Lorrayne Miralha

As an Assistant Professor of Watershed Modeling and Data Analytics in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering at OSU, Dr. Lorrayne Miralha is committed to advancing water quality research within the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CFAES). As a multidisciplinary professional with a background in forestry, geography, and engineering, she has always been fascinated by how diverse scientific knowledge and exchange can advance the course of decisions, practices, and new policies on multiple scales and pave the path to a sustainable world. Dr. Miralha positions herself as a geospatial hydrologist, tackling the challenges and opportunities of spatially driven research to develop solutions for the sustainability of our water resources, principally in agricultural landscapes. From headwaters to lakes, from harvested lands to harmful algal blooms, Dr. Miralha aims to apply the multitude of techniques and concepts linked to GIS, machine learning, big data analytics, and modeling to identify the uniqueness of landscapes undergoing the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic disturbance to find the commonalities that, once aligned, may lead to high-quality water for all. Her work has focused on

1. Uncovering the linkages between the environment and industrial animal agriculture in the US
2. Modeling nutrient runoff in the Great Lakes region considering climate projections
3. Tracking water quality using sensor technology and laboratory techniques to improve our understanding of hydrological processes and mechanisms as well as nutrient cycling in disturbed landscapes with the common goal of informing management and policies from regional to national scales

Dr. Miralha joined FABE in Fall 2023 and is currently the lead PI of projects that accumulate more than $5M in funds.