Precious Batubo

I am currently in my last semester as a PhD candidate in Earth and Energy Sciences at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where I am working on my dissertation. My journey began in Nigeria, where I earned my bachelor's degree in geology and mining from Covenant University. After completing my master's in geology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, I began doing research with machine learning, trying to use machine learning to answer geological or environmental questions. My advisor at the time recognized my aptitude in this area and encouraged me to pursue a PhD, which led me to my current work using AI to solve geological questions. Over the past five years, I have focused on the planetary aspects of geology and machine learning AI, and my expertise is at the crossroads of incorporating AI to investigate planetary sciences and environmental issues. During my PhD program, I served as a teaching assistant for four years before receiving a fellowship for my final year. My day-to-day activities included attending class, teaching, grading, doing research, and more recently, training new masters or PhD students through the ropes of what I do. I am more passionate about research than teaching because I really like the whole aspect of trying to figure out something new, or trying to find out deeper about something that could potentially help our society or enhance our knowledge of geology. One of my most notable achievements is publishing two first-author papers in the space of two years, which is not very easy in my field because most of the time our work takes a while as we try to find something that makes sense. My first paper was about tsunamis, using machine learning to go back in time to see the characteristics of these tsunamis, such as the height of the flow and the water flow. For areas where there is more prone to have tsunamis and no tsunami preparedness, this can give them an idea of how to prepare based on the kind of area I studied.