Welcome to my page!

I am an environmental and water resources engineer by training with varied research interests in tropical hydrometeorology, environmental/water systems modelling, and remote sensing data applications. I actively partake in interdisciplinary research and am a fan of open data and models.

“Water is sometimes sharp and sometimes strong, sometimes acid and sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet and sometimes thick or thin, sometimes it is seen bringing hurt or pestilence, sometime health-giving, sometimes poisonous. It suffers change into as many natures as are the different places through which it passes. And as the mirror changes with the colour of its subject, so it alters with the nature of the place, becoming noisome, laxative, astringent, sulfurous, salty, incarnadined, mournful, raging, angry, red, yellow, green, black, blue, greasy, fat or slim. Sometimes it starts a conflagration, sometimes it extinguishes one; is warm and is cold, carries away or sets down, hollows out or builds up, tears or establishes, fills or empties, raises itself or burrows down, speeds or is still; is the cause at times of life or death, or increase or privation, nourishes at times and at others does the contrary; at times has a tang, at times is without savor, sometimes submerging the valleys with great floods. In time and with water, everything changes”

Leonardo da Vinci, 1513

Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Hydrology. Imperial College, London, UK. June 2014. Thesis: The hydrology of the Peruvian Amazon River and its sensitivity to climate change.

Master of Science, Environmental Engineering. Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA. June 2007

Bachelor of Science, Environmental Engineering. Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA. June 2007. Award: Jimmie E. Quon Memorial Award for Environmental Engineering

Work Experience

Associate Professor

Universiti Putra Malaysia, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Jun 2014 – Present

Active projects

As Principal Investigator:

• Understanding and managing the risk of water-related diseases under hydrometeorological extremes. Funded jointly by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE).
• Quantifying threats to food (rice) security in Malaysia under climate change and mitigation using a weather-based risk approach (funded by MOHE).

As Co-Investigator:

• Flood impacts across scales- informing models of flood exposure and vulnerability via an integrated multi-scale approach (funded by UK-NERC & MOHE)
• Impacts of weather and climate extremes under global warming of 1.5°C and 2.0°C on water balance in the Kelantan and Muda River Basins (funded by MOHE).

Research Associate (Project Manager)

Imperial College London, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Feb 2014 – Jan 2016

• Project: Adaptive governance of mountain ecosystem services for poverty alleviation enabled by environmental virtual observatories. Funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council grant NE-K010239-1

PhD student

Imperial College London, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Oct 2010 – Jan 2014

• Project: The hydrology of the Peruvian Amazon River and its Sensitivity to Climate Change. Funded by the Ministry of Education Malaysia and the UK Natural Environment Research Council grant NE/I004017/1

Research Intern

Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, Department of Earth Sciences

Jul 2006 – Sep 2006

• Project: Daniela Sager, PhD, Solution and Transportation Processes of Soluble Salts in Mono-Landfills for Waste Incineration Residues. Funded by the Research in Engineering and Science Program, German Academic Exchange Service

Non-research work experience

Water Resources/Environmental Engineer/Project Manager

Baxter and Woodman, Inc. Consulting Engineers, Crystal Lake, Illinois, USA

Sep 2007 – May 2009

Lab Assistant

Environmental Microbiology Lab, Northwestern University

Sep 2006 -Jun 2007

Smart Classroom and Videoconferencing Student Consultant

Academic Technologies, Northwestern University Information Technology

Nov 2005 – Jun 2007