Three MSU civil engineering students recognized by American Institute of Hydrology

Contact: Chris Whitaker

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Three students in Mississippi State's Bagley College of Engineering have been recognized by the American Institute of Hydrology (AIH) through its 2026 RISE Student Awards.

Jesus Ortiz Garcia received the Graduate Student Award, Valeria Hernandez Zambrano received the Undergraduate Student Award, and Diego Galindo Cruz was named a distinguished honoree.

All three are current or recent graduate students in the Watersheds and Water Quality Research Lab (WWQRL) at the Richard A. Rula School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

“These recognitions speak first and foremost to the students’ hard work, talent, dedication and contributions to hydrology and water resources engineering,” said John Ramirez-Avila, AIH director of academic affairs and MSU associate professor.

This year, AIH’s RISE Student Awards recognized nine students in the United States and Latin America for their accomplishments in hydrology. RISE stands for Research, Impact, Scholarship, and Engagement.

Jesus Ortiz Garcia (Photo by Kristen Polk)

Ramirez-Avila also heads the WWQRL, where all three students were mentored. According to AIH, the awards recognize excellence in academic achievement, research contributions, applied problem-solving, leadership, service and innovation, while promoting engagement with the professional hydrology community.

Ortiz Garcia, from Bogota, Colombia, was recognized for his hydrologic research, applied watershed analysis and professional engagement. He was inducted into the Bagley Hall of Fame in spring 2026 and is a certified professional hydrologist (PH).

Ortiz Garcia’s research has advanced the use of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Curve Number method, a widely used way to estimate how much rainfall becomes runoff, through studies and modeling across more than 1,300 U.S. watersheds.

He now works as a hydraulics engineer for Kisinger Campo & Associates in Raleigh, North Carolina.

His career plans include developing as a water resources engineer, obtaining a professional engineer license (PE) and pursuing doctoral research.

“I see industry experience and academic research as complementary paths, where practical engineering challenges can inspire new research and scientific advances,” Ortiz Garcia said. “The impact I want to make in hydrology is simple: produce research that is rigorous for science and useful to protect people.”

Valeria Hernandez Zambrano (Photo submitted)

Hernandez Zambrano, from Santa Marta, Colombia, was honored for her achievements in hydrologic research, scholarship, leadership and professional development. Her mentorship with the WWQRL began in November 2024, while she was an undergraduate at Universidad del Magdalena in Santa Marta, through a partnership between the universities and AIH’s Hydrology Education and Research Mentorship for Students (AIH-HEARS) program. The mentorship led to her recruitment into MSU’s civil engineering graduate program, where she has served as a graduate research assistant since August.

She advanced research on hydrologic analysis in tropical coastal regions, including developing regionalized Huff curves, which show how rain falls over the course of a storm, for rainfall characterization, flood-risk assessment and infrastructure design.

Hernandez Zambrano was also the first author of a peer-reviewed publication, “Regionalization of Short-Duration Storm Temporal Patterns Using Huff Curves in a Coastal Tropical Region,” published May 8 in the journal Hydrology.

“This information is key for designing drainage and flood-protection infrastructure in a region with limited local studies,” she said. “It is also meaningful personally, because I began with no research experience and saw research as something out of my reach, and this project proved to me that it was not.

“Growing up in Santa Marta, a coastal city where water is both a resource and a risk, I saw how much depends on understanding it, from water supply to intense rainfall events. As I studied environmental and sanitary engineering, I realized how much work remains to be done on water resources in the department of Magdalena, and that is what drew me to hydrology.”

Galindo Cruz, from Villavicencio, Colombia, was one of seven students named a distinguished honoree. He was cited for contributions to applied hydrology through research, teaching and professional engagement. His research focuses on watershed hydrology, rainfall-runoff relationships, curve number analysis and hydrologic modeling, with applications to flood estimation and watershed management.

Diego Galindo Cruz (Submitted photo)

He serves as a graduate teaching assistant and is expected to graduate in spring 2027.

“Alongside my industry work, I want to continue contributing to the water resources community by tackling larger, more complex research projects,” Galindo Cruz said. “Specifically, I am interested in exploring the implementation of artificial intelligence in flood assessment and advanced hydrologic modeling.”

Ramirez-Avila said the AIH-HEARS program, which he helped establish, has given students more opportunities to engage with mentors, research and the broader hydrology community.

“What began as a mentorship initiative has grown into an international effort connecting students and mentors across the United States and Latin America,” he said. “Our collaboration with the Universidad del Magdalena in Colombia is one example of how these connections can give students opportunities to build research and professional experience across institutions and countries.”