Dr. Binayak Mohanty is a Regents Professor and Endowed Chair in Biological and
Agricultural Engineering/ Ecosystem Science and Management/ Water Management and Hydrologic Sciences
at Texas A&M University, College Station, where he teaches Vadose Zone Hydrology, Hydrology Across
Scale, and other specialized soil and water resources and remote sensing classes. He holds B.S. (Eng.)
from Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, India (1985), M.S. (Eng.), Asian Institute of
Technology, Bangkok, Thailand (1987), and Ph.D. from Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa (1992).
Prior to joining Texas A&M Univ., Dr. Mohanty worked as a scientist in soil physics research group at
USDA-ARS U.S. Salinity Laboratory, Riverside, California (1993-2001).
Dr. Mohanty’s research focuses on advancing water, chemical, and heat transport measurement,
modeling/prediction, variability/uncertainty, and parameter estimation in the vadose or unsaturated
zone from pore scale to continental scale under engineered, agricultural, range, forest, sub-urban,
and urban land covers and various hydro-climatic conditions. His groups’ measurement skills include
ground and remote sensing platforms, modeling skills include deterministic and stochastic process models
and data assimilation framework. Over the past two decades, Dr. Mohanty’s group has successfully used
satellite remote sensing as a tool to study soil moisture, soil hydraulics, and evapotranspiration at
different scales. He pioneered the implementation of satellite platforms for Earth surface’s hydrologic
parameter exploration at multiple scales, and discovery of soil moisture scaling rules including the
dominant geophysical controls under different hydrologic and climatic conditions. Dr. Mohanty also
provided novel experimental data and effective modeling concepts for accounting preferential flow and
contaminant transport in macroporous and fractured soils, as well as subsurface linked
hydrologic-biogeochemical processes. Dr. Mohanty has been funded by NASA, NSF, DOE, NIH, Army, USGS,
and several international agencies over the years and also served in many NSF, NASA, and DOE grant and
advisory panels. He also served in the Modeling Soil Water Dynamics panel of the US National Academies
with a vision to develop multi-scale soil hydrologic parameters for the ongoing National Water
Model initiative.
Dr. Mohanty has received many research and teaching excellence awards at the department, college,
university, national and international level. Dr. Mohanty has received NASA (2013) and Agricultural
Experiment Station (2011) group achievement awards for research. He is a fellow of Soil Science
Society of America (2012), Agronomy Society of America (2012), Texas A&M Agrilife (2012), and
Texas A&M Engineering (2011, 2012). Dr. Mohanty received the prestigious Don and Betty Kirkham
Soil Physics award (2014) from Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) for his seminal contribution
on application of remote sensing in soil physics. In 2014, Dr. Mohanty was named the COALS Chair in
Hydrologic Engineering and Sciences, Regents Professor, and TEES Senior Fellow at
Texas A&M University. In 2016, he received the distinguished alumni award from Asian Institute of
Technology for his research excellence. He is the lead PI of Texas Water Observatory and directs
all aspects of the observatory.