Anamika Shreevastava

Dr. Anamika Shreevastava is an incoming Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) and the Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP). Her research focuses on the complex interplay between cities and extreme weather, with a particular emphasis on the emergence and impacts of extreme heat in urban environments worldwide. She specializes in numerical weather modeling, remote sensing, and complex systems science.

Dr. Shreevastava pioneered the concept of "fractal intra-urban heat islets" during her PhD and characterized the spatial heterogeneity of urban heat islands. She demonstrated that the heat islets exhibit a common fractal structure across diverse cities, laying the groundwork for globally adaptive models of heat emergence. Her postdoctoral work at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech advanced thermal remote sensing and urban microclimate monitoring, contributing to innovative sensing technologies and deepening the understanding of how extreme heat disproportionately affects the urban poor and historically marginalized communities in Los Angeles. Her work is supported by grants from various NASA programs and has been published in leading journals, including Nature Communications, Physical Review E, Environmental Research Letters, and the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. Committed to translating research into practical climate adaptation solutions, Dr. Shreevastava has served as a science ambassador and member of applied science teams at NASA JPL by actively working with various private and public institutions in the state of California to devise cooling solutions for urban neighborhoods.

For Prospective Students:

I am launching a research group focused on "urban resilience in a changing climate." Our work will be driven by critical and socially relevant questions such as: How can cities better prepare for climate extremes? Can innovative urban design mitigate extreme heat? What sustainable growth strategies can benefit rapidly developing cities? Join us at CUSP at NYU Tandon, where we use New York City's diverse and dense urban microclimates as a living laboratory for pioneering research applications.