Curriculum Vit

Agnit Mukhopadhyay
Climate & Space Sciences Department, University of Michigan
2477, Hayward Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Phone: (734)-881-0625
Email: agnitm@umich.edu

Education

University of Michigan
Doctor of Philosophy (Pre-Candidate) in Space Sciences 2017 - Present
Topic: Magnetospheric & Ionospheric Physics
Advisors: Daniel T. Welling, Michael Liemohn
Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering 2016 - 2017
Specialization: Gas Dynamics

Punjab Engineering College 2012 - 2016

Bachelor of Technology in Aerospace Engineering

Honours, Fellowships & Awards

NASA CCMC Student Research Contest Winner Winter 2017
1st place in the Community Coordinated Modeling Contest for the Project Statistical
Comparison of the Magnetopause Distance and CPCP for Global MHD Models.

Departmental Silver Medal Summer 2016

Awarded for outstanding final year dissertation at Punjab Engineering College. Equivalent
to summa cum laude.

Institute Colour Spring 2016

Awarded to top 3 - 5 students at Punjab Engineering College for exemplary contributions
to the study of aerospace and astronomical physics in the institution.

Certificate of Appreciation 2014, 15

Awarded for research and presentation of aerospace sciences in institution.

ICICI Trinity Award Certificate of Appreciation 2014

Gold Medallist 2010

Awarded for academic distinction in Grade X examinations (CBSE)

RANK State & District Awards 2008

Awarded for meritorious distinction in aviation and space sciences. Invited to an ambas-
sadorial visit of the Republic of Singapore.

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Travel Grants

CEDAR Conference Travel Grant Summer 2017

Awarded a student travel grant to attend the Coupling, Energetics and Dynamics of Atmo-
spheric Regions (CEDAR) Conference at Keystone, Colorado

SHINE Conference Travel Grant Summer 2017

Awarded a student travel grant to attend the Solar Heliospheric & Interplanetary Environ-
ment (SHINE) Conference at Quebec, Canada.

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Publications
Mukhopadhyay, A., Welling, D. T., (2017) Statistical Comparisons of Cross Polar Cap Potential estimated
by Global MHD Models, in progress.

Mukhopadhyay, A., van der Holst, B., Landi, E., (2017) Numerical Modeling of the Lower Corona during the
Total Solar Eclipses, in progress.

Mukhopadhyay, A., (2016) Space Debris Charging and Control by Electrodynamics, Senior Thesis.

Mukhopadhyay, A., (2015) Thermal Response Study of Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) of a Space Cap-
sule during atmospheric Re-entry, Junior Thesis.

Sharma, N., Mukhopadhyay, A., Sharma, V., Mukund, M. and Pant, R. S., (2014) Design and Field Trials
of Payload Recovery Device for Tethered Aerostats, Innovative Design, Analysis and Development Practices in
Aerospace and Automotive Engineering, 79 - 84. Springer International Publications AG, ISBN:978-81-322-1870-8
(Print) 978-81-322-1871-5 (Online).

Oral & Poster Presentations

Mukhopadhyay, A., Welling, D. T., Statistical Comparison of Performance of Global MHD Models. CEDAR
2017, Keystone, CO. Awarded CCMC Student Contest Award.

Mukhopadhyay, A., On the Performance of Magnetohydrodynamic Models in the Estimation of Magnetopause

Locations. Michigan Geophysical Union Symposium 2017, Ann Arbor, MI.

Mukhopadhyay, A., Mathpal, R. K., Thermal Response Study of Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) of a
Space Capsule during atmospheric Re-entry. Engineers Day Symposium 2015, Chandigarh, India. Invited
Talk.

Gupta, N., Kiran, A., Shivakumar, R. H., Mukhopadhyay, A., A Study of Design and Combustion of a Home-
made Rocket Motor, National Conference on Advancements and Futuristic Trends in Aerospace Engineering
(AFTAE 2015), Sponsored by TEQIP-II and TBRL, DRDO. 2015 , Chandigarh, India.

Mukhopadhyay, A., Pant, R. S., Use of Vehicle Sketch Pad in conceptual design of amphibious aircraft. IIT
Bombay Symposium 2014, Mumbai, India. Invited Talk.

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Research Experience
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 2017 - Present
Mentor: Dr. Daniel Welling, Prof. Michael Liemohn, Prof Xianzhe Jia Summer 2017
Validated the Ridley Ionosphere Model used in the Space Weather Modeling Framework
(SWMF) along with two other MHD models by initially comparing cross polar cap potential
data with AMIE and SuperDARN radar observations, and then approaching changes in
ionospheric conductance by analyzing previous work and studying the midlatitude current
systems.

Mentor: Prof. Enrico Landi, Dr. Bart van der Holst Winter, Summer 2017
Simulated solar wind properties and multi-wavelength images using the SWMFs Alfven
Wave Solar MHD Model (AWSoM) to study the structure of the lower solar corona by com-
parison with observational data from OMNI, LASCO C2/C3, STEREO/EUVI, SDO/AIA
satellites and white-light observations during the total solar eclipse of August 1, 2008 and
July 11, 2010.

Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh 2014 - 2016

Mentor: Prof. Sanjeev Kumar, Prof. K. L. Manchanda
Studied the effect of spacecraft charging using the work of Lohmeyer et al [2016] over GSAT
satellites for differing solar wind parameters.

Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore Summer 2015

Mentor: Prof. Banibrata Mukhopadhyay
Analyzed Bondi Flow over Einsteinian and Lovelock gravitational potentials and analyzed
basic gas dynamics over a black hole, using a 4th order Runge Kutta solver to solve for a
pseudo-Newtonian potential.

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur Fall 2015

Mentor: Prof. Rakesh Kumar Mathpal
Analyzed the heat conduction along the flight path of a re-entry capsule, and used finite
difference modeling to simulate changes in the thermal protection systems for a non-ablative
and ablative case. Developed a novel algorithm to input ASCII file of a grid constructed in
GAMBIT onto C++ programme files.

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras Summer 2014

Mentor: Prof. Sunetra Sarkar
Studied nonlinear aerodynamics in flight of bats and simulated appearance of leading and
trailing edge vortices using FLUENT.

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay Summer 2013

Mentor: Prof. R. S. Pant
Designed a payload recovery device for tethered aerostats and implemented using indoor
and outdoor trials on aerostats of various sizes. Led to the development of an automated
version for airships. Also studied design of amphibious aircraft for littoral warfare.

Technical Skills
Languages C/C++, Python, MATLAB, FORTRAN 90
Operating Systems Linux, Windows, Mac
Software IDL, TecPlot, ANSYS, CATIA, Gambit, FLUENT, Microsoft Office, LATEX

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Teaching Experience
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Winter 2017
Mentor: Prof. Mirko Gamba
Grader for AE 225 - Introduction to Gas Dynamics.

Punjab Engineering College

Mentor: Prof. T. K. Jindal Winter 2016
Teaching Assistant for AE 215 - Aircraft Propulsion and AE 217 - Aircraft Propulsion and
Materials Lab

Mentor: Prof. T. K. Jindal Fall 2015

Teaching Assistant for AE 311 - Advanced Aerodynamics and AE 316 - Aerodynamics Lab

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay Winter 2015

Mentor: Prof. R. S. Pant
Instructional Aide for the Aircraft Design and LTA Systems Lab.

References

Available, if requested.