With an M.Sc. from the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India, and a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford, England, UK, both in Soil Science, I have been working in applied and basic soil science research for the last 40 years. I joined the Biometeorology & Soil Physics group in January 2002, prior to which I was a Senior Soil Physicist at Punjab Agricultural University, where my main interests were in soil-water plant relationships and management of problem soils (salt affected, highly permeable coarse-textured, and very slowly permeable clays). During 1990-1992, I was a Visiting Scientist at the International Rice Research Institute in Philippines, where I worked on a model of the fate of fertilizer N in submerged soils and simultaneous transfer of CO2 and NH3 across an air-water interface.
While at UBC, I started with modeling the coupled transport of soil heat and water and the surface energy balance components, and followed it by developing and testing a process-based model of production and transport of CO2 in soil for predicting soil CO2 concentrations and CO2 efflux. I have made significant contributions towards writing research grant proposals, in particular on studying the effects of N fertilization on carbon sequestration and water use of different-aged coastal Douglas-fir stands (NSERC), water use and sustainability of hybrid poplar plantations in Canada’s aspen parkland (NRCan), mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient leaching in managed forests with biochar (NRAS, BC), use of modern plastic films as mulches and in low tunnels for increasing crop production through modification of microclimate (FAIP, BC), and quantification and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from high-value agricultural crops in BC (AGGP, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada). I have worked and am currently working on several graduate (MSc and PhD) student supervisory committees. I am also responsible for writing progress reports for various research projects in the Biomet laboratory.
I have authored or co-authored about 100 research papers in reputed peer-reviewed journals, and have also published five book chapters and two white papers.
