Auroop R. Ganguly

COE Distinguished Professor,  Civil and Environmental Engineering
Professor (affiliated),  Khoury College of Computer Sciences
Professor (affiliated),  School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs
Director,  Sustainability & Data Sciences Laboratory (SDS Lab)
Director, AI for Climate & Sustainability,  The Institute for Experiential AI
(Former) Co-Director,  Global Resilience Institute
Chief Scientist (Joint Appointee), Advanced Computing, Mathematics, and Data Division,  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA
(Former) Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Adviser,  risQ Inc.

Contact

Social Media

Office

  • 177 Huntington Avenue, 3rd Floor
  • 617-373-3710 (email preferred)

Lab

  • Sustainability and Data Science Lab: 216 Mass Ave, Boston, MA 02115
    AI4CaS (Boston): 177 Huntington Ave, 3rd Floor
    AI4CaS (Portland): Roux Institute, Portland, ME
  • 617-373-6005 (email preferred)

Research Focus

Science: Climate Dynamics, Weather Extremes, Hydrology, Hydrometeorology, and Ecology Engineering: Critical Infrastructructure, Water Resources, Transportation Security, and Lifeline Systems Data Science: Machine Learning, Network Science, Nonlinear Dynamics, and Extreme Value Theory Interdisciplinary Methods: Knowledge Guided Data-Driven Sciences and Artificial Intelligence Convergent Challenge: Environmental Security, Climate Adaptation, and Infrastructure Resilience

About

Auroop R Ganguly, with nearly 26 years of professional experience spanning private industry, government, and academia, is a College of Engineering Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University (NU) in Boston, MA. He directs the Sustainability and Data Sciences Laboratory (SDS Lab) and the AI for Climate and Sustainability (AI4CaS) focus area within the Institute for Experiential AI (EAI) and previously co-directed the Global Experience Institute (GRI). He holds a joint appointment as a Chief Scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in their Advanced Computing, Mathematics, and Data Division.

Ganguly was previously employed as a Senior Scientist at the US DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in their Computational Sciences and Engineering Division and their Climate Change Science Initiative. He also worked with Oracle Corporation, first as a Time Series Software Developer and then as the Product Manager of their Demand Planning product from launch to market acceptance, and subsequently as the Senior Product Manager for Analytics and Strategy at a best-of-breed company called Demantra Inc., later acquired by Oracle.

Ganguly’s convergent research themes include process knowledge integrated data-driven sciences such as machine learning, nonlinear dynamics, network science and optimization, and extreme value theory. He also focuses on the predictive understanding of climate and weather systems and resilience of lifeline infrastructure or ecological networks, and water resources systems, along with their interactions with human and policy dimensions for resilience to climate, security, and compound extremes. His research has been published in high-impact journals such as Nature, Nature Climate Change, and PNAS, as well as disciplinary journals in science, engineering, and computational methods. He has received best-paper awards at highly-selective computer science conferences such as ACM KDD and SIAM Data Mining.

He has authored a textbook on Critical Infrastructure Resilience and edited books on Knowledge Discovery from Sensor Data. Ganguly has been widely quoted in the mainstream media, including the New York Times, Newsweek, Guardian, and the Independent, both in the US and around the world. He has also been featured in scientific venues such as National Geographic, Nature Research Briefings, and NSF News. He has been invited as a keynote and plenary speaker at National Academy workshops and prestigious conferences, elected as lead author in urban and national climate resilience assessments, and cited in assessment reports and invited for panels of the United Nations in areas such as climate, environment, and disaster risk reduction.

He has been a co-founder and advisor to successful and innovative startups in urban climate risk analytics and AI-based precision weather forecasts and is the inventor of two US patents, one in climate risks and the other in network resilience. Ganguly has been a PI, Co-PI, or senior person for nearly $65M of research funding received over the years from 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.

He obtained a PhD from the civil and environmental engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, in hydrology, an MS from the University of Toledo in Ohio in civil and environmental engineering, and a B.Tech. (Hons.) from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur in civil engineering. His former students, postdocs, and mentees have been widely successful as startup entrepreneurs, industry leaders, private and government researchers, and university professors, both nationally and across the world. Ganguly is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and a Distinguished Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

Education

  • Ph.D., Civil & Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 2002
  • M.S., Civil Engineering, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, 1997
  • B.Tech., Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, 1993

Honors & Awards

Society Honors

  • Distinguished Member, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Elected: 2023
  • Senior Member, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Elected: 2021
  • Fellow, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Elected: 2019
  • Member, The Council for Good, AI for Good Foundation (AI4Good), Elected: 2019
  • Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Elected: 2018

Institutional Awards: Academia

  • College of Engineering Distinguished Professor Award, Northeastern University, 2023
  • Constantinos Mavroidis Translational Research Award, Northeastern University, 2021
  • 2011 Faculty Fellow, College of Engineering, Northeastern University, 2011
  • Outstanding Joint Research Faculty Award, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2010

Institutional Awards: National Laboratory

  • Joint Appointment as Chief Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 2020
  • Significant Event Award (Novel Climate Simulations), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 2010
  • Significant Event Award (Climate War Games Support), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 2009
  • Exceptional Mentoring Award, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US DOE, 2009
  • Significant Event Award (DARPA behavior model), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 2009
  • Outstanding Mentor Award, United States Department of Energy (for work at ORNL), 2008
  • Outstanding Mentor Award, United States Department of Energy (for work at ORNL), 2006
  • Selfless Mentoring Award, United States Department of Energy (for work at ORNL), 2006

Best Paper Awards: Highly Selective Peer-Reviewed Conferences

  • Runner-Up Best Paper Award in ACM KDD Applied Data Science Track 2017, for: Vandal, T.*, Kodra, E.*, Ganguly, S., Michaelis, A., Nemani, R., and A.R. Ganguly (2017): DeepSD: Generating high resolution climate change projections thro’ single image super-resolution, KDD 2017, 23rd ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery & Data Mining, August 13–17, 2017, Halifax, NS, Canada. (2017 Oral Acceptance Rate in Applied Data Science: 8.8%), 2017
  • Best Student Paper Award in SDM 2012, for: Chatterjee, S., Steinhaeuser, K., Banerjee, A., Chatterjee, S., and Ganguly, A.R. (2012): Sparse Group Lasso: Consistency and Climate Applications. SIAM International Conference on Data Mining (SDM 2012), Anaheim, CA, April 26-28, 2012. Best Student Paper Award, 2012

Best Paper Awards: Journal Paper

  • Clemens Herschel Award, (to former Ph.D. student Kate Duffy) for: Duffy, K.*, Gouhier, T., A.R. Ganguly (2022): Climate-mediated shifts in temperature fluctuations promote extinction risk. Nature Climate Change: 12, 1037–1044. Boston Society of Civil Engineers (BSCES), ASCE Member Section, Boston, MA, USA, 2023

Best Paper Awards (Selected): Peer-Reviewed Conferences and Workshops

  • Best Climate Paper Award, for: Watson, J.R.*, Chatterjee, S., A.R. Ganguly (2022): Resilience of Urban Rail Transit Networks under Compound Natural & Opportunistic Failures. IEEE HST: International Symposium on Technologies for Homeland Security, Boston, MA, USA, 2022
  • Best Student Paper Award, for: Yadav, N.*, Ravela, S. and Ganguly, A.R. (2020): Physics-guided Gaussian Processes for Parameterization in Nonlinear Dynamical Systems with Application in Climate Modeling, Fragile Earth Workshop held with ACM KDD, 2020

Best Poster or Presentation Awards (Selected)

  • Student Merit Award, for: Watson, J.R.*, Chatterjee, S., and Ganguly, A. (2022). Resilience of multi-scale rail networks against compound floods and opportunistic failures. In 2022 Society of Risk Analysis (SRA) Annual Meeting. Extended abstract and presentation by Watson. Student Merit Award, Risk Analysis Specialty Group, Society of Risk Analysis, 2022
  • Student Merit Award, for: Watson, J.R.*, Chatterjee, S., and Ganguly, A. (2021). A hierarchical network-of-networks framework for resilient design & operation of multiscale rail infrastructure. In 2021 Society of Risk Analysis (SRA) Annual Meeting. Extended abstract and presentation by Watson. Student Merit Award, Risk Analysis Specialty Group, Society of Risk Analysis, 2021
  • First Place Poster Presentation, for: Konduri, V.S.*, Kumar, J., Hargrove, W., Hoffman, F.M., and A.R. Ganguly (2020): In-season crop mapping for the continental United States, Hydrology Section, 100th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, 2020
  • First Place Virtual Poster Award (with a commendation from the CEO of AGU for Babak J. Fard), for: Fard, B.J.*, Hassanzadeh, H.*, Warner, M.E.*, Bhatia, U.*, and A.R. Ganguly (2017): Effective Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Public Health Impacts of Heatwaves for Brookline, MA. Spring 2017 Virtual Poster Showcase, American Geophysical Union, 2017

Teaching Interests

  • CIVE 3464 (Undergraduate): Probability and Engineering Economy for Engineers (Spring, Fall)
  • CIVE 5363 (Undergraduate/Graduate): Climate Science, Engineering Adaptation, and Policy (Spring, Fall)
  • CIVE 7100 (Graduate): Applied Time Series and Spatial Statistics (Spring)
  • CIVE 7110 (Graduate): Critical Infrastructure Resilience (Fall)
  • CIVE 4777 & CIVE 4778 (Undergraduate): Climate Change Science and Policy Abroad (Summer)

Leadership Positions

Appointments: Private Industry and Government

  • (Joint) Chief Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, 2020-Now
  • Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Adviser, risQ Corp., Cambridge, MA, 2016-Now
  • Senior Scientist, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 2004-2011
  • Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, AnalyticsSmart Inc., Tampa, FL, 2003-2004
  • Senior Product Manager, Demantra Inc., (Acquired by Oracle) Waltham, MA, 2003
  • Product Manager of Demand Planning, Burlington, MA, and Time Series Software Developer, Nashua, NH, Oracle Corporation, 1998-2003

Appointments: US Academia

  • Professor, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 2011-Now
  • Joint Faculty (with ORNL), University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2006-2011
  • Visiting Faculty, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, 2003-2004

Appointments: Indian Academia

  • Guest Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, 2021-Now
  • International Visiting Professor, Computer Science and Environmental Science, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, 2018-2021
  • Visiting Professor, Interdisciplinary Program on Climate, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India, 2013-2015

Professional Affiliations

  • American Geophysical Union (AGU)
  • American Meteorological Society (AMS)
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
  • Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
  • American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

 

Research Overview

Science: Climate Dynamics, Weather Extremes, Hydrology, Hydrometeorology, and Ecology Engineering: Critical Infrastructructure, Water Resources, Transportation Security, and Lifeline Systems Data Science: Machine Learning, Network Science, Nonlinear Dynamics, and Extreme Value Theory Interdisciplinary Methods: Knowledge Guided Data-Driven Sciences and Artificial Intelligence Convergent Challenge: Environmental Security, Climate Adaptation, and Infrastructure Resilience

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 $65M of research funding received over the years.

Thirty Six Selected Publications (led by Ganguly and/or his students/postdocs/mentees)

Google Scholar
collage of images of speakers at conference

Faculty

Jun 13, 2025

Summit Explores Complex Risk Science

A one-day invitation-only summit event titled “Boston-Area Complex Risk Science: Exploring new Frontiers and a New Community for Understanding Risk,” was held on June 9, 2025, at Northeastern University. Summit sponsors included CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly, who leads Northeastern University’s Sustainability and Data Sciences (SDS) Lab, as well as the Institute for Experiential AI, AI for Climate and Sustainability (AI4CaS), and Ryan McGranaghan, research scientist and data scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

auroop ganguly looking off to the left

Faculty

Jun 12, 2025

SDS Lab Research Featured at Congressional Testimony

A written statement on research conducted by the Sustainability and Data Sciences Laboratory at Northeastern University (SDS Lab) led by Auroop Ganguly, CEE distinguished professor, was featured at the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Border Management, Federal Workforce and Regulatory Affairs, as part of a Congressional testimony presented on June 10, 2025.

Auroop Ganguly

In the Media

Jun 09, 2025

Hazy Futures

CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly was quoted in Science’s article “Hazy Futures” for his research, published in Environmental Research Letters (ERL), which revealed that a widely used climate model downscaling method produced results statistically indistinguishable from random noise, thus having serious implications for adaptation planning. 

auroop ganguly looking off to the left

Faculty

Jun 04, 2025

Addressing the Dangers of Potentially Above Average Atlantic Hurricanes

CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly and CEE Professor Qin Chen voice opposing views on whether a new categorical system for hurricanes is necessary, as they grow stronger and intensify quicker. They also offer insight into how to prepare for a more intense and severe Atlantic hurricane season.

In the Media

Jun 04, 2025

Can AI Fight Climate Change Without Making It Worse?

CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly was featured in the Agents of Tech podcast “Can AI Fight Climate Change Without Making It Worse?,” where he discusses how AI can be a […]

Faculty

May 21, 2025

‘Dialogue of Civilizations—Climate Change in Emerging Economies’ Program

A Dialogue of Civilizations program led by CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly and civil engineering alums Ruth Linnaea Cahill, E’20, and Francisco Mendes, E’17, was featured in a live broadcast on Polar Radio in Punta Arenas, Chile.

Auroop Ganguly

Faculty

Nov 14, 2024

Will AI Ever Be Able To Predict Disasters and Save Lives?

CEE Professor Auroop Ganguly was featured in the HackerNoon article “Will AI Ever Be Able To Predict Disasters and Save Lives?“

Faculty

Oct 03, 2024

How Hurricane Helene Devastated Western North Carolina

CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly and MES/CEE Associate Professor Samuel Muñoz explain how the devastating effects of Hurricane Helene reached parts of western North Carolina, an area ordinarily unaffected by extreme weather patterns.

Graduate

Jul 24, 2024

Predicting Rainfall With Artificial Intelligence

A research model that uses AI to quickly and accurately predict weather forecasts will be tested by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The model was created by Puja Das, PhD’27, interdisciplinary engineering, who is supervised by CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly.

Faculty

Jul 19, 2024

Innovating Through Artificial Intelligence

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, state economic development and technology leaders, and other officials visited Northeastern to learn from faculty how AI can solve some of the most pressing issues in the state and the world. CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly, ECE/Khoury Distinguished Professor Jennifer Dy, and ECE Professor Taskin Padir were in attendance.

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