Kavita Mitkari

Kavita Mitkari serves as a postdoc at UW-Madison, where her research focuses on satellite image processing to map glaciers, snow cover, glacier lakes, and Arctic sea ice. Her work highlights the importance of monitoring glacier lakes to prevent disasters, as illustrated by the 2013 Surabari Lake outburst in the Indian Himalayas. She earned a bachelor's degree in engineering with a specialization in information technology from 2004 to 2008, followed by a master's in geomatics engineering from 2009 to 2011, and completed her PhD in 2023 while working at the Indian Space Research Organization. Kavita developed her own methodology for mapping glacier lakes using high-resolution satellite images, which was published in an IEEE journal and featured in science communication outlets. She has been actively involved in leadership, serving as vice president and later president of the postdoctoral association at UW-Madison after joining in February 2024, and previously as PhD coordinator at her university in India. Her current research is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.