Focused on the Future of Water Resources

Auroop Ganguly and his team developed a model to help predict future water availability. CREDIT: NSF View full size image

This ScienceLives article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

Auroop Ganguly, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, heads Northeastern University’s Sustainability and Data Sciences Lab. His research encompasses climate change/extreme weather, water sustainability and data sciences for complex systems. A recipient of an NSF Expeditions in Computing award, Ganguly developed a computational model to predict future water availability based on changes in climate and global population growth. In the mid- to last part of this century, the best-case scenario showed a reduction in global economic inequity, with developing and developed nations more in line in terms of individual incomes, and a slowing of population growth. In the worst-case scenarios, population growth intensifies and economic inequity increases. The modeling also showed that population growth, not climate change, would have the largest impact on water availability. Ganguly has a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from MIT. Below, he answers 10 questions related to his life as a scientist. 

Name: Auroop Ganguly
Institution: Northeastern University
Field of Study: Sustainability, Data Sciences

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