Raghu received his Ph.D. in Biological and Agricultural Engineering (focus: Soil Hydrology) from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, USA in 2010. Much of his doctoral research was funded by a NASA Earth System Sciences Fellowship competitive grant. His current research goals relate to improvement of agricultural productivity and resource utilization by leveraging traditional modeling of environmental processes, remote sensing, data analysis, and integration of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques.

Raghu joined Skoltech in 2018 as part of the Centre for Computational and Data Intensive Science and Engineering, and moved to the Digital Agriculture Lab/Center for AgroTechnologies in 2021. Previously, Raghu worked at the Indian Institute of Science (India), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia), University of Stuttgart (Germany), and Texas A&M University (USA). He has been involved in projects funded by NASA, NSF (USA), USDA, and the World Bank, among others. Raghu has authored/co-authored 20+ peer reviewed publications/ book chapters, and has presented his research at over 40 international conferences/seminars. He has been a mentor to over a dozen graduate students.

The primary focus of Raghu’s current research is on observation and modeling of environmental processes, and their application in enhancing agricultural productivity. He is utilizing data science and artificial intelligence techniques in conjunction with process-based modeling to help improve the efficiency of water and nutrient use in agriculture, especially in the context of climate change. This involves various inter-disciplinary components such as soil water balance modelling; numerical, statistical, and physical modeling of environmental processes; remote sensing; application of AI/ML for agro-hydrological modeling and prediction; and, better integration of environmental effects in plant breeding, among others. With agriculture being the major consumer, and significant source of contamination, of fresh water resources, his research outcomes are expected to help move this sector towards more sustainable practices while not sacrificing but, instead, improving the crop yield.