Sonam Sherpa: ESS Welcomes Newest Faculty Member

Dr. Sonam Futi Sherpa is the newest faculty member to join the School of Environment, Society & Sustainability. Sherpa joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor in July, and her research will focus on Earth sciences from a machine learning and remote sensing perspective. We are so excited to welcome Dr. Sherpa to ESS!

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Dr. Sonam Futi Sherpa is an Earth Scientist specializing in space-borne (radar) satellite remote sensing, image analysis, and signal processing, focusing on extreme events, hydrology, and geo-hazards in the context of a changing environment, and other anthropogenic activities. Sherpa is interested in using novel computational methods, machine learning, and cutting-edge remote sensing technologies to observe Earth from space for hydrological, climatological, and hazard implications.

Sherpa was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Earth, Environment, and Planetary Sciences (DEEPS) and the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES) at Brown University. She is also a recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Earth Sciences (EAR) Postdoctoral Fellowships, 2023. Prior to Brown, Sonam earned her Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech (VT) where she focused her research on large-scale probabilistic water/flood classification and detection, development and implementation of a multi-temporal 3D algorithm to quantify 21^st-century inundation hazards due to sea level rise, and exposure utilizing big data from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Interferometric SAR (InSAR) and machine learning. Additionally, she has also worked on Gravity data (GRACE/FO) to understand the association between changes in glacier mass and climate seasonality in High Mountain Asia. At VT, she was NSF’s DRRM (Disaster Risk Resilience and Management) Fellow and IPCC’s (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Climate Sciences Fellow.

Sherpa has a Master’s in science degree from Arizona State University, School of Sustainability, and M.S. by research in Glaciology degree from Kathmandu University, Nepal. Before coming to the USA, she worked at an Intergovernmental Organization known as the ICIMOD (International Center for Integrated Mountain Development) as a Glaciologist, which worked to empower eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush Himalaya – including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.