Dr. Sagar Parajuli is a Research Scientist/Adjunct Faculty at San Diego State University (SDSU), Department of Geography. Dr. Parajuli is currently involved on a research project called Rural Heat Island. Earlier, Dr. Parajuli was also associted with CW3E, SIO, University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Before coming back to California, Dr. Parajuli worked as a Research Scientist at the King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia with Dr. Georgiy Stenchikov for more than 5 years. Before joining KAUST, he worked at The University of California, Irvine as a postdoctoral researcher with Dr. Charles Zender. Dr. Parajuli obtained his PhD degree in Geosciences (2016) from The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA under the joint supervision of Dr. Zong-Liang Yang and the late Dr. Gary Kocurek. He completed his Master’s Degree in Water and Environmental Engineering from Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE, which is now a part of Khalifa University. He obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from Institute of Engineering, Lalitpur, Nepal.
Dr. Parajuli is currently also serving as an Editorial Board Member of the journal Communications Earth & Environment, which is an open-access journal from Nature Portfolio. Dr. Parajuli has also previously led a special issue in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science on the topic of Atmospheric Dust: How it affects climate, environment and life on Earth?
Dr. Parajuli was recently appointed as the Deputy Lead Editor of California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment Report. In this prestigious role, he joins Dr. Pramod Khargonekar, Vice Chancellor for Research at UC Irvine, in leading the editorial board for this critical statewide initiative.
PhD (Geosciences), 2012 – 2016, The University of Texas at Austin
M. Sc. Water Environ. Engg., 2010 – 2012, Masdar Institute, Abu Dhabi
B. E. Civil Engineering, 2001 – 2005, IoE, TU, Lalitpur, Nepal
Deputy Lead Editor, California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment, June 2025 — Present, Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (LCI)
Editorial Board Member, 2022 — Present, Nature Commun Earth Environ
Research Scientist and Adjunct Faculty, Oct 2023 — Present, San Diego State University
Atmospheric Modeler, Feb 2023 — Aug 2023, CW3E, UC-San Diego
Research Scientist, Sep 2017 — Feb 2023, KAUST, Saudi Arabia
Postdoctoral Researcher, June 2016 — Aug 2017, UC-Irvine
Civil Engineer, Feb 2006 — July 2010, DoLIDAR, Lalitpur, Nepal
Lecturer, Aug 2005 — Jan 2006, Western Region Campus, Pokhara, Nepal
