; preferential flow; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry.
Current Projects
Characterizing Large-Scale Preferential Flow Across Continental United States Using Remote Sensing (2019-2021)
Tracking Root Zone Contaminants in Agricultural Farms Near Texas Superfund Sites (2021-2025)
- Evaluating Contaminant Concentrations in Urban Gardens across Texas (2023)
- Modeling the fate and transport of contaminants in Urban Gardens Across Texas (2024)
- Using Bayesian Modeling to Predict the Fate and Transport of Contaminants in Urban Gardens Under Climate Change Influences (2025)
Awards, scholarships, & fellowships
- (2024) Montgomery Award
- (2023) Reactive Transport Modeling Workshop at The Colorado School of Mines Travel Award
- (2022 – 2023) George & Mary Lewis Merit Endowed Scholarship
- (2021 – 2023) BAEN Departmental Scholarship – GPEF
- (2020 – Present) BAEN GSA travel award for AGU fall meeting
- (2019 – 2024) Katy & Tony Sutherland Endowed Scholarship
- (2019 & 2023) CLAG BAEN DT Scholarship
- (2019) Fully paid travel scholarship to study abroad in Mexico
- (2019) Ben T & Mattie B Little Fund
- (2019) COADC Calvin & Peggy Parnell Scholarship
- (2017) REU Water Quality Research Fellowship from LSAMP: $5,000 scholarship to study abroad in Belgium awarded for work in my summer REU.
- (2017) Alpha Epsilon Member: Awarded for displaying academic excellence and outstanding leadership within the major
Service and community engagement
- (2022-2023) Student member: American Geophysical Union (AGU) Remote sensing technical committee
- (2022-2023) Student member: American Geophysical Union (AGU) Hydrology Section Student Subcommittee (H3S)
- (2021-2023) President of TAMU Graduate Consulting Club
- (2020-Present) RStudio Course Instructor to TAMU students
- (2015-Present) Star of Hope Mission volunteer for food distribution in the cafeteria and Christmas wrapping events
Publications
- 2024). Characterizing large-scale preferential flow across Continental United States. Vadose Zone Journal, e20316. doi.org/10.1002/vzj2.20316. , & (
- Mukherjee, M., Marie, L., Liles, C., Mustafa, N., Bullerjahn, G., Gentry, T.J. and Brooks, J.P., 2021. Elevated Incidences of Antimicrobial Resistance and Multidrug Resistance in the Maumee River (Ohio, USA), a Major Tributary of Lake Erie. Microorganisms, 9(5), p.911.
Articles
Published BioRender Templates
- Kocian, L. (2024). Urban Gardens. https://app.biorender.com/profile/leah_kocian/templates/6723a7458fe520f478ad0b9f