About
Mohammad Afzal Shadab
Future Faculty in Physical Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton University
- (2024–) Future Faculty in Physical Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow,
Princeton University (with Reed Maxwell)
- (2024) M.S. and Ph.D. Student in Computational Science, Engineering and Mathematics,
University of Texas at Austin (with Marc Hesse)
- (2018–9) Visiting Graduate Student,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (with Irmgard Bischofberger)
- (2018) M.Phil. Mechanical Engineering,
Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (with Kun Xu)
- (2016) B.Tech. Mechanical Engineering
Aligarh Muslim University, India
Honors and Awards
- Princeton University Future Faculty in the Physical Sciences Fellowship (2024–2027)
- Polar Science Early Career Community Office Polar Partnership Networking Award (2025–2026)
- AGU Cryosphere Innovation Award / Flash Freeze Competition Winner (2023)
- UT Austin Graduate School Fellowships (2021–2022, Spring 2024, Summer 2024)
- Reviewing Recognitions by Geophysical Research Letters and Journal of Geophysical Research (2024)
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Graduate Fellowship ($9,000) to work with Dr. Surendra Adhikari (April–June 2022)
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Graduate Fellowship to work with Dr. Steven Vance (Summer 2023)
- European Space Agency Early Career Bursary Award (2023)
- Purdue Climate Scholarship ($4,000), Purdue University and Office of Naval Research (2022)
- Nominated for MIT–Houston Energy Innovation Fellowship
- Received UT Austin Cactus Standout Award for academic excellence and leadership contributions
- Received the Lunar and Planetary Career Development Award ($1,000) for outstanding first–authored Abstract #1775 at LPSC (2022)
- Received travel grant ($1,000) from the Center for Planetary Systems Habitability to attend LPSC 2022
- Student Research Award in Planetary Habitability ($16,425), Center for Planetary Systems Habitability at UT Austin (2022)
- Awarded Outstanding Student Presentation Award ($175) for Fluid Infiltration in Unsaturated Porous Medium with The Development of a Saturated Region (H52D–10) at AGU Fall Meeting 2021
- Qualified the three Ph.D. candidacy exams in Applied Mathematics, Scientific Computations, and Mathematical Modeling
- Selected as a Geoscience Ambassador, Jackson School of Geosciences, UT Austin (2021)
- Received SIAM Student Travel Award by the National Science Foundation to present PINNs for Reservoir Drainage at SIAM Annual Meeting 2021 (abstract)
- SIAM at UT Austin chosen as the Best Graduate Organization (video) (2020–2021)
- Awarded the SIAM Certificate of Recognition for outstanding contributions to SIAM UT Austin Chapter (2021)
- University of Texas Institute for Geophysics Student Fellowship (2021–2022)
- Best Teaching Assistant Award by the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (2018)
- Judge’s Award and Audience Award at MIT Entrepreneurship and Maker Skills Integrator (MEMSI) program (2018)
- Outstanding Contribution in Reviewing Recognition by Journal of Computational Physics (2018)
- Postgraduate Studentship, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (2016–2018)
- Sir Syed Global Scholar Award by Sir Syed Education Society of North America (2015)
- National Summer Research Fellowship by Indian Academy of Sciences (2015)
- Merit Scholarship by AMU Alumni Association Toronto, Canada (2015)
Conference Grants and Funded Short Schools
- CUAHSI Snow Measurement School, Colorado (2026)
- AGU Cryosphere Section Student Travel Grant for Diversity (CryoStuD) (2024)
- Center for Planetary Systems Habitability Student Travel Award, LPSC (2022, 2023, 2024)
- UT Austin Professional Development Award (2022, 2024)
- Early Career Travel Award, European Space Agency (FAIRPLAY Workshop, Netherlands) (2023)
- Early Career Tiny Grants, AGU Ecohydrology Committee (2022)
- SIAM Student Travel Award, SIAM Annual Meeting (2021)
- International Conference on Spectral and High Order Methods (ICOSAHOM), Imperial College London (2018)
- International Conference on Numerical Simulations for Multimaterial and Multiphysics Problems, China (2017)
- Advanced Research in Turbomachinery Summer School, Florence, Italy (2019)
- MIT StartMIT Course (2019)
- Fluid Dynamics across Scales Summer School, Imperial College London (2018)
- MIT Entrepreneurship and Maker Skills Integrator Bootcamp (2018)
- Coordinator, CPSH Student Travel Award, UT Austin (2023)
- AGU25 Session Convener (4 sessions), AGU Fall Meeting (2025) – Cryosphere, Mars Underground, and Union sessions
- Session Convener, OSPA Liaison & Judge, AGU Fall Meeting (2024) – Cryosphere sessions on participation and access
- Executive Committee Member, AGU Cryosphere Division (2024–Present)
- Judge, International Mission to Mars Engineering Design Contest (2024)
- Team Member, UT Austin HELIOS Open Science Initiative (2023–2024) – White House Open Science engagement and national panels
- Co-Chair & DEI Lead, US Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (USAPECS) (2022–Present)
- Board Member, AGU Hydrology Section Student Subcommittee (H3S) (2023–Present)
- Volunteer, MIT Energy Conference (2023)
- Coordinator, CPSH Student Travel Award (LPSC) (2023)
- MIT–Houston Energy Innovation Fellow, MIT Energy Initiative (2022–2023)
- Volunteer, AGU Fall Meeting (2022) – Braindate collaboration facilitation
- Session Chair, SIAM Annual Meeting (2021)
- President & Senior Advisor, SIAM UT Austin Chapter (2020–2023)
- Volunteer, Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2022)
