Postdoctoral Research Associate
Nahal Hoghooghi is a postdoctoral research associate in Dr. Bledsoe’s research group. She earned her master degree in soil science- soil physics from Science and Research University, Tehran, Iran. Her interest in Environmental Sciences brought her to the University of Georgia in August 2012 to pursue her Ph.D. degree. Nahal graduated from the UGA College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, the department of crop and soil sciences, in July 2016. Her Ph.D. research focused on the effects of onsite wastewater treatment systems on nitrogen load in urban watersheds of metropolitan Atlanta, GA. As a graduate research assistant, she gained expertise in both field works and watershed modeling, using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Also, she had an opportunity to be a lab/field instructor of the Soil Physics course for three years. Nahal joined the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), Office of Research and Development (ORD) in Cincinnati, OH in September 2016 as an ORISE postdoctoral fellow. During her postdoctoral experience at the US EPA, she assessed the effect of Green Infrastructure (GI) practices on hydrology and water quality, in one of the suburban watersheds at the East Fork Little Miami River using Visualizing Ecosystem Land Management Assessment (VELMA) model.
Her research interests are the effect of nonpoint source pollution and land management on stream water quantity and quality, watershed modeling, and the influence of GI practices on urban streams. At UGA her research focuses on the effect of a bioenergy crop (Brassica carinata) on water quantity and quality at the watershed scale using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Also, she is working on land management and the effects of GI practices on hydrology and biogeochemistry in urban watersheds. She enjoys hiking and exploring nature with her husband.