People

Jeffrey C. Davids

President

Jeff’s educational background, professional experience, and dedication to developing human resources from diverse backgrounds demonstrate his commitment to the co-equal goals of (1) providing the food and fiber the world needs while (2) sustainably managing the Earth’s limited natural resources. Jeff is an Assistant Professor at California State University Chico, a Water Resources Engineer with Davids Engineering, Founder and President of SmartPhones4Water and H2oTech, a guest researcher at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), and a Water Resources Consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN-FAO). Jeff has a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (Water Management) from Delft University of Technology and is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in the State of California. Jeff’s research interests focus on how sustainable management of water, energy, and food are supported by education, innovative sources of data, integrated systems thinking, modeling tools, social engagement, and outreach. He has consulted for a variety of water managers and suppliers (local, state, and federal) in all the major irrigated regions of California, including the Imperial, San Joaquin, Sacramento, and Shasta Valleys. Jeff has also consulted for the UN-FAO in Afghanistan, Myanmar, and China, along with various clients in Nepal, Ghana, Thailand, Israel, Palestine, and the Netherlands.

Kristina M. Davids

Member

Kristi graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a B.A. in English, and minors in Spanish and Linguistics.  She has worked at the ground level of several successful businesses, and has a wide range of entrepreneurial and social talents.  In addition to her vision casting role at SmartPhones4Water, Kristi currently raises three wonderful children, teaches Spanish to elementary school children, and manages sales and accounting for H2oTech.

Brandon A. Ertis

Member

Brandon Ertis is a licensed professional engineer in the state of California and has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from UC Davis and a Master of Science in Environmental Science from CSU Chico. He has over ten years of experience working with water resources and water management in California, including agricultural water management, watershed-scale planning, environmental monitoring, abandoned mine remediation, and flow measurement. He also has experience working in cross-cultural settings through participation and collaboration on projects based in Kenya and Nepal. He has a strong interest in how wise stewardship of natural resources, innovative technologies, and creative solutions can be used to better understand and manage water resources and improve people’s quality of life in locations around the world ranging from his home in northern California to places abroad.

Matthew V. Thiede

Member

Matthew Thiede is a licensed professional engineer in the State of California, obtaining his bachelors of science degree from California State University, Chico. Matt spent nearly the first decade of his career working with water management agencies, reclamation districts, and farmers in Northern California. Matt’s primary focus was on measurement and monitoring systems, including flow measurement, establishing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Systems, water control structure design, water resources accounting, and environmental monitoring. Matt currently spends the majority of his efforts toward local economic development and revitalization efforts in Northern California, including property development, business development, and supporting non-profit initiatives. Matt’s interests lie in strengthening the relationship and engagement between people and their environment, utilizing new technologies and communication pathways to assist in improving economies and communities while better managing the natural resources surrounding them.

Er. Rajaram Prajapati

Global Ambassador

Mr. Prajapati is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. He completed his M.Sc. in Water Resources Engineering from the Institute of Engineering, Pulchowk Campus in Kathmandu, Nepal. Mr. Prajapati is a co-founder of S4W-Nepal and he also worked as a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of S4W-Nepal for five years and he has two years of teaching experience in hydropower and irrigation engineering as an assistant lecturer at Khwopa Engineering College. Rajaram’s research interests focus on developing new ideas to fill the hydro-meteorological data gaps in data-scarce regions through remote sensing and citizen science approaches. At present, Rajaram is looking over a citizen-science-based project in the Kathmandu Valley as a Country Director. Besides, Mr. Prajapati is representing Nepal in CitizenScience.Asia as a country ambassador. Rajaram has always had a passion for research in these areas and is excited to supervise the works of the S4W team!

Nick van de Giesen

Nick van de Giesen received the Kandidaats B.S. degree and the M.Sc. degree in land and water management from Wageningen Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands, in 1984 and 1987, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in agricultural and biological engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, in 1994. After a postdoctoral position with the West Africa Rice Development Association, Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire, he was a Senior Researcher for six years with the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany, where he was the Scientific Coordinator of the Global Change in the Hydrological Cycle Volta Project. Since 2004, he has been with the Water Resources Section, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, where he currently holds the “Van Kuffeler” Chair of Water Resources Engineering. Since January 2015, he is chairman of the Delft Global Initiative. He is co-director of the Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (www.tahmo.org) and member of several international scientific advisory boards. He is scientific head of Sustainable Development Goals route of the Netherlands National Science Agenda. His research interests concern new environmental observation methods, such as Distributed Temperature Sensing, and computational hydrology (www.ewatercycle.org).

Steve Lyon

Steve Lyon was born and raised in Navarre, Ohio, USA. He attended Purdue University and graduated with a BSc (1997-2001) in Agricultural and Biological Engineering and a minor in Mathematics. Steve completed his MSc (2001-2003) and PhD (2003-2006) both in Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University looking at how we incorporate the spatial structure of shallow water tables into hydrology. He continued with postdoctoral research (2006-2008) at the University of Arizona focusing on the evolution of land-water interaction in space and time. Steve joined the Department of Physical Geography at Stockholm University in 2008 promoting to Associate Professor (2010) and then Full Professor (2016). During this period, he also worked with The Nature Conservancy (2017-2019) as a Freshwater and Conservation Scientist. 

In August 2019, Steve joined the faculty in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at Ohio State University as an Associate Professor. Working in hydrology and water resources, Dr. Lyon’s research targets characterization of land and water interactions. Unraveling feedbacks across scales has significant implications for the viability of strategies associated with the current and future sustainability of coupled terrestrial and aquatic systems – particularly those for improving water quality in working landscapes.

Martine Rutten

Martine Rutten investigates how information systems (combination of models, remote sensing, and ground data) can effectively support adaptive delta and water management in developing countries. Key elements of this research include developing systems together with local parties and providing actionable perspectives. Case studies of this work are underway in Vietnam, Myanmar, and Nepal. Work includes inclusive development paths for Red River Landscapes based on ecosystem services reservoirs management for the Day River, a Red River sub-basin reservoir management for flood control in the Sittaung-Bago River in Myanmar-Coastal squeeze in the Ayarawady delta analyzed from remote sensing.  Martine is also currently advising students at universities in Vietnam (HUNRE, Hanoi), Kenya (SEKU), Armenia, Georgia (TSU), Azerbaijan, and Myanmar (YTU) on the development and improvement of water management curricula at undergraduate and graduate level.  Martine is also developing entrepreneurship courses for TU Delft, HRO, and, UNESCO-IHE for the Valorisatie programma Delta technology en Water (VPDelta).

David W. Walker

Dr. David W. Walker is an interdisciplinary researcher with a background in socio-hydrology, hydrogeology, and civil engineering. He focuses on addressing drought, water scarcity and other water-related hazards incorporating mixed methods, including field investigations, participatory research, modeling, and utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data. His research projects have been located in Ethiopia, South Africa, Botswana, India, Nepal and Brazil. He obtained a PhD in vulnerable water resource assessment in 2018 from Newcastle University in the UK and subsequently worked as a postdoc at Newcastle University, Kyushu University in Japan, and Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He currently works as an independent researcher involved in policy analysis and production of guidelines for the Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Bank.

Rocky Talchabhadel

Dr. Rocky Talchabhadel holds the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Jackson State University. Prior to this, he spent nearly three years as a Research Scientist in El Paso, TX at Texas A&M AgriLife Research, which is affiliated with Texas A&M University. He is the Finalist of AIM for Climate Grand Challenge: Leveraging the Power of AI and Machine-Learning, AIM for Climate Summit, Washington D.C., May 08 – 10, 2023. He is a hydrologist/water resources engineer, and he obtained his Ph.D. in Civil and Earth Resources Engineering in 2017 from Kyoto University, Japan. He has published over two dozen research papers and co-authored over sixty publications in top-tier international/national journals. His expertise includes Hydrology, Atmosphere, Climate Change, Hydraulics, Remote Sensing, Water Resources Engineering, and Sediment Transport.

Jakob Steiner

Jakob Steiner has a degree in Environmental Engineering from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and completed his PhD on High Mountain Hydrology at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. He has many years of research and professional experience in High Mountain Asia and the Arctic, working with both academic as well as governmental partners. He co-leads a working group on Mountain Data at the Himalayan University Consortium and is active in numerous regional and global networks addressing climate change and associated risks in cold and high environments.

Shoaib Saboory

Shoaib Saboory is an Agro-Hydrology Ph.D. candidate at Kiel University, Germany, with a focus on sustainable agriculture in Afghanistan. He previously worked as a Geo-Spatial Information Management Director with the Government of Afghanistan and led research at Shimane University, Japan. His expertise includes hydro-meteorology, climate change scenario development, and the restoration of agricultural lands. He has conducted some research and national surveys and contributed to over many agricultural projects in Afghanistan. Fluent in Dari, Pashto, English, and basic Japanese, he aims to leverage global networks and knowledge to enhance agricultural and food security in developing countries.

Tran Huan

Huan Tran is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Rostock, Germany. He has worked as a lecturer at Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment since 2013. Huan completed his B.Sc and M.Sc in fields related to Hydrology and Water Resource Management at Thuyloi University, Vietnam. He has almost ten years of experience in Water resources in Nhue – Day River Basin, from students to international projects. He desires to contribute his knowledge to address water-related problems in this basin, where he grows up and works. He is interested in numerical modeling, remote sensing, and GIS application to analyze, assess, and plan water resources. In addition, he enjoys activities related to water resource communication among young generations and local residents.

 Surabhi Upadhyay

Ms. Surabhi Upadhyay is currently pursuing her PhD in Hydrologic Science and Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, USA. She holds a Master’s degree in Water Engineering and Management from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand. Prior to her Master’s degree, she spent two years at Smartphones For Water Nepal as a research associate, where she contributed significantly to various citizen science-based water research initiatives. At present, Surabhi is associated with S4W as an Adjunct Researcher leveraging her experience and knowledge to support research efforts within the organization. Surabhi’s diverse experiences underscore her dedication to addressing critical water resource challenges.

Brandon A. Ertis

United States

Brandon Ertis is a licensed professional engineer in the state of California and has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from UC Davis and a Master of Science in Environmental Science from CSU Chico. He has over ten years of experience working with water resources and water management in California, including agricultural water management, watershed-scale planning, environmental monitoring, abandoned mine remediation, and flow measurement. He also has experience working in cross-cultural settings through participation and collaboration on projects based in Kenya and Nepal. He has a strong interest in how wise stewardship of natural resources, innovative technologies, and creative solutions can be used to better understand and manage water resources and improve people’s quality of life in locations around the world ranging from his home in northern California to places abroad.

Sanjiv Neupane

Nepal

Dr. Neupane received his Ph. D. in Water Engineering and Management (2023) from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand. He completed his Master’s degree in Water Engineering and Management from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in 2019. He was awarded the prestigious “His Majesty King’s Scholarship” to pursue his master’s degree. He has been involved in research project: “Mapping groundwater resilience to climate change and human development in Asian cities” and “Safeguarding Regional Food Security under Climate Change impacts via mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions-centered adaptation strategies (NAFOS)” both funded by the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) during his Ph. D. He worked as a Civil Engineer in Ministry of Urban Development in Nepal before joining AIT. His core area of interest includes hydrological modeling, groundwater modeling, climate change, land use analysis and GIS based studies. Dr. Neupane has four papers published in international peer-reviewed journals and has delivered more than six conference papers on topics ranging from groundwater modelling, hydrological modeling to climate change and human development impacts and adaptation in the water sector. He is passionate about conducting research for sustainable watershed management in Nepal and is honored to work with S4W-Nepal to connect the ideas of young scientists and citizen scientists for the advancement of science.

Tran Huan

Vietnam

Huan Tran is a Ph.D. student at the University of Rostock, Germany. He has worked as a lecturer at Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment since 2013. Huan completed his B.Sc and M.Sc in fields related to Hydrology and Water Resource Management at Thuyloi University, Vietnam. He has almost ten years of experience in Water resources in Nhue – Day River Basin, from students to international projects. He desires to contribute his knowledge to address water-related problems in this basin, where he grows up and works. He is interested in numerical modeling, remote sensing, and GIS application to analyze, assess, and plan water resources. In addition, he enjoys activities related to water resource communication among young generations and local residents.