Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Fall 2020 Recipient – Chandan Kumar

I started my journey to my Ph.D. at Michigan Tech in the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences in Spring 2018 under the supervision of Dr. Snehamoy Chatterjee and Dr. Thomas Oommen.

The sustainable exploration of mineral resources plays a significant role in the economic development of any nation. My research aims to develop innovative spectral and machine learning methods for mineral and lithological mapping using multi-sensor datasets. The developed methods in this study should be a valuable contribution to the field of geological exploration. The part of my research was funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (grant number: 80NSSC17K0543) grant available with my guides.  

I have published three research papers from my Ph.D. research work in reputed peer-reviewed journals, including the  International Journal of Remote Sensing (Taylor and Francis) and the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation (Elsevier). I have also presented my research findings at several recognized meetings, including the AGU and AEG annual meeting in 2018 and 2019. I have also received a few awards and travel grants, such as the project proposal incentive award (Michigan Tech) in 2019 to write a research proposal, GSG travel grant in 2018 and 2019. 

I express my sincere gratitude to the graduate school for awarding me the fall 2020 finishing fellowship. Finally, I would like to thank my guides for their continuous encouragement, motivation, and support throughout my Ph.D.