Akanksha is a postdoctoral researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), working with Dr. Falk Feddersen and Dr. Sarah Giddings. Her current research focuses on data assimilation to improve the efficiency of a pathogen forecast model in the San Diego region. Prior to joining the Feddersen and Giddings groups, Akanksha was a postdoctoral researcher in the Marine Physical Laboratory at SIO, where she worked with Dr. Xuanting Hao and Dr. William R. Young from March 2023 to March 2025. Her research interests broadly span environmental and geophysical fluid dynamics, with a particular focus on particle transport in the ocean as influenced by a range of physical processes and their interactions, including surface and internal waves, mean flows, and topographic effects. Akanksha earned her Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur, India, in 2022 under the supervision of Dr. Anirban Guha. Her doctoral work focused on understanding the interaction of surface waves with a rippled seafloor, both with and without mean currents, and investigating their effects on tracer particles such as pathogens, sediments, (micro)plastics, algae, and nutrients.