Profile
Ranjini Swaminathan
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About Me:
I am a research scientist who uses computer science to solve problems in climate science so we can understand better how the Earth system works and what our future climate will be like.
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Read more
I work at the University of Reading in the Department of Meteorology. However, I did not study meteorology at all! My undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees are in Computer Science. I used to work on creating computer science algorithms to do different things – recognize objects in pictures, have humans and robots talk to each other and understand speech in audio and videos. Now, I write similar computer science algorithms to understand the earth’s climate. I have been hopping all over the world living in different places from India to the USA to all the way across the earth in New Zealand and then back across to the northern hemisphere in England and then even further north to Scotland which is where I live now! My pronouns are she/her.
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My pronouns are:
she/her
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How does my work involve computers?:
I am now working on a project that tries to answers many questions like these — is the earth getting warmer? how fast is it getting warmer? what will happen to different parts of the planet as it gets warmer? what if we do things to slow down the warming? As you can see these are very interesting things to try and answer and some of these answers may help us find ways to better protect our planet for the future.
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My Work:
I work with climate scientists to understand and model the earth better. We work together to build computer models of the earth with atmosphere, land, oceans, humans and animals so we can understand our planet better!
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My Typical Day:
A typical day at work for me is mostly writing computer programs that produce numbers or pictures(!), reading research papers and books, talking to other scientists and doing math!
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I would donate it to start a student environment club in a school in my area.
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Education:
I did my schooling and college in India. In high school when given a choice I picked Biology over Computer Science. However I eventually got my Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Madras in India. I then went to study in the USA and got a Master’s and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Arizona.
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Work History:
Research Assistant in Geosciences — teaching assistant and a student lecturer — camp organizer of a computing camp for middle school students — recording and archiving lectures in my department — teaching computer science classes at a university and research in robotics and climate science.
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Current Job:
Research Scientist in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading and member of the core team that develops the UK’s Earth System Model which is a climate model.
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Employer:
University of Reading
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
curious, friendly, cautious
What did you want to be after you left school?
Scientist
Were you ever in trouble at school?
For day dreaming!
Who is your favourite singer or band?
ABBA
What's your favourite food?
Chocolate ice cream
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
I would want to visit Antarctica. I would want to travel on the Trans -Siberian railway across Europe and Asia! I would want to fly(!!!)
Tell us a joke.
Why did the two 4s skip lunch? They already 8!
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