Cover Letter
Dear Selection Committee,
I am writing this letter to express my interest for the PhD position in Climate Finance
and Policy at ETH Zurich, as advertised on the department website. As someone deeply
concerned about the challenges of climate change, I am motivated to address its impacts and
contribute to the global transition to low-carbon technologies, where climate finance and
policy play a crucial role. Growing up in Delhi (India), a city that has faced significant
environmental challenges, has made me deeply aware of the urgent need to address climate
change. This personal connection to the realities of pollution, resource scarcity, and urban
sustainability has fueled my passion for finding solutions that accelerate the transition to
sustainable technologies and support sustainable development globally.
I have a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electronics and Communication. After
graduation in August 2021, I worked in a multinational IT company for about 2.5 years as a
data engineer where I got first hand experience in big data mining, machine learning, and
NLP. But my growing passion for addressing climate change and its global impact led me to
return to academia, where I could contribute to meaningful research. Motivated by the desire
to make a tangible difference, I joined the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences (CAS), IIT Delhi
as a project scientist in January 2024 eager to apply my skills toward solving pressing
environmental challenges, under the guidance of Prof. Sagnik Dey.
Currently, I’m working in Google-funded project that focuses on utilizing low-cost sensors to
measure hyperlocal pollution sources. My responsibilities revolves around planning of sensor
deployment, sensor calibration, analysing data and solving scientific problems. I am also
directly involved in field operations, where I work with teams for survey and to identify
optimal sensor locations based on local meteorological factors. The insights derived from my
analysis are used to validate the accuracy of deployed sensors by comparing collected data
with nearby government sensors and guide policy decisions for state government authorities
based on the sensor data collected. Being part of a large lab, I have the opportunity to
collaborate with my colleagues. I am leading a study that assesses the impact of urbanization
on air quality and temperature extremes in India over the last two decades, and I am also
involved in several other studies led by my colleagues.
I have expertise in software, especially ArcGIS and QGIS for multispectral data analysis,
Google Earth Engine, programming languages like Java & Python, big data handling using
cloud platforms like GCP and AWS. I deal with satellite data and ground-based data, where I
use machine & deep Learning to find hidden pattern or insights.
I am highly motivated to join a laboratory that offers world-class facilities and fosters a
dynamic research environment, and I recognize ETH Zurich as a renowned institution with an
outstanding reputation. This opportunity excites me personally, as it would allow me to
collaborate with esteemed faculty and fellow scholars, facilitating an exchange of knowledge
and best practices that would be invaluable to my development.
Sincerely,
Rohan Anand
