About Dr. Ganga Hettiarachchi
Dr. Hettiarachchi has been involved in a multitude of research projects within the field of soil chemistry. Primarily, her interests have focused on better understanding the mechanisms and interactions involved in soil chemical reactions enhancing soil quality to improve crop production and/or protection of human health. Main research areas include: the fate and transport of hazardous trace elements along with the steps that may be taken to remediate contaminated sites including urban brownfields and abandoned mines; determining reaction pathways of macro- and micronutrient fertilizer sources in soils to understand their relationship to potential availability and plant uptake; and the role soil mineralogy/chemistry play to enhance aggregation and soil C sequestration in agroecosystems. Together with her group, she employs a wide variety of methods to understand trace and nutrient element mobility including but not limited to wet chemical analysis and synchrotron-based investigations.
Webinars & Presentations
Hettiarachchi, G.M. 2021. Altering Fertilizer Reaction Pathways in Soils to Optimize Nutrient Use Efficiency. School of Agriculture, Fertilization and Environment Sciences, University of Mohammad VI polytechnic, Morocco.
Hettiarachchi, G.M. 2021. Manipulating reaction pathways to optimize nutrient availability. Iowa State University, Department of Agronomy Seminar Series
Hettiarachchi, G.M. and M. Rollen. 2021. Gaining Ground Webinar: Addressing the Challenge of Building Healthy Soils in Urban Environments
Hettiarachchi, G.M. 2014. Managing contaminants in urban vegetable gardens to minimize human exposure. Two-hour long Webinar as part of CLU-IN Webinar Series (an ongoing series of webinars organized by USEPA Technology Innovation and Field Service Division). Oct. 15, 2014.