ESR 7 - Khan Wali

Wageningen University & Research

Where do you call home?  Can you describe it? 

Home is a place where you feel that you own the environment, the air and the people around. A place you care the most and always want it to be better and better in term of cleanliness, it’s looks and comfort. The place where you feel proud to host someone else.

What are some of your personal interests and hobbies?

Learning new things, Science of light, Artificial intelligence and reading history are of great interest to me.

My hobbies are to explore the diversity in thinking of different countries. I believe everything in this world happen for a reason and the difference in thinking make this world more diverse and beautiful.

What is your biggest personal achievement so far?

To be able to work in a diverse research group for my PhD studies is my biggest personal goal so far.

What is the title of your PhD project?  Can you explain it to a non-academic?

My PhD topic is investigation and development of new and rapid analysis techniques for bio-based fertilizers.

 Bio-waste is full of renewable substances and needs to be recycled as much as possible. This recycling is not only beneficial to stop the depletion of resources but also helps in reducing the environmental pollution. To use these bio-wastes in the agriculture sector as a fertilizer, we need complete knowledge of their composition and how these fertilizers impact the soil's chemical composition, we propose to apply new rapid and non-destructive real-time analysis techniques to find the composition of these bio-based fertilizers and to link them to decomposition rate. Sensing/spectroscopy techniques using visible near-infrared (Vis-NIR), mid-infrared (MIR), and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) are available to perform non-destructive analysis, however, the limitation of these sensing technologies in a particular application needs further investigation. In this Ph.D. project, we propose to address the challenges and limitations of these sensing technologies in the form of four research studies.  In study one, the challenge of choosing an appropriate analysis/prediction method and choosing a suitable preprocessing method will be addressed. In study two, we will Investigate different spectral fusion techniques and observe how the results of detecting nutrients in bio-based fertilizers are improved. Study three is dedicated to the investigation of advanced deep learning architectures for specific applications to spectral analysis with limited_training data. In study four we will find the impact of bio-based fertilizers on soil chemical composition with time, by measuring the nutrient contents in the soil after application of bio-based fertilizers using the methods developed in the above three studies.

What drives your interest in bio-based fertilisers?

The environmental and sustainability were always the topics of my interest. Finding ways to tackle the problems associated with environment and help in sustainability of the world future was always my dream.

 Describe your experience with the FertiCycle ITN so far?

The FertiCycle offer a diverse team with extremely talented people. I always learn new things from my teammates. The exposure and the environment provided by FertiCycle is once in a life time opportunity and I feel lucky to be part of this project.

 What would you say are the benefits of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Fellowship?

I would say the diversity and the best training fellowship ever. Other benefits are best networking opportunities, excellent colleagues and trainers, availability of resources for research and exposures to the real world problems and a scientific approaches for its solutions.

 How has the experience traveling abroad for this program been for you?

 It’s an amazing experience to leave your home and family and finding a new home and work colleagues who are there to fill the gape of the people you are missing. Learning new cultures and adopting new ways of living are indeed challenging but an interesting phase of life.