Narendra Narayan Das is an Associate Professor in the departments of Biosystems & Agricultural Engineering and Civil & Environmental Engineering at the Michigan State University (MSU). He joined MSU on Nov 1st, 2020. Before joining to MSU, he worked as a Research Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology for 12 years (2008 - 2020). He was born in Bhilai, India. He received the Bachelor of Engineering degree from the National Institute of Technology, Raipur (formerly, Government Engineering College, Raipur), India, and the Master and the Ph.D. degrees from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, in 2005 and 2008, respectively.
In 2008, he joined JPL, and conducted research in hydrology and microwave remote sensing, especially for soil moisture retrievals using the combination of radiometer and radar, and applications of soil moisture for weather, agriculture, and drought. He is a Science Team (ST) member for the Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) mission. He is the Applied Science Team (AST) member of the NASA SERVIR program to implement Drought and Crop Forecast System for East Africa region and Lower Mekong Basin Countries. He is a ST member of the NASA ISRO SAR (NISAR) mission with the responsibility to produce very high-resolution global soil moisture data product. He is also a Principal Investigator (PI) of NASA Terrestrial Hydrology Program.
Education
Ph.D. in Biological and Agricultural Engineering, 2008
Texas A&M University, College Station, USA
M.S. in Biological and Agricultural Engineering, 2005
Texas A&M University, College Station, USA
B.E. in Chemical Engineering, 1994
National Institute of Technology Raipur, India
Honors and Awards
NASA Achievement Award for 2019 for exceptional service toward the NASA SMAP mission.
NASA Group Achievement Award 2017 to SMAP Science and Cal/Val Team for contribution towards SMAP Algorithm and Calibration and Validation activities.
Interagency Partnership Award 2016 from Federal Laboratory consortium for technology transfer.
NASA Group Achievement Award to GO Team for sustained excellence in expanding citizen science among students.
JPL Team Award 2016 in recognition of contribution to SMAP mission Algorithm and Science Data System.
JPL Team Award 2014 in recognition of contribution to SMAP mission Algorithm and Science Data System.
JPL Team Award 2013 in recognition of contribution to SMAP mission Cal/Val Planning Team.
JPL Team Award 2012 in recognition of contribution to SMAP mission successful NASA Algorithm Review and algorithm code delivery to JPL Science Data System.
NASA Group Achievement Award for successful pre-launch NASA SMAPVEX12 field campaign for the SMAP mission.
JPL Team Award 2012 for important contribution to the NASA SMAPVEX12 field campaign.
USGS Research Grant Recipient 2007-2008 at Texas A&M University for Water Related Research.
Outstanding Student Paper Award’ for presentation at the 2008 Fall Meeting in San Francisco.
Recipient of ‘Association of Former Students Distinguished Graduate Student Research Award’ in the Texas A&M University 2005. Awarded each year to a student at university for excellence in research.
Recipient of ‘Bill, A. and Rita L. Stout, International Graduate Student Achievement Award’ in the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department, Texas A&M University, 2004. Awarded each year to an international student for outstanding performance.
Secured Merit Position in the class of 1993 Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Raipur, India.