About Me
I am a first-year PhD student in the Climate Dynamics program offered by the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. At UT, I am part of the TExUS lab, working under the guidance of Prof. Dev Niyogi. Prior to joining UT, I conducted research on the decadal variability of monsoons at the Indian Institute of Science, where I was advised by Prof. Jayaraman Srinivasan. My research interests include the physics of monsoons, the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), and tropical climate, especially in the context of climate change. Currently, my PhD work explores Atmospheric Rivers and their dynamics in the context of land-atmospheric interactions.
I’m always excited to connect with fellow climate scientists! If you have questions about my work or ideas for collaboration, don’t hesitate to reach out at rakshith@utexas.edu.News
- March 2025 I attended the WMO workshop on monsoons at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune. There, I presented a poster titled "Understanding the Decadal Variability of the Indian Summer Monsoon in the Future: A Diagnostic Modeling Approach" and won the best poster award!
- January 2025 I presented my work on Sahel rainfall variability at the American Meteorological Society's (AMS) annual meeting! Read the abstract here.
- August 2024 I joined the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UT Austin for my PhD.
- July 2024 I gave a talk on my work at the Divecha Centre for Climate Change as part of their "Monsoon Cafe" series. View the recording here.
- April 2024 I defended my master's thesis! The full thesis can be read here.
- March 2024 Our paper on Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall (ISMR) is published in Environmental Research Communications! We discuss the mechanisms and factors that ensure ISMR does not increase as rapidly as water vapor does with warming.
- May 2023 I received the Indian Academy of Sciences IASc-INSA-NASI fellowship to carry out research at the Indian Institute of Science. I will be working with Prof. Jayaraman Srinivasan and Prof. Arindam Chakraborty at the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.