Dr. Ali Sadeghi is an expert in the fate, transport, and modeling of agricultural pollutants in the environment, and brings with him extensive experience and knowledge in microwave reflectivity (radar) with soil water moisture; lateral flow transport for characterizing nitrate movement and transformation within riparian zones; and geostatistical approaches and models in assessing tillage impacts on herbicide dissipation at field and watershed scales.
Dr. Sadeghi has been involved in basic and applied research for 28 years, 22 of those years with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Beltsville, MD. He has authored or coauthored 90 publications of which 67 are in peer-reviewed scientific journals or are book chapters. Among his other accomplishments, Dr. Sadeghi has developed a new empirical equation for estimating urea diffusion coefficients in soils that is applicable to a wide range of soil temperature and textural conditions. Findings from this work have been incorporated as cornerstone formulations in the newly developed version of the highly utilized DRAINMOD-N used in the U.S. and Europe to study the impacts of agricultural water management on nitrogen dynamics. He has also recently developed a new process-based pathogen fate and transport model that has been incorporated into the Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT/Pathogen Sub-Model) and recommended by EPA for use in the Chesapeake Bay TMDL state water quality assessments.
Dr. Sadeghi is currently leading modeling efforts as part of the ARS Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) to quantify the impact of USDA conservation incentive programs. In addition to serving on STAC, Dr. Sadegi is also the ARS liaison to the Chesapeake Bay Program.