Monticello, Arkansas —A new UAM faculty member is roaming the halls; Dr. Hamdi Zurqani started his duties as an assistant professor on July 1. He will teach remote sensing and geospatial analysis for the College of Forestry, Agriculture Natural Resources. In addition to his teaching schedule, much of his work will be providing research for the University of Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station and Arkansas Forest Resources Center, the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
Zurqani is from Libya, in the middle of North Africa, besides Egypt and Tunisia. He received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in 2007 and 2010, respectively, at the University of Tripoli in Libya. His masters' thesis was on Soil and Water Sciences/Pedology (Soil). His undergraduate major was Soil, Water and Science. Despite having the chance to study for a Ph.D. in the United Kingdom, Zurqani’s parents encouraged him to go to the United States. At that point, he made a career pivot to study at Clemson University. Dr. Zurqani received his Ph.D. in Forest Resources there in 2019, specializing in Environmental Information Sciences and Pedology.
Dr. Zurqani is recognized for his work in remote sensing, geospatial analysis and soil science. Zurqani is the author and co-author of many peer-reviewed publications and technical publications. Zurqani says his research focuses on developing applications for new technologies in environmental information sciences (e.g., remote sensing, land evaluation, soil genesis and classification, land use management, monitoring, change detection of landscape degradation, and geographic information system models). "I look forward to my new position as an assistant professor at the UAM, and I am very excited for the upcoming school year," he says.
Zurqani married his wife, Nasrin, in 2012. They have three children: two girls, Yara, age 8 and Sama, age 6. His son, Abdu, is 5 years old. The Zurqani family arrived from South Carolina in June. A condition of the children agreeing to come to Arkansas was for the family to get a pet. The first night, the new kitten named Lolly arrived at the Zurqani household.
For more information about Zurqani, you can go to his webpage at https://www.zurqani.page/:
