Sonali Shukla McDermid

Sonali Shukla McDermid

Climate scientist and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at NYU.

Team

Sonali Shukla McDermid

I am a climate scientist and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at NYU. My research explores the role of landscapes in our regional and global climate systems. In particular, I focus on agriculture as both a driver of global environmental change and vulnerable to it. Global agriculture must feed >9 billion people by 2050 without exceeding a “safe operating space” within the ecosystems that support it. Climate change, partly driven by agriculture itself, further complicates this endeavor. I use a variety of tools in my research, including process-based climate models, crop models, and a range of observational and remote-sensing datasets. I am also a research affiliate at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), where I help develop the land surface component of the NASA GISS ModelE climate model for improved agricultural representation. I have also been recently awarded Fulbright-Kalam Fellowship (2020) and an Andrew Carnegie Scholar Fellowship (2021) to study modes for climate-smart rice production. During the past 10 years, I served as the Climate Co-Lead for the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project, a UKAID project investigating the impact of climate change on food security across South Asia and Africa.

Education

I hold a B.A. in Physics from NYU (2006), and an M.A. (2008), M.Phil. (2011), and Ph.D. (2012) from the Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, specializing in Atmospheric and Climate Science. Prior to my appointment NYU, I was NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at NASA GISS in NYC.

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Margaux Alfare

Margaux is an early-career climate professional, currently serving as an Associate Research Scientist at NYU’s Environmental Studies Department, where she uses programming languages like Matlab for statistical analyses on geospatial data, creates visuals for scientific publications, and conducts literature reviews on key research topics. She obtained her MA Climate and Society from Columbia University’s Climate School in 2023. Margaux’s research expertise includes topics like industry decarbonization, urban resilience, and coastal adaptation strategies. She holds a BA in Environment and Political Science from McGill University, and previously worked as a Community Outreach Coordinator in a homeless shelter before relocating in NYC.

Anika Amidon

Anika is an undergraduate student, originally from Rome, New York, pursuing her degree in Environmental Studies with a minor in Biology. For her senior thesis, she is currently working on a case study of best-use climate mitigation strategies in India across primary mitigation sectors and dimensions of potential trade-offs and co-benefits. Following graduation, Anika plans to continue her studies and research at Cambridge University, joining the Crop Sciences program within their School of Biological Sciences. She hope to spring from this study into the field of agricultural research, specifically working within plant genetics to explore climate-resilient crop adaptations, applying this to dynamics of food security. Beyond her academic pursuits, Anika enjoys teaching and taking yoga and ballet classes, improving her language skills through immersive travel, and spending time outdoors hiking, swimming, reading, and gardening with her friends and family.

Emma Rigatti

Emma is a senior at NYU double majoring in Environmental Studies and Film. Her current research involves using land-system models to explore the impact of drought on ecosystem carbon dynamics in the West African Sahel. Her academic interests lie in understanding how the competing environmental factors on stomatal conductance influence ecosystem energy, carbon, and water exchanges as well as the implications for human systems. She will be attending UCSB starting Fall 2024 to pursue a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Management

Komal Sharma

Komal (she/her/hers) comes from Pune, India. Her background is in Computer Science and she worked as a Data Engineer at Citibank for 4 years. Currently, she is studying Data Science at the NYU Center for Data Science. Her long-term aspiration is to get back to the Finance world as a seasoned Data Scientist. She is a planner at heart, love to code and her research interests include Natural Language Processing, Climate Change and Social Sciences. When not glued to the computer screen, Komal likes reading books or trying her hand at still-life photography!

Past collaborators