Bridging AI and Climate Action: Auroop R. Ganguly Previews the 2026 Daffodil Lecture
By Samuel Cavalheiro
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On Monday, March 9, Commonwealth Honors College will host the annual Daffodil Lecture, which highlights the groundbreaking research, visionary leaders, and collaboration in sustainability and green development.
This year’s lecture will be delivered by Auroop R. Ganguly, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University, who works at the intersection of three areas: climate extremes and water sustainability, infrastructural resilience and homeland security, and artificial intelligence (AI) and nonlinear dynamics.
His lecture, titled “AI and Entrepreneurship in Climate and Sustainability”, will discuss the possibilities for development in the climate fueled by entrepreneurship and new technologies like AI.
A Nonlinear Path
Ganguly’s journey, just like his research, is complex and nonlinear. Before his tenure at Northeastern University, Ganguly held positions at both the Oracle Corporation and at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His experience in both the public and private sectors informs his unique perspective on how academia, the government, and the private sector must converge to solve the climate crisis.
At the heart of Ganguly’s work is a mission he summarizes with an acronym, CARE. CARE stands for Climate Adaptation and Resilient Engineering. His research focuses on understanding stressors such as rainfall extremes, droughts, and hurricanes, and how they impact networked infrastructure.
"What kind of risks or stresses do these infrastructures or cities or ecological systems face, how robust are they, and how can we make them more robust?" Ganguly explained. "And despite our best attempts, sometimes they will fail—then how can we best recover them?"
This infrastructure includes the power grids, water distribution systems, and communication lines that sustain modern life. This understanding of weather and climate informs Ganguly’s work on how these systems resist failure and how we can recover in an increasingly volatile climate.
The Role of AI in His Research
AI is the defining technology of 2026, and Ganguly is keenly aware of its possibilities. He advocates for a hybrid physics-AI approach, arguing that we shouldn't discard centuries of scientific knowledge in favor of pure data-crunching.
"Some physics were developed in eras where we did not have as much data," Ganguly said. "If we can optimally and intelligently combine the two—physics and AI—we can do much better than either of them alone."
He points out that climate disasters rarely happen in isolation; a hurricane might be followed by a cyberattack on a weakened power grid, or successive floods might cause cascading failures across transportation and water sectors. By combining physical laws with the predictive power of AI, Ganguly’s work builds models that can anticipate these multiplier effects.
Outside the Lab
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Ganguly’s career is his success in the startup realm. He has co-founded several companies, including one acquired by a Fortune 500 firm that administers the New York Stock Exchange.
His motivation for entering the private sector was born out of conversations with his students. They realized that climate action requires not only passion, but a viable career path.
"People who think about things like climate and sustainability also would like to send their kids to college," Ganguly noted. "You have to do both."
Ganguly believes that for-profit structures can create the financial incentives necessary for large-scale change. By working with rating agencies and bond issuers, his ventures have helped municipalities across the country achieve climate goals through municipal bonds.
For students attending this lecture, Ganguly offers a similar message of pragmatic optimism. He acknowledges that the climate crisis can feel overwhelming, but he rejects the idea that a career in sustainability requires a vow of poverty.
Ganguly hopes that students will leave his lecture understanding that they can begin changing policy through individual actions, but recognize that the real heavy lifting will come from collective action involving not only us, but big corporations and global governments.
"From a science perspective, we are one planet," Ganguly said, “but from an economics and policy perspective, we are a fragmented planet. We have to learn how to bridge that gap."
Join us for the 2026 Daffodil Lecture in the Student Union Ballroom on Monday, March 9 at 5:00 p.m. to hear more about Ganguly’s work!
Featuring
Samuel Cavalheiro
