Ajay B. Limaye 
B.A., Geophysics, UC-Berkeley (2007)
Ph.D., Planetary Sciences, Caltech (2015)
Ajay B. Limaye is an Assistant Professor in the UVA Department of Environmental Sciences. He studies the evolution of landscapes on Earth and other planets, focusing on the role of rivers. Current research topics include river forms, dynamics and deposits; landscape and sedimentary records of climate on Mars and Titan; and feedbacks between landslides and ecology in central Virginia. Tools for this work include remote sensing, geospatial analysis, numerical modeling and laboratory experiments.
Email: ajay@virginia.edu | CV | Google Scholar | LinkedIn
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dimitri Bandou
Ph.D., Univ. Bern, Switzerland (2023)
Since joining the group in September 2023, Dimitri has been working to uncover how valleys carved by glaciers differ from those formed excavated by rivers.
Email: rfv3hv@virginia.edu
Website
Graduate Students
Abby Ackerman
B.A., Bryn Mawr College (2017)
Abby is currently completing her M.S. thesis focusing on interactions between landslides and tree communities in central Virginia.
Email: yah8tn@virginia.edu
Vidushi Sharma
M.S., Panjab Univ. Chandigarh, India (2020)
Vidushi is a 3rd-year Ph.D. candidate whose thesis focuses on spatial trends in valley morphology.
Email: knz2jn@virginia.edu
Past group members
Undergraduate students (Distinguished Majors Program only):
Medha Prakash (B.A., 2023), now Graduate student, Univ. Texas at Austin
Thesis: Morphometric comparisons of terrestrial eskers and Martian ridges reveal pathways of persistent meltwater drainage
Victoria Thompson (B.A., 2024), now Graduate student, Duke Univ.
Thesis: Numerical modeling of the effect of variable wind direction on migration of sand dunes at Jockey’s Ridge, North Carolina
Graduate students:
Jake Smith (M.S., 2022), now at Apex Clean Energy (Charlottesville, VA)
Thesis: Comparison of hydrologic algorithms for mapping valleys using digital elevation models
Ariana Flournoy (M.S., 2024), now at Washington Geological Survey
Thesis: Martian alluvial fans: Comparing fan and catchment areas a proxy for paleoclimate
Yuan Li (Ph.D., 2024), now postdoctoral researcher, Dept. of Earth Sciences, Indiana Univ.
Thesis: Lateral migration of alluvial river channels
Postdoctoral researchers:
Hongbo Ma (2021), now Associate Professor, Dept. of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua Univ. (China)
Youwei Wang (2022-2025), Research Scientist, Chinese Academy of Sciences (starting June 2025)