People

The Urban Planet Lab is its people. We bring together researchers at all career stages united by their interest in urban science and a passion for climate adaptation.

Faculty

Principal Investigator

Anamika Shreevastava

Assistant Professor

Anamika Shreevastava is an Assistant Professor at New York University, jointly appointed in the Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, where she founds and directs the Urban Planet Lab. Her research examines how growing cities and a changing climate interact as two complex systems, with extreme urban heat as a central problem—asking where heat concentrates within cities, who bears its heaviest burden, and how we can design cooler, more equitable places. To study this, she combines complexity science, high-resolution urban climate modeling, and thermal remote sensing from the ground to space.

Email LinkedIn Scholar

PhD Students

Quentin Dehaene

PhD Candidate

Quentin Dehaene is a PhD candidate in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. His research focuses on urban heat, particularly the utilisation of remote sensing to monitor the extreme heat events in cities and to inform on targeted heat adaptation policies. He obtained his MSc in Aerospace Engineering from ISAE-SUPAERO. He previously was a research engineer at the National Office for Aerospace Studies and Research and a visiting student researcher at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Isabela Burattini Freire

PhD candidate

Isabela is a Ph.D. candidate in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department, pursuing the doctoral track at the Center for Urban Science + Progress. She has an interdisciplinary background in hydrology, flood risk management, and climate modeling. Isabela holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and a master’s degree in Hydraulic Engineering from the Dresden University of Technology (Germany). Using complexity science, Isabela examines how urban form and unequal adaptive capacities jointly shape inequalities in how urban heat is perceived across cities. She is particularly interested in applying her research to underexplored urban contexts, particularly in the Global South.

John Ward

PhD Candidate

John is a PhD student with industry experience in XR, spatial AI, remote sensing, and decision science. He holds a master's degree in data science from Harvard University, where his research was in risk optimization in dynamic systems, and a bachelor's degree in computer science from NYU. His research interests include how embodied agents model and operate within urban environments.

Website Email LinkedIn

Research Assistants

Jerry Zhao

MS Student

I am currently pursuing a master’s degree in Urban Data Science at the Center for Urban Science and Progress, NYU Tandon. I received my bachelor’s degree in Physics after studying at Capital Normal University and University College Dublin. My current academic focus includes data processing and analysis, spatial data analysis, and applying data science methods to practical challenges in industry and cities. Outside of my studies, I enjoy traveling and sports, and I also spend time exploring the latest developments in AI technologies.

Olivia Baker

Undergraduate Student

Olivia is a senior at NYU studying chemistry. Originally from NYC, Olivia very interested in making the city more sustainable and habitable for all demographics, and has a great passion for climate remediation using a chemical and technological perspective. In her free time, she enjoys any kind of physical activity, like climbing or running, exploring new regions of the US and world, and trying new recipes.

Email LinkedIn

Shan Kanwar

Undergraduate Student

Shan is an undergraduate Mechanical Engineering student at NYU Tandon. He is interested in contributing to research that uses geospatial analysis, remote sensing, and 3D building data to study urban heat and the built environment. He is particularly interested in how the everyday design and operation of cities can create overlooked greenhouse gas impacts, and how those impacts compare with more commonly studied sources of emissions.

Aarav Desai

High School Student intern

Aarav is a High School student working with Dr. Shreevastava to understand how the urban tree canopy and land cover characteristics relate to heat-related emergency department visits in the greater Los Angeles area. His research initiative, THRIVE (Tactical Heat-Health Risk Vulnerability Explorer), uses machine learning to model intra-urban heat vulnerability across LA and San Bernardino counties. He is broadly interested in remote sensing, climate-health intersections, and how data science can support equitable public health responses to extreme heat.

Website

Lab Collaborators

Cheolhee Yoo

Collaborator and Frequent Visitor

Cheolhee Yoo is a JPL Postdoctoral Fellow working with the Urban Planet Lab to understand how densification versus expansion in India contribute to urban heat intensification over decades. He is now an Assistant Professor at Busan National University.

Website Email

Alumni

Shu YangUI Designer/Website Builder

Shu (Aspen) Yang is an Urban Data Scientist and Machine Learning Engineer currently pursuing her M.S. at New York University's Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP). With a unique interdisciplinary background spanning graphic design and advanced spatial analytics, Aspen is dedicated to building scalable AI pipelines that drive actionable and equitable urban insights.