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Sonam Sherpa
Director
Dr. Sonam Futi Sherpa is an assistant professor at the School of Environment, Society, and Sustainability at the University of Utah. She is an Earth Scientist specializing in space-borne (radar) satellite remote sensing, image analysis, and signal processing, focusing on extreme events, hydrology, and geo-hazards in the context of a changing environment, and other anthropogenic activities. She was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Earth, Environment, and Planetary Sciences (DEEPS) and the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES) at Brown University, where she worked on Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) data for hydrology and proglacial environments. She is also a recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Earth Sciences (EAR) Postdoctoral Fellowships, 2023. Prior to Brown, Sonam earned her Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech (VT) where she focused her research on large-scale probabilistic water/flood classification and detection, development and implementation of a multi-temporal 3D algorithm to quantify 21st-century inundation hazards due to sea level rise, and exposure utilizing big data from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Interferometric SAR (InSAR) and machine learning. Additionally, she has also worked on Gravity data (GRACE/FO) to understand the association between changes in glacier mass and climate seasonality in High Mountain Asia using signal processing. At VT, she was NSF’s DRRM (Disaster Risk Resilience and Management) Fellow and IPCC’s (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Climate Sciences Fellow.
Sonam has a Master’s in science degree from Arizona State University, School of Sustainability, and M.S. by research in Glaciology degree from Kathmandu University, Nepal. Before coming to the USA, she worked at an Intergovernmental Organization known as the ICIMOD (International Center for Integrated Mountain Development) as a Glaciologist, which worked to empower eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush Himalaya – including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.
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Faiyad H Rishal
Graduate Research Assistant
Faiyad is a PhD student in Geography at the University of Utah - School of Environment, Society and Sustainability. As a Graduate Research Assistant, he is working on projects that integrate satellite remote sensing, data science, and Al to study water resources and environmental hazards. Prior to his doctoral studies, Faiyad worked as an instructor at Auburn University and as a GIS technician at the Citizen Science GIS Lab within the Department of Geosciences.
Faiyad completed his M.S. in Geography and Environmental Studies at Auburn University, where his research explored land use–land cover change and the urban heat island effect using GIS and remotely sensed imagery. During his undergraduate studies at Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh, he led the Sustainable Campus Project, assessing energy-related carbon footprints and proposing mitigation strategies to achieve net-zero emissions.
In addition to his academic and research pursuits, he has held leadership roles in various social and university organizations, where he developed strong communication and team management skills. He has also worked in research organizations, published academic papers, and presented his work at several international conferences.