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Somnath comes to Illinois with experiences in several academic disciplines
and
departments from around the world. He received his B.Sc. from Presidency
College in Calcutta, India, his M.Sc. from Jawaharlal Nehru University in
New
Delhi, India and his Ph.D. from Rutgers University. Since completing his
Ph.D., he has worked in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University and in the Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering at Duke University.
Somnath's research interests in land-atmosphere interactions and regional
climate modeling integrate his background in physics with his interest in
environmental science and involve real-world issues with significant policy
relevance. He is studying issues such as deforestation in Rondonia Brazil,
impacts of varying land use in the U.S., and the North American Monsoon. Forexample, as part of the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in
Amazonia (LBA), Somnath used a high-resolution climate model to show that
the
unique spatial pattern of land surface heterogeneity produced by rampant
clear
cutting along an expanding road network could trigger mesoscale circulations leading to more clouds and rain over the cleared patches. More recently he
has
collaborated with ecologists and economists to look at the impacts of
biological carbon sequestration using tree plantations. Plantations are
cheap
and efficient carbon sinks that figure prominently in all greenhouse gas
mitigation schemes. Somnath showed that large plantations could affect
regional climate and soil and water quality. In yet another project, Somnath showed that turbulence generated in the wake of the turbine rotors in wind
farms can significantly affect surface temperature and humidity, and that
these effects can be minimized by using low-turbulence rotors that are
economically efficient because they harness energy otherwise lost to
turbulence.
Somnath believes that the most important quality he brings to the Department of Atmospheric Science is his exposure and experience in multidisciplinary environments. This will be a key factor in his research on the hydrologic
cycle and its relationship to the human environment. He is very happy to be
in
an intellectually exciting environment, with opportunities for collaboration with scientists driven by a common vision.
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