Directory

About

Dr. Debjani Ghatak is a hydro-climatologist and is a passionate teacher. She has 10 years of college-level teaching experience and has published several peer-reviewed journal articles. She worked as a postdoc at Rutgers University and at Johns Hopkins University and worked as a visiting assistant professor at Texas A&M University. She also worked closely with diverse group of scientists and stakeholders from The City University of New York, Columbia University, Rutgers University, NSIDC, ICIMOD and NASA SERVIR. She served as a panel member on NASA and NSF proposal review committees.  Currently, she works closely with undergraduate student(s) from Loyola University Chicago on Arctic hydro-climatology and has set up an experimental field site at Loyola University Retreat and Ecology Campus as part of an undergraduate research project.  

Degrees

• Ph.D., Earth and Environmental Sciences, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY)
• Master of Science (MS), Earth and Environmental Sciences, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY)
• Master of Science (M.Sc.), Geography, University of Calcutta (India)

Teaching Certificate:

• 'HEART' (Hopkins Engineering Applications & Research Tutorials) fellow at Johns Hopkins University in Fall 2017
• Teachers’ training workshop at the Johns Hopkins Teaching Institute, Summer 2017

Professional Employment

Work Experience:

• Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Texas A&M University
• Clinical Data Analyst, Abbvie
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University
• Post-Doctoral Associate, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Other Relevant Work Experience:

• New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
• The Institute for Sustainable Cities City University of New York

Proposal Review:                  

• NASA Grant Review Panel Member, Fall 2021 
• NASA Grant Review Panel Member, Fall 2017
• NSF Grant Review Panel Member, Fall 2017

Research Interests

• Soil Moisture
• Hydro-climatic issues of Chicago and surrounding area
• Arctic Climate Change
• Interaction between cryosphere and atmosphere
• Northern Hemisphere Land-surface snow variability
• Cryospheric teleconnection
• Environmental Issues of South Asia
• High Elevation Climate Change

Professional & Community Affiliations

• Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN).
• Association of American Geographers (AAG).
• Association of American Geophysical Union (AGU).
• American Meteorological Society (AMS)
• European Geosciences Union (EGU)

Courses Taught

Physical Geography (Mode of Instruction: Synchronous and face to face),

Climatology (Face to face),

Hydrology (Face to face),

Natural Hazards (Face to face),

Scientific Writing Intensive Course

Environmental Workshop

An Interdisciplinary Outlook of Water

World Regional Geography

Climate Change and Water Resources

Weather and climate lab

Climate & Climate Change

The Scientific Basis of Environmental Issues

Introduction to GIS

Awards

• Grant for involving undergraduates in research from the College of Geosciences in Texas A&M University. “Expanding High Impact Experiences in the Geosciences,” Spring 2022.
• World Climate Research Program Open Science Conference best poster award, Denver CO, 2011.
• UCAR 2013 PACE fellowship finalist.
• Mina S. Rees Graduate Scholarship in Sciences and Mathematics from Hunter College, City University of New York, 2009
• Graduate Student Research Grant Awarded from The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2008
• Provost Fellowship from City University of New York
• National Scholarship (India) in 2001, 1998, 1996

Selected Publications

PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS:

Saha, K., D. Ghatak and N. S. S. Muralee. (2022) Impact of Plantation Induced Forest Degradation on the Outbreak of Emerging Infectious Diseases-Wayanad District, Kerala, India. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(12):7036. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19127036. PMID: 35742291; PMCID: PMC9222524.

Ghatak, , B Zaitchik, S Kumar, M Matin, B Bajracharya, C Hain and M Anderson, (2018) Influence of Precipitation Forcing Uncertainty on Hydrological Simulations with the NASA South Asia Land Data Assimilation System, Hydrology, 5(4), 57; https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrology5040057

Ghatak, D. and B. Zaitchik (2017), The role of local heating in the 2015 Indian Heat Wave. Nature Scientific Reports, 7: 7707, DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-07956-5.

Ghatak, D., Sinsky and J. Miller (2014), Role of Snow-Albedo Feedback in Higher Elevation Warming over the Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau and Central Asia. Environmental Research Letters, 9 114008 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/9/11/114008.

Ghatak, D., and J. Miller (2013), Implications for Arctic amplification of changes in the strength of the water vapor feedback, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 118, 7569–7578, doi:1002/jgrd.50578. 

Ghatak, D., G. Gong, A. Frei, (2010): North American Temperature, Snowfall, and Snow-Depth Response to Winter Climate Modes. J. Climate, 23:9, 2320-2332

Ghatak, D., C. Deser, A. Frei, G. Gong, A. Phillips, D. Robinson, and J. Stroeve, (2012): Simulated Siberian Snow Cover Response to Observed Arctic Sea Ice Loss, 1979-2008. Geophys. Res., 117, D23, doi:10.1029/2012JD018047, 2012.

Ghatak, D., A. Frei, G. Gong, J. Stroeve, D. Robinson,(2010): On the emergence of an Arctic amplification signal in terrestrial Arctic snow extent, J. Geophys. Res., 115, D24105, doi:10.1029/2010JD014007.

BOOK CHAPTER:

James R. Miller, Imtiaz Rangwala, Debjani Ghatak (2012), Potential Climate and Hydrological Changes in the Aral Sea Region, in Michael R. Edelstein, Astrid Cerny, Abror Gadaev (ed.) Disaster by Design: The Aral Sea and its Lessons for Sustainability (Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, Volume 20), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, doi: 10.1108/S0196-1152(2012)0000020013, pp.53-64.

Reviewer:  

• Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS), Environmental Research Letters (ERL), Journal of Geophysical Research, Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology (JAMC), Journal of Climate, Geophysical Research Letters.