Venkataraman “Venkat” Lakshmi, the John L. Newcomb Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Virginia, has been elected to the rank of fellow by the council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the world’s premier scientific societies.
AAAS bestows the award to members “for meritorious contribution to the advancement of science and engineering,” according to the association.
Lakshmi’s election citation reads: “For distinguished contributions to the field of hydrology, particularly for the monitoring of global water resources and hydrological extremes, including floods, droughts, landslides, permafrost thaw and wildfires.” He joins UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science faculty members Sandhya Dwarkadas and Patrick Hopkins in the newest class of AAAS fellows.
Lakshmi is an international authority on studies of hydrological extremes using remote-sensing — aerial and satellite imagery, for example — and in-place “Earth observations” to collect data and modeling to study the terrestrial water cycle and better understand weather, climate and ecology.
Venkat’s work is important to policymakers, farmers and planners around the world who must make difficult decisions based on the complexities of weather and climate.
“I am excited and thrilled to be elected to the AAAS Fellows Class of 2024,” Lakshmi said. “AAAS encourages scientific excellence that fosters inclusivity, trust and service of society. In many ways, my work is an inherent connection between science and society as it helps provide actionable information for a better quality of life.”
Lakshmi’s research encompasses catchment hydrology, or the study of how water interacts with the Earth’s drainage basins; validating and analyzing hydrology data via satellite; field experiments; land-atmosphere interactions; the vadose zone, meaning the area extending from Earth’s ground surface to the water table; and water resources.
In addition to his research, he has long been active in numerous professional societies and science advisory bodies.
“Venkat’s work is important to policymakers, farmers and planners around the world who must make difficult decisions based on the complexities of weather and climate,” said Jennifer L. West, the Saunders Family Professor of Engineering and dean of UVA Engineering. “This honor affirms his leadership in his field and the ways in which his research is a benefit to society.”
Career Highlights Role of Science Communication
Lakshmi is the current president of the Hydrology Section of the American Geophysical Union; a fellow of the Geological Society of America, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Society of Agronomy; and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
He also serves on the Water Science and Technology Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and is vice-chair of the Earth Science Advisory Committee for NASA.
Lakshmi provided leadership as program director for Hydrologic Sciences at the National Science Foundation in 2017-18. He also previously served on a National Academies panel for the Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space and as chair of the planning committee for Groundwater Recharge and Flow: Approaches and Challenges for Monitoring and Modeling Using Remotely Sensed Data workshop.
He is an editor for the Soil Science Society of America’s Vadose Zone Journal and founding editor-in-chief of Remote Sensing in Earth System Science, a publication of Springer Nature.
Throughout his career, Lakshmi has been drawn to these roles because of the importance of communicating science so it can be put to use — something he sees others doing as president of the American Geophysical Union’s Hydrology Section.
“I am so highly impressed by the membership involvement in outreach and to witness hydrological research find applications in various facets of everyday life,” he said.
He’s been a leader at UVA, too, serving from 2019 to 2022 as a senator and chair of the UVA Engineering Faculty Council and on the Promotions and Tenure Committee, which he chaired in 2021-22. He currently chairs the school’s Endowed Chair Committee.
He also is part of a community of researchers at UVA addressing environmental challenges, including as a faculty member of the Link Lab for cyber-physical systems research.
Lakshmi received his B.S. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, his master’s from the University of Iowa and his Ph.D. from Princeton University.
Before arriving at UVA in 2019, Lakshmi was on the faculty at the University of South Carolina where he served as a professor in the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, including a term as chair. During his tenure at USC, he twice was the Cox Visiting Professor at Stanford University. Prior to joining USC’s faculty in 1999, he spent four years as a research scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
In 2024-25, he was the Satish Dhawan Visiting Chair Professor at the Indian Institute of Science in India and an adjunct professor at South Korea’s Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology.
Lakshmi also is a prolific and highly cited researcher with more than 200 peer-reviewed articles. He is advising 12 Ph.D. students and has overseen 15 to completion. Graduate students are vital to research, he said, noting they are the “engines of innovation.”
“I am fortunate to have so many talented and productive people in my research group,” he said.
