Research
sixteen years of work across plasma physics, optoelectronics, root geophysics, crop modelling, Earth observation and scientific AI. The subjects look unrelated; the method is much the same in each case — build a model of the system, understand how the measurements arise, and infer what you can from them.
Grouped below by the question each set of projects was trying to answer.
Earth Observation & Hydrology
Satellite radar and passive microwave turned into soil moisture you can actually use — retrieval, sensor fusion and decade-scale records over semi-arid monsoon catchments.
An information-theoretic account of when soil-texture-specific calibration of SAR soil moisture retrieval helps and when it cannot, tested on 677 paired observations across five soil textures. Published in Remote Sensing Letters.
Fused Sentinel-1 SAR with SMAP-400m passive microwave to bridge the systematic monsoon data gap in passive retrievals, producing a 129-month continuous soil moisture record (2016–2026) for a 5400-ha watershed in Karnataka. Under review.
Sentinel-1-based diagnostic evaluating whether watershed interventions produce a measurable dry-season surface moisture advantage over untreated neighbouring land, applied across multiple watersheds in North Karnataka over two successive dry seasons.
A decade-long, 15-minute resolution record of soil moisture, temperature, and electrical conductivity from the Berambadi agricultural catchment, Karnataka — covering 944 rainfall events across wet, drought, and recovery years. Under review.
Independent analysis testing whether block-scale Sentinel-2 peak-NDVI trends track CGWB groundwater extraction gradients across six over-exploited blocks in Tiruvannamalai district, Tamil Nadu. Found a borderline-significant positive association (r=0.814, p=0.049).
Environmental Sensing & Inverse Problems
Coupled hydro-geophysical models linking root architecture, water uptake and electrical signature, from virtual rhizotrons to field-scale resistivity surveys.
Four-year investigation into non-invasive geo-electrical imaging of plant roots, producing the first coupled hydro-geophysical framework linking root architecture, water uptake, and electrical signatures. 4 papers, 135+ citations.
First mechanistic model to couple root water uptake (R-SWMS) with 3D electrical simulations (PyGIMLi), quantifying how roots distort standard petrophysical relations. Published in Vadose Zone Journal, 2019.
Demonstrated that electrical anisotropy encodes root architecture — species discrimination at 95% accuracy using k-NN on electrical signatures alone. First mechanistic proof of 3D structural information in geoelectrical data.
Multi-season ERT field campaign across 6 grassland species under controlled water deficit. Successfully discriminated species by their electrical-hydraulic fingerprints. Published in Plant and Soil, 2020.
Comprehensive synthesis of geoelectrical methods for soil-root studies, with original lab measurements of root electrical properties. 71 citations in Vadose Zone Journal — the most-cited paper of the PhD.
Modular, reproducible framework for root-soil electrical modeling: from root architecture generation (C-Rootbox) through water uptake (R-SWMS) to 3D FEM electrical simulation (PyGIMLi/Gmsh).
Agricultural Modelling & Digital Twins
Making independently developed scientific codes talk to each other — process-based crop models coupled to functional-structural root models, packaged so others can run them.
Coupled 1D crop models (C/C++) with 3D functional-structural plant models (Fortran/CPlantBox) for the PhenoRob project, enabling realistic soil-plant-atmosphere simulation.
Containerized CPlantBox and DuMuX-ROSI environments for plant modeling research, including VNC-enabled 3D visualization. Available on DockerHub.
Hugo-based documentation platform for PhenoRob agricultural modeling tools, with interactive guides, scientific visualizations, and custom SCSS/JavaScript.
Computational Physics
Particle-in-cell plasma simulation, Maxwell-Bloch solvers for light-matter interaction, and the laboratory optics that preceded both.
Extended a 2D electrostatic particle-in-cell code into a full 3D electromagnetic plasma simulation framework. 3 papers in Physics of Plasmas, 69 citations.
FORTRAN solver for exciton-polariton propagation in semiconductors using coupled Maxwell-Bloch equations, with 4th-order Runge-Kutta temporal integration.
Experimental study of laser-induced photodegradation of Rhodamine 6G — cleanroom operations, AFM, and high-value laser systems. GPA 4.0/4.0.
Scientific AI
Writing hard scientific problems, then testing how frontier AI systems handle them — including models before public release.
Designing scientific benchmarks and test environments that separate genuine derivation from pattern matching, and probing where frontier models fail on physical and mathematical reasoning.
Mercor Intelligence · Turing
Designing scientific benchmarks and test environments that separate genuine derivation from pattern matching, and probing where frontier models fail on physical and mathematical reasoning.
Independent
Independent analysis testing whether block-scale Sentinel-2 peak-NDVI trends track CGWB groundwater extraction gradients across six over-exploited blocks in Tiruvannamalai district, Tamil Nadu. Found a borderline-significant positive association (r=0.814, p=0.049).
Indian Institute of Science
Fused Sentinel-1 SAR with SMAP-400m passive microwave to bridge the systematic monsoon data gap in passive retrievals, producing a 129-month continuous soil moisture record (2016–2026) for a 5400-ha watershed in Karnataka. Under review.
Indian Institute of Science
Sentinel-1-based diagnostic evaluating whether watershed interventions produce a measurable dry-season surface moisture advantage over untreated neighbouring land, applied across multiple watersheds in North Karnataka over two successive dry seasons.
Indian Institute of Science
A decade-long, 15-minute resolution record of soil moisture, temperature, and electrical conductivity from the Berambadi agricultural catchment, Karnataka — covering 944 rainfall events across wet, drought, and recovery years. Under review.
Indian Institute of Science
An information-theoretic account of when soil-texture-specific calibration of SAR soil moisture retrieval helps and when it cannot, tested on 677 paired observations across five soil textures. Published in Remote Sensing Letters.
Forschungszentrum Jülich
Containerized CPlantBox and DuMuX-ROSI environments for plant modeling research, including VNC-enabled 3D visualization. Available on DockerHub.
Forschungszentrum Jülich
Coupled 1D crop models (C/C++) with 3D functional-structural plant models (Fortran/CPlantBox) for the PhenoRob project, enabling realistic soil-plant-atmosphere simulation.
Forschungszentrum Jülich
Hugo-based documentation platform for PhenoRob agricultural modeling tools, with interactive guides, scientific visualizations, and custom SCSS/JavaScript.
UCLouvain — PhD Research
Demonstrated that electrical anisotropy encodes root architecture — species discrimination at 95% accuracy using k-NN on electrical signatures alone. First mechanistic proof of 3D structural information in geoelectrical data.
UCLouvain — PhD Research
Multi-season ERT field campaign across 6 grassland species under controlled water deficit. Successfully discriminated species by their electrical-hydraulic fingerprints. Published in Plant and Soil, 2020.
UCLouvain — PhD Research
First mechanistic model to couple root water uptake (R-SWMS) with 3D electrical simulations (PyGIMLi), quantifying how roots distort standard petrophysical relations. Published in Vadose Zone Journal, 2019.
UCLouvain — PhD Research
Four-year investigation into non-invasive geo-electrical imaging of plant roots, producing the first coupled hydro-geophysical framework linking root architecture, water uptake, and electrical signatures. 4 papers, 135+ citations.
UCLouvain — PhD Research
Comprehensive synthesis of geoelectrical methods for soil-root studies, with original lab measurements of root electrical properties. 71 citations in Vadose Zone Journal — the most-cited paper of the PhD.
UCLouvain — PhD Research
Modular, reproducible framework for root-soil electrical modeling: from root architecture generation (C-Rootbox) through water uptake (R-SWMS) to 3D FEM electrical simulation (PyGIMLi/Gmsh).
Earlier Research
FORTRAN solver for exciton-polariton propagation in semiconductors using coupled Maxwell-Bloch equations, with 4th-order Runge-Kutta temporal integration.
Earlier Research
Experimental study of laser-induced photodegradation of Rhodamine 6G — cleanroom operations, AFM, and high-value laser systems. GPA 4.0/4.0.
Earlier Research
Extended a 2D electrostatic particle-in-cell code into a full 3D electromagnetic plasma simulation framework. 3 papers in Physics of Plasmas, 69 citations.
