Dr. Pranabendu Moitra joined LPL in August 2018 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate working with Associate Professor Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna. Pranabendu is broadly interested in understanding magma migration and volcanic eruption on Earth and other planetary bodies. His current research focuses on explosive magma-water interaction and volcanic eruption dynamics on Mars. He combines observation and modeling to tackle his current research problems.

Pranabendu grew up in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He completed his M.Sc. in Applied Geology from Jadavpur University, India, in 2008. He received a Ph.D. in Earth Science with a focus on physical volcanology in 2015 from Rice University. His Ph.D. topic focused on the violent eruption of basaltic magma combining rheology experiments, field observation, and numerical modeling. Before arriving at LPL, Pranabendu was a postdoctoral researcher and an adjunct instructor at the University at Buffalo.