Dr. Lakhankar has led key research projects supporting NOAA and NASA’s remote sensing missions in water prediction and ecosystem research. His leadership includes designing major field campaigns, such as Snow-SAFE in Caribou, ME; the Soil Moisture Field Campaign at CUNY-SMART in Millbrook, NY; and NYC-Urban HydroMet, where 21 weather stations were installed across NYC in schools, gardens, and colleges. These initiatives provided valuable data, improved prediction accuracy, raised public awareness, and produced publications in top-tier journals.