Who are you? Describe yourself in a few words.
I’m Amir AghaKouchak, a professor and researcher in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at UC Irvine. I’m broadly interested in climate extremes and the societal impacts these events can inflict.
How did you get involved in your research work regarding climate extremes?
The first particular event that piqued my interest in the study of extreme events occurred in 2004 while I was in Thailand. I was a master student when the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami happened, less than a day after I left the area. This singular disaster killed over two hundred thousand people over the course of a few hours. I didn’t find out until after I arrived home, but everyone was worried about the news. It was my first time thinking about extreme events and hazards, and it contributed to my decision to eventually do a PhD on the social impacts of such events.
That was my first and personal connection with extreme events. My journey towards water specialization was not a decision I made from the beginning of school. I was initially more interested in construction and building things; that’s how I started my undergraduate education. I did my first undergraduate research project on snow and the movement of glaciers with a glaciologist. I became more and more interested in the topic, and my next project dealt with rainfall intensity duration curves, and I collected and processed data. Slowly, one project after another, my interest in water and the environment took over.
What is your research about, and why is it important?
My research is about compound and cascade events. An example of these include droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires; in short, events that happen together or in a certain order because of how they influence each other. This involves understanding the driver of certain events, looking into the causes and downstream impacts, especially if a combination of events happens. No matter what hazard you look at, there are always multiple things interacting. Non-climatic events can also interact with extreme events. Drought is a top-down process that humans don’t have control over, but human decisions and development control how the water is being used locally.
What is something current that you’re working on?
I’m working on methods that can integrate climate information for infrastructure design and risk assessment. Engineering concepts are based on stationary data, while evidence in historical data and model data suggest more and higher extremes. Historically, we have methods and infrastructure design developed on the same stationary assumptions. Now that there is new data coming in, we need to modify our existing framework and design new paradigms. As new risks that develop over time, and we need to incorporate adaptive concepts. The new framework will also have opportunities for adaptation in years to come, and they have to be thought out based on what the changing future holds.
What challenges have you faced in your field, and how have you overcome them?
In research, facing challenges has been fun. Getting stuck and thinking about problems and going back and forth has been rewarding. I don’t consider it as a challenge since it’s a part of the process, and I enjoy it. However, the most challenging part of my job is saying no to deserving students who are eager to do a PhD. I’ve come across very talented students, and they belong to this environment, but I just can’t support them, because of lack of time and financial resources. Securing funding is difficult; not only do you need to have great ideas, but you also have to convince reviewers to get funding.
Any advice for any undergraduate students looking to get into research?
Talk to professors and faculty; that’s how you start the process. People are busy, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t interested. Persistence is sometimes necessary, and you’ll need to show interest by asking about open research opportunities. Some of the research projects have shorter learning curves than others. Some projects take a few weeks to get familiar with the programs used, while others can take months or even years. If you want to have a higher chance of landing a research position, you need to be strategic based on your individual abilities, and decide if you prefer hands-on field work or computational programming.
