معرفی
Debjani Sihi is an Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University, with a joint appointment in the Departments of Plant and Microbial Biology and Crop and Soil Sciences. She joined the university in 2024 as part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences AI cluster. Prior to this, she was a faculty member at Emory University and held postdoctoral positions at the University of Maryland and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Her doctoral research was completed at the University of Florida.
Dr. Sihi's research focuses on the plant-soil-microbe-atmosphere continuum, integrating biogeochemistry, machine learning, and field/laboratory data to study soil carbon cycles, greenhouse gas emissions, and ecosystem responses to climate change. She leads the Sihi Biogeochemistry Lab, which collaborates with federal agencies (USDA, NSF, DOE) and industry partners like Valent Biosciences. Current projects include climate-smart agriculture, continental-scale soil carbon modeling, and microbial-driven carbon dynamics in diverse ecosystems.
Her work emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches, leveraging sensors, imaging, and big data analytics to address challenges in food security and environmental sustainability. Notable projects include a $25M USDA-funded study on carbon sequestration in Southern Piedmont agriculture and a NSF-funded investigation into methane dynamics in northern forests.
Dr. Sihi has mentored numerous graduate and undergraduate students, with recent achievements including student awards at the NC PSI BRIDGE Symposium. She actively engages in outreach, including workshops on regenerative agricultural practices for beginning farmers and veterans through USDA grants.
Key funding sources include the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), USDA, and Valent Biosciences. Her lab is currently recruiting postdocs, students, and researchers to expand its work in soil health, climate modeling, and ecosystem resilience.
