Dr. Ankur Desai, PhD, CCM
Professor, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
In my Ecometeorology Lab, we study the interactions between Earth’s surface and atmosphere and how those interactions change across space and through time. We explore these interactions at all possible scales, from the genomic to the global. We are particularly interested in how plants respond to and modify weather and climate through their role in carbon and water cycles.
To do this work, we maintain a global network of flux towers organized by a global network of people. We share our data (and our models) freely and in near real-time because we believe that team science is our greatest hope for solutions to global environmental challenges, like climate change, biodiversity loss, and sustainable human development.
New members: Please read our Mentor-Mentee Compact and accompanying FAQ.
Research Associates and Visiting Scientists
Jonathan manages and engineers all aspects of operations of the Greenhouse Gas Spectroscopy lab, short-term field experiments, our long-term Ameriflux sites, the NTL LTER Mendota Buoy and flux tower, and SSEC rooftop instrumentation. Email
Bethany is a post-doctoral scientist working on projects related to scaling fluxes and hyperspectrail traits in CHEESEHEAD and on evaluating the impact of bison restoration on grasslands .LinkedIn
Xueer is a visiting international exchange student from China Agricultural University in Beijing, China and working on measurements and analysis of water, carbon and energy fluxes in agricultural ecosystems.
Ph.D. Students
Emily earned her M.S. studying flux tower advection budgets in the lab in 2024 and is currently a Ph.D. study working on micrometeorological impacts of agrivoltaics.
Kiran joined the AOS Ph.D. program in fall 2024 and is working on scaling of surface energy fluxes.
M.S. Students
Allen joined the lab in Fall 2024 as an M.S. student in the Environment and Resources program. He is conducting research on understanding forest nutrient flows based on level of anthropogenic management. [LinkedIn]
Mikki is an M.S. student in Agroecology who joined Fall 2024 to research inclusion of organic and regenerative agriculture practices in ecosystem models.
Undergraduate and Pre-College Fellows and Interns
Liz worked summer 2024 as a UW LASR research intern and rejoined summer 2025 as an REU intern working on agrivoltaics chamber fluxes and thermal imagery mapping.
Mary is a Madison Metropolitan School District Student Research Intern working in the lab summer 2025 on evapotranspiration remote sensing
Jenna is a professional M.S. summer research intern working on developing web-based data dashboards for our new Kegonsa Solar array.
Click here for a complete list of past lab members and past collaborators