Open PhD position in Hydrology and Water Resources
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama, the state of Alabama’s oldest public university, is a senior comprehensive doctoral-level institution. The University was established by constitutional provision under statutory mandates and authorizations. Its mission is to advance the intellectual and social condition of the people of the state through quality programs of teaching, research and service.
In 1818, the federal government authorized the Alabama Territory to set aside a township for the establishment of a “seminary of learning.” President Monroe signed the enabling act for statehood on March 2, 1819, and Alabama was officially admitted to the Union on Dec. 14, 1819, and a second township was added to the grant. On Dec. 18, 1820, the seminary was established officially and named “The University of the State of Alabama.” Tuscaloosa, then the state’s capital, was chosen as the University’s home in 1827. On April 18, 1831, under the leadership of the first University president, Alva Woods, inaugural ceremonies were held and the University opened. By May 28, 52 students had enrolled. The campus consisted of seven buildings: two faculty houses, two dormitories, the laboratory, the hotel (now Gorgas House) and the Rotunda.
Mukesh Kumar is an Associate Professor of Hydrology and Water Resources at University of Alabama (UA). He did his B.Tech from IIT Kanpur and Ph.D. from Pennstate University. Before joining UA, Mukesh was a faculty at Duke University.
Mukesh’s research aims to improve the assessment of water availability and quality in response to variations and changes in the physical environment, including climate, land use, land cover, topography, etc. To this end, he studies hydrologic processes across the entire continuum, including subsurface, surface, snow, plants, and the atmosphere. His recent research spans across the following three themes:
(a) Mapping hydrologic responses and assessing the controls on them (e.g., ERL22, WRR22, ERL21, HP20, NCC20, HP19, JHM16, EMS16, JHM15, AWR13);
(b) Evaluation of the impacts of variations/changes in landcover (e.g., WRR18, JGR14, JGR13) and climate (e.g., NCC19, CC19, HESS17, PNAS17, WRR16, GRL16, GRL12) on water availability and quality, and vice versa;
© Quantification of the role of approximations in data (e.g., HP19, JH19, HP18, AWR13) and processes (e.g., SREP19, JGR16, AWR12) on hydrologic estimates.
To achieve these goals, with his students, Mukesh has co-developed several open-source numerical models (e.g., PIHM, FIHM, GaRM, FoRM, GeoTopSed, SPAC) and data analytics methods (e.g., DEWS, JH09). To facilitate the use of models over a range of scales and settings, he has also worked on the design of model interfaces (e.g., PIHMgis) and efficient modeling strategies (e.g., SREP18, GIS09, pPIHM). Mukesh’s research recognitions include Mahatma Gandhi Honor, UA-CCEE’s Faculty and Research Innovation Award, two UA-CCEE’s Outstanding Mid-Career Faculty Award, NSF CAREER Award, UCOWR PhD Dissertation Award (2nd Prize), CUAHSI-CMWR Fellowship and Outstanding Student Paper Award at AGU. Mukesh’s students have also received several honors including Alabama Graduate Research Scholar’s Program Fellowship to Sungyoon Kim, Outstanding Student Paper Award at AGU to Yanlan Liu, CUAHSI Pathfinder Fellowship to Bijan Seyednasrollah, and NASA Earth Science Fellowship, IGERT WiseNet Fellowship, James B Duke Fellowship and DUWC Research Grant to Chris Krapu.
Focus Areas: Integrated Hydrology, Watershed Hydrology, Snow Hydrology, Ecohydrology, Wetlands, Numerical Modeling, Geographic Information Systems (GISs).
Homepage: https://mkumar.people.ua.edu/
Energy, Resources and the Environment (ERE)
Hydrological Sciences (HS)
Dr. Mukesh Kumar at University of Alabama is looking for highly motivated PhD students in the field of hydrological processes, data analytics, optimization and modeling. The projects in the research group seek to provide information on the interaction between climate, vegetation, land use, topography and hydro-geology on the spatio-temporal variability of surface and subsurface hydrologic processes. The research group addresses these questions using a combination of experimental, theoretical, numerical and computational methods. Candidates with background or interest in either of the following fields are strongly encouraged to apply: watershed hydrology, ecohydrology, snow hydrology, groundwater hydrology, hydrologic model development, flood and drought predictions, machine learning, etc.
Applicants interested in the position should have: * BS or MS degree in any branch of Engineering, Geosciences, Applied mathematics, Computer science, Statistics or related fields. * Superlative knowledge of at least one programming language, strong numerical modeling and/or computing skills, and excellent analytical ability. * Ability to articulate research objectives and hypotheses, strong verbal and written skills, and ability to work as part of a team.Please submit your pre-application package to Dr. Mukesh Kumar (mkumar4@ua.edu), that includes a short note expressing your interest and curriculum vitae. Review of applications will begin immediately. View sampling of Dr. Mukesh Kumar’s work on publications page.