People

SANJIV KUMAR, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

I am the lead of the CWS Lab at Auburn University. I earned my Ph.D. degree in hydroclimatology from the School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University. I use numerical climate models, observations and reanalysis data, and advanced statistical techniques to study the variability and predictability of water and other natural resources from seasonal to decadal time scales. My current research interests include land-atmosphere coupling and feedback, soil moisture variability, and predictability, and uncertainties in regional climate projections. I am a part of the multi-disciplinary Climate-Human-Earth System Sciences (CHESS) cluster. Along with other colleagues in the cluster, I am developing models and making assessments intending to improve the resiliency of the society in a changing climate.

Sathish Chandra Akula, Data Scientist

I am a Graduate Student Perusing my Ph.D. in Computer Science at Auburn University. I am an Oracle Certified Java Developer. I am currently working on data analysis of Streamflow observations (Daily data), climate model outputs, and developing a web page for the CWS Lab. I am also learning about big data applications in environmental science.

Montasir Maruf

I am pursuing my Ph.D. degree in Earth System Science at the CWS Lab. I am responsible for developing high-resolution CLM model for the United States and on-the-fly downscaling algorithms to run CLM in real-time with seasonal climate forecast data. I have completed my bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Islamic University of Technology, Bangladesh, and a master’s degree in Civil Engineering from Northern Arizona University, USA.

Thomas Kavoo

I am a Graduate Research Assistant at the Climate Water and Society Lab pursuing a Ph.D. in Earth System Science at Auburn University. I am skilled in machine learning, hydrological modeling, statistics, and programming (Python, Linux, R). My research focuses on understanding the impacts of climate and land use change on water resources and humans, with a specific interest in integrating wetland hydrology and water quality into land surface models. I’m passionate about utilizing my expertise to improve our understanding of carbon sequestration potential in wetlands at continental scales and potentially enhance nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon export simulations in wetland-dominated landscapes.

Musa Esit

I graduated from the Hydrology department at Gaziantep University and also an assistant professor at the Adiyaman University, Türkiye. I am working as a postdoctoral scientist at CWS Lab in Auburn to improve our understanding of the effects of the land-atmosphere interactions on drought characteristics and predictability using the Global Land-Atmosphere Coupling Experiment methodology. We aim to also develop numerical schemes to assess the role of land surface memory and its interactions with the atmosphere on drought duration and severity in the mid‐latitude regions of North America and Europe.