Auroop R. Ganguly
College of Engineering Distinguished Professor,
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Chief Scientist and Joint Appointee,
US DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Contact
- a.ganguly@northeastern.edu
- 400 Snell Engineering
360 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115
Executive Assistant:
Bhoomika Gupta: bh.gupta@northeastern.edu
Social Media
Office
- 177 Huntington Avenue, 3rd Floor
Lab
- SDS Lab, 216 Mass Ave, Boston, MA 02115
- 617-373-3388 (email preferred)
Research Focus
Physics-integrated data science and machine learning for weather extremes and infrastructure resilience in sustainability and security
About
Auroop R Ganguly is a Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University in Boston, MA, USA, where he has been employed in the College of Engineering since the Fall of 2011, and has courtesy appointments with the Khoury College of Computer Science and the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. He has nearly 28 years of full-time professional research and leadership experience in the US spanning the private technology sector, government-owned national laboratory, and academia.
Ganguly’s foundational research, falling within the broad theme of adaptation science and technology to global change, has been published and/or highlighted in interdisciplinary journals such as Nature, Science, and PNAS, disciplinary venues pertaining to hydrology, meteorology, climate, transportation, ecology, biology, urban systems, security, physics, statistics, risk analysis, law, and policy, and won awards at Artificial Intelligence and computer science venues such as ACM SIGKDD and SIAM Data Mining. His research has been translated to community impacts in Boston, Massachusetts, the US, and around the world, while his entrepreneurial activities have led to US patents and five startup companies (with one acquired by the Fortune 500 company that owns the New York Stock Exchange).
The overarching theme of Ganguly’s research integrates weather extremes, climate adaptation, and even security threats with infrastructure resilience and urban sustainability, with the help of process knowledge in sciences, engineering, and policy, integrated with data sciences ranging from machine learning, nonlinear dynamics, and extreme value statistics. Ganguly and his work, ranging from fundamental discoveries and new methods, all the way to community implementations and successful startups, have been quoted or cited in the global and national media including the New York Times, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal. He has delivered keynotes at US National Academy workshops, served in panels and workshops of the United Nations, and been a part of about $70 Million in research funding. Within Northeastern, he currently directs the Sustainability and Data Sciences Laboratory, the AI for Climate and Sustainability focus area within the Institute for Experiential AI, and was previously a Co-Director of the Global Resilience Institute.
Ganguly is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a Distinguished Member of the Association for Computing Machinery, a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.Tech. (Hons.) from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.
Education
- Ph.D., Civil & Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 2002
Honors & Awards
- Fellow, American Society of Civil Engineers
- Distinguished Member, Association for Computing Machinery
Teaching Interests
- CIVE 3464 (UG): Probability and Engineering Economy for Engineers
- CIVE 4777 & CIVE 4778 (UG): Climate Science and Policy Abroad
- CIVE 5363 (UG/Grad): Climate Science, Engineering Adaptation, and Policy
- CIVE 7100 (Grad): Time Series and Geospatial Data Sciences
- CIVE 7110 (Grad): Critical Infrastructure Resilience
Leadership Positions
- Director, Sustainability and Data Sciences Laboratory, Northeastern University College of Engineering
- Director, AI for Climate and Sustainability, Northeastersn University Institute for Experiential AI
- Chief Scientist (Joint Appointee), US DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Adviser, AIResQ (India-based startup)
- (Former) Co-Director, Northeastern University Global Resilience Institute
- (Former) Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Adviser, risQ (Boston-based startup acquired by Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange)
- (Former) Senior Product Manager, Analytics and Strategy, Demantra Inc. (subsequently acquired by Oracle Corporation)
- (Former) Product Manager, Oracle Corporation
Professional Affiliations
- American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- American Meteorological Society (AMS)
Research Overview
Physics-integrated data science and machine learning for weather extremes and infrastructure resilience in sustainability and security
Physics-human-Data[AI] systems (PhDs) for Climate Adaptation and Resilient Engineering (CARE): An integrated approach from fundamental discoveries in earth systems sciences and engineering to novel policy-relevant solutions in critical infrastructures and urban systems leading to science and technology innovations, community engagements, and private sector startups.
The Sustainability and Data Sciences Laboratory (SDS Lab), led by Auroop Ganguly, develops novel insights in the interdisciplinary sciences of climate extremes and the engineering principles of networked lifelines to inform adaptation and policy. Physics-integrated spatiotemporal machine learning and nonlinear dynamics, especially from large-scale numerical model-simulations and remote or in-situ sensor data, enable the discovery of new insights in climate extremes and uncertainty, while network sciences and optimization along with engineering or ecological principles aid in understanding infrastructural or ecosystem vulnerability. Decision sciences and policy imperatives are integrated in the scientific discovery and technological invention processes to embed stakeholder perspectives.
The Artificial Intelligence for Climate and Sustainability (AI4CaS), a University Institute focus area led by Auroop Ganguly, defines its mission as “Harnessing AI to Turn Complexity Into Planet Saving Innovations.” Understanding a coupled natural-human ecosystem as complex as our planet’s requires a combination of AI and process knowledge. We are developing sophisticated knowledge-integrated AI around climate risk, resilience, and energy sustainability in conjunction with public, private, and government partners around the world. Our research focuses on: (1) Human Knowledge Guided AI for Climate Science and Impacts; (2) Precision AI-Based Weather for Disasters and Renewable Energy; (3) AI Risks for National Critical Functions and Key Resources; (4) Human Stakeholder-Guided AI for Climate-Water-Energy Nexus; and (5) AI on Graphs for Renewable Energy Production and Distribution.
The connections with the US DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is described here. Besides PNNL, we have strong connections with NASA (Ames Research Center) and US DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), as well as the Incontentinental Exchange (ICE), which owns the New York Stock Exchange and acquired our startup risQ.
Ganguly’s research has been funded by US agencies such as NSF, DOE, DOD, DHS, and NASA, as well as private donors and the private-public sector, and the governments of India and Indonesia. Ganguly has been a PI, a Co-PI, or a senior person for nearly $70M of research funding received over the years.
Selected Publications
For a list of publications, please see my Scholar Profile, and for an overview, please see this presentation on YouTube (originally prepared for the RLB Symposium in the AMS Annual Meeting, January 2026)
Jan 26, 2026
Tropical Pollinator Populations Could Be Reduced by Half This Century
CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly was featured in the Nature article “Tropical pollinator populations could be reduced by half this century.”
Jan 26, 2026
Indian Diaspora Scientists Driving Global Change
CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly was one of five indian scientists featured in Media India Group’s article “Indian diaspora scientists driving global change” for the work he does in developing critical models to anticipate the domino effects of floods and heatwaves on infrastructure, bridging the gap between scientific uncertainty and public policy.
Jan 09, 2026
How Climate Disasters Impact Local Government Funding
By analyzing the intersection of finance and engineering, CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly and Aayushi Mishra, PhD’28, interdisciplinary engineering, illustrate how climate risks threaten local tax bases while offering innovative bond-based strategies to protect infrastructure.
Dec 11, 2025
Forecasting for Meaningful Climate Solutions
Puja Das, MS’22, PhD’25, civil and environmental engineering, grew up in Bangladesh, where she saw there was a need for intensive research on the climate. She has dedicated her studies to finding the most accurate and precise forecasting models to help prepare for and mitigate climate disasters.
Sep 29, 2025
PhD Student Attends Climate Week in New York City
Aayushi Mishra, PhD’28, interdisciplinary engineering, in Northeastern University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the inaugural Lizzy Warner Fellow, recently attended Climate Week NYC. This year’s Climate Week was […]
Sep 03, 2025
How Climate Change is Impacting Airplane Turbulence
CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly and University Distinguished and MIE William Lincoln Smith Professor Ahmed Busnaina discuss why there has been an increase in airplane turbulence recently and how the aerospace industry is working on resolving the issue through new technological advancements.
Aug 13, 2025
Dialogue of the Decade: The Climate of Chile and Argentina in May-June 2025
In May-June 2025, Northeastern University’s “Dialogue of Civilizations” program on “Climate Change in Emerging Economies” celebrated its tenth year by taking students to Chile and Argentina. Led by CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly, alongside program assistants and local guides, the month-long experience immersed fifteen undergraduate students in climate science, adaptation engineering, and policy discussions through classroom sessions, role-playing, and field trips to diverse locations like the Andes, Patagonia, and urban centers.
Aug 01, 2025
Warming Temperatures Making “Weather Whiplash” More Common
CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly examines how rising temperatures are causing rapid transitions in the weather, leading to catastrophic natural disasters.
Jul 22, 2025
Advancing Weather Prediction for Defense Applications
CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly is the lead PI for a $1,000,000 grant from the Air Force Weather titled “Weather Ensemble Analytics and Visualization Environment (WEAVE)”.
Jul 17, 2025
The Impact of Water Scarcity
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Pujas Das using Earth systems models found there is an alarming decrease in runoff from the world’s major rivers. CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly co-authored Das’s paper that details the negative impacts of declining runoff on humans and the world as a whole.