Hi, I’m Geetika Chauhan from India. I grew up in Mumbai, but my hometown is in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India. I’m in my first year of Ph.D. studies in the Department of Hydrology and Hydrodynamics. My Ph.D. supervisors are Dr. Hab. Eng. Krzysztof Kochanek and Dr. Eng. Iwona Kuptel-Markiewicz. My Ph.D. topic is ‘The Uncertainty of Maximum Flow Quantiles Resulting from Measurements Imperfections’.
My journey in Geoscience began when I was in the 11th grade, and it fascinated me. I began college as a bachelor’s in Geology major and later got my master’s degree in Geology. I also have four years of working experience as a GIS analyst where I worked on different projects involving the generation of hydrological maps, groundwater analysis, and deriving the deforestation rate of wetlands using satellite imagery.
I was drawn to studying floods after seeing the horrifying damages caused by floods in my hometown that swept away entire villages and many hydropower dams. Floods are difficult to understand because of the complexity of the hydrologic system, and solid deterministic mathematical models are yet to be developed. As a result, statistical methodologies have been widely used to give relevant studies for planning hydraulic facilities and infrastructure. The goal of my Ph.D. is to develop flood models with the least uncertainty to help reduce the damages caused by floods.
I chose Poland as my study destination because of its hospitable people and the beautiful world heritage sites. The Polish saying “Gosc w dom, bog w dom” is like the Hindi saying “Atithi Devo Bhava (the guest is a god)” also the proposed research topic was something I wanted to work on. It’s been over six months in Warsaw and the academic, as well as the non-academic staff at IGF, has been helpful in not only the academic part but also in dealing with day-to-day activity.
Besides my academy profile, I’m a three-time state-level basketball and one-time state-level Dodge ballplayer. I also like to go on long bicycle rides.
I’m looking forward to doing good scientific work and eating a lot of Pączki, Naleśniki, and Pierogi.