Sayanangshu Modak

Sayanangshu is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Geography, Development and Environment (SGDE) at the University of Arizona. His dissertation examines how policy-led governance innovations aimed at restoring the freshwater and sediment flows of river deltas are shaped through collaboration and knowledge integration. His research focuses on the Colorado (U.S.–Mexico), Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt (Netherlands), and Yellow River deltas as examples of such innovations, while utilizing the Ganges River delta to explore the constraints and possibilities of governance innovation in these complex hydrosocial geographies.

Before beginning his PhD in 2022, he worked with two organizations in India: the Observer Research Foundation (2018–2022), a think tank where he focused on policy research and communication in transboundary water governance, and the Foundation for Ecological Security (2016–2018), a non-governmental organization where he gathered evidence on community managed land and water commons in semi-arid regions of India. Committed to bridging research and policy, he contributes articles and opinion pieces to leading outlets and has been interviewed on topics such as flood governance and transboundary water governance.

He holds an MSc in Water Policy and Governance from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and a BSc in Geography from Presidency University, Kolkata. Outside academia, Sayanangshu enjoys biking around Tucson, often chasing sunsets among the towering saguaros of the Sonoran Desert.