Indian Jones
- whotellsyourstoryu
- Aug 18, 2018
- 2 min read
Name: Kuntal Chaudhuri
BS-MS in Geological Sciences, IISER Kolkata, India
PhD student in the Department of Geological Sciences, UCR
Class of 2021
Starting high school, I always longed to become a doctor, but life tries you in strange ways and I ended up studying Basic Sciences. My enthusiasm to travel to uncharted territories is what got me into geology and eventually the subject caught my interest and I ended up being a seismologist. Choosing UCR was a matter of choice and weighing my options, California seemed to be the best place to work. Apart from studying earthquakes, my passion lies strongly in music and it is what keeps me going in life. My first big expenditure in the U.S. was my beloved piano: I named it “K” after one of my favorite songs.
Coming to the States, I had a lot of mixed feelings as it was the first time leaving my country and staying at the so-called country which is known for making your dreams come true. I was pretty lucky to have been accepted in University of California, Riverside as it has the most diverse crowd in the US, which was a huge plus. Most of the people here have been very welcoming and I have received more happiness from this place than I expected.
Let me say something about my work as I am pretty sure it would interest quite a few people living in the earthquake prone area of Southern California. I specialize in studying slow earthquakes (tremors, Low Frequency Earthquakes, etc.) which have been observed to influence garden variety earthquakes (the ones that we can feel). I analyze these events and try to form an explanation for their occurrence in the area. Seismology fascinates me because each time I find something interesting about our Earth while working with my data which no one has ever seen. I feel like I am leaving my “footprints in the sands” of time. Perhaps very aptly, my colleagues here call me “Indian Jones” with my outback hat and rock hammer.
Well to summarize, I am an active seismologist and plan to get my PhD at UCR, but my dream goal would be to have a restaurant of my own (FUN FACT: I love cooking) and entertain my customers with my live music. Feel free to visit my Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCALPewKczGYy6aSTBCpygLw?view_as=subscriber) and maybe enjoy some of my videos.
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