Biography
Dr. S. Venkadesh obtained M.Sc and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural Meteorology from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in 2014 and 2019. Presently, Dr. Venkadesh works as a project scientist II in Weather & Climate Services – Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (Agro Meteorological Advisory Services) at the India Meteorological Department, New Delhi. Prior to this role, Dr. Venkadesh served as a project engineer at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, working on a DST-SERB-funded project. In recognition of academic excellence, Dr. Venkadesh was awarded the American Geophysical Union Travel grants award in 2020.
Participation in international conferences has enriched Dr. Venkadesh's professional journey, including attendance at the United Nations/Ghana/PSIPW - 5th International conference on the use of space technology for water resources management in Ghana in May 2022 and the India-UK water center (IUKWC) Advancing Drought Monitoring, Prediction, and Management Capabilities workshop in 2018 at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom.
Dr. Venkadesh's experience includes teaching and research in agrometeorology, climate change, geoinformatics, and hydrometeorology. Notable contributions include analysis of drip-based irrigation using automatic weather sensor and crop models for crop water requirement estimation, particularly for short-duration varieties like vegetable crops.
Research interests primarily revolve around analyzing extreme weather events such as drought and flood monitoring using remote sensing techniques and agricultural and meteorological indices (NDVI, NDWI, SPI, and Rainfall deviation) across Tamil Nadu. Additionally, Dr. Venkadesh focuses on validating satellite-based rainfall products (GPM IMERG, TRMM, CHIRPS, and PERSIANN) for alternative options to observed rain-gauge measurements, aiding in assessing meteorological and agricultural drought using spectral vegetation indices. Present efforts are directed towards leveraging space-based technologies to observe the impact of terminal heat stress on wheat crops across major growing areas in India.
