I received my B.Tech. degree in Chemical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Srinagar, Kashmir in 2012 and my M.S. degree in Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering from the Hamburg University of Technology TUHH in 2016. During my master’s I specialized in environmental process engineering with the aim of pursuing doctoral research in the field. My PhD research was based on the themes of agricultural environmental sciences and agroecological engineering. I was awarded my PhD in 2020. The doctoral research focused on cropping systems based on agroecological principles that contribute to sustainable agriculture, water conservation and soil regeneration. During my PhD, I performed lab and field scale experiments in rice farming, which led to the development of an innovative cropping system, iRice, that contributes to improving agricultural productivity, fostering better soil health, and reducing the environmental impact of rice faming. During my PhD and postdoctoral research (2020-2022) at the Institute for Wastewater Management and Water Protection, I led interdisciplinary projects on the application of artificial intelligence and digitalization for agricultural sustainability and water security. This included the development of the prototype of an autonomous selective weeding robot for farming based on artificial intelligence and image identification. I currently lead a group (Environmental Robotics TUHH) of three researchers working on this research project. Another project involved the development of a decision support system for decentralized drinking water system in rural areas.

I joined the Institute of Geo-Hydroinformatics in 2022 as a postdoctoral research associate. My research focuses on solutions to soil-related challenges like degradation, salinization, and loss of productivity. The solutions aim at contributing to the diverse yet interconnected targets of food security, water security, and climate change mitigation. I will be working on a Hamburg Open Online University project aimed at building a wider audience for soil-related challenges through the development of e-learning elements.