Prakhar Misra

Prakhar Misra is an interdisciplinary environmental researcher who uses geospatial technologies, for studying human-atmosphere interaction in urban and rural areas. More specifically, he uses satellite Earth Observation/Remote Sensing for quantifying impact of socio-economic development and land-use change on emission inventories and air quality, and corresponding human health impacts. He is currently working on understanding crop-residue burning in Punjab, India along with public health and social economics experts.

Prakhar got a M.Tech.-B.Tech. in Civil Engineering in IIT Kanpur (2013) in designing an algorithm for segmentation assisted classification of polarimetric SAR imagery. He was working as a Consultant for in the Banking sector when he realized that environmental studies were more exciting and socially relevant. So he did a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from University of Tokyo (2018), focusing on Simulation Modelling (ABM/Predictive/Economic modelling) the growth of anthropogenic air pollutant due to socio-economic development in Indian cities.

Since then he has worked as a Project Assistant Professor at The University of Tokyo, Visiting Lecturer at Seoul national University and now a researcher at Research Institute of Humanity and Nature, Kyoto.

Dr Misra has held several citizen science workshops to popularize mapping air quality  and personal exposure mapping using low-cost air quality sensors and social sensing. He has also been a Google Earth Engine evangelist in several Asian countries. He is a big supporter for walkable cities and is enthusiastic about open-source data processing platforms, photography and cycling. You can learn more at https://mprakhar.github.io/.