Shiv Priyam Raghuraman

Updates: I am currently recruiting undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdocs who are interested in climate science and atmospheric physics. See below for details.

Research Statement: How Earth gains and loses energy is key to its habitability because perturbations to the planetary radiation balance alters the entire climate system. Clouds, aerosols, greenhouse gases, land, ocean, and ice, all interact with radiation. Therefore, changes in these constituents manifest as radiative changes at the top-of-the-atmosphere observable from space. We now not only have continuous satellite observations, but also climate models that represent the Earth system better than ever before. My research program takes full advantage of this unprecedented and timely opportunity to provide physical mechanisms and theories that explain how these radiative changes cause Earth to accumulate heat. Clouds are central to Earth’s heat budget as they cover two-thirds of the planet. My research not only provides a process-based understanding of how radiation responds to clouds, but also how clouds respond to surface warming, leading to a holistic understanding of the feedback loop. 

Brief bio: I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Climate, Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences (CliMAS) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Prior to joining UIUC in 2024, I was briefly a postdoc at the University of Miami. I was a postdoc in the Advanced Study Program at the National Center for Atmospheric Research from 2021-2023. I completed my PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences in 2021 at Princeton University. I completed my B.S. in Mathematics and a minor in Physics in 2016 from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. 

Openings: I am recruiting undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdocs who are interested in climate science and atmospheric physics. Topics of interest include climate change, global warming, climate variability, radiative forcing, climate feedbacks, radiative transfer, clouds, climate modeling, and satellite observations. 

Undergraduate students: Please reach out to me or drop by my office in NHB. No prior research experience is required.
Climate change projections project: How much more global warming are we in for in the future? How will Earth's energy balance change as we add more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere? In what ways will Earth stabilize or destabilize itself in response? 

Graduate students: To start in Fall 2025, the deadline to apply is January 5, 2025. The ideal candidate would have a mathematical inclination toward unraveling the unknowns of climate science and/or a background in mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science, engineering, or related quantitative fields. 

Postdocs: I am happy to be a sponsor/host/mentor through the following postdoctoral fellowships: NOAA Climate & Global Change, NSF Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, and Schmidt Science Fellows.

Please feel free me to email me with any questions at sraghur2@illinois.edu.