School of Natural Sciences and Engineering

Dr Arshiya Bose is a Human Geographer whose work bridges rigorous academic inquiry with hands‑on conservation practice. She holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Cambridge, UK, where her doctoral research examined market incentives for biodiversity conservation, using sustainability certifications in the coffee sector as a critical lens. Following her doctorate, she was appointed to a Post‑Doctoral Fellowship at ETH‑Zurich, deepening her expertise in agroecological systems and participatory research methodologies.
In 2016, Arshiya founded Black Baza Coffee, a social and conservation enterprise operating in India’s Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot. Over nearly a decade, she has developed and refined a participatory model that engages smallholder producers to restore native tree species on their coffee farms, protect local ecosystems, reduce household debt and strengthen rural livelihoods. This pioneering work earned Black Baza Coffee the Specialty Coffee Association’s Global Sustainability Award in 2025—the first and only Indian organisation to receive this honour. Arshiya is an Acumen Fellow, a National Geographic Explorer and Associate Director of Kinship Conservation Fellows. She holds Coffee Quality Institute's accreditation as a Post‑Harvest Processing Professional and serves as a Lecturer in Post‑Harvest Processing. Her academic and practice interests focus on co‑designing market‑based solutions that deliver tangible social, economic and ecological benefits for smallholder producers and the landscapes they steward.

Dr. R. Natarajan, a Chemical Engineer, joined the Department of Atomic Energy in 1975 and held the post of Director of Reprocessing Group and Project Director of Fast Reactor Fuel Cycle Facility in Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research. Under his leadership, the radioactive hot cell  facility, for establishing the process technology for the reprocessing of fast reactor fuels, was designed, erected and commissioned. He led the team that has successfully completed the reprocessing of plutonium rich fast reactor spent fuel from FBTR (Fast Breeder Test Reactor), which was highly irradiated, which is an international benchmark. This technology is being exploited for the fleet of fast reactors that are being set up in the country now. He was also responsible for the R&D activities of fast reactor fuel reprocessing and scaling up for the medium size demonstration plant as well as the commercial size fuel reprocessing plants. He was also instrumental in the recovery of the Uranium by reprocessing the irradiated thorium, facilitating thorium utilisation in the country. Thus his contributions are vital for the country in attaining self sufficiency, in both the Uranium-plutonium and the Thorium-Uranium reprocessing technologies.

He has over hundred technical presentations and publications to his credit. He has won the prestigious NOCIL Award for Excellence in Design and Development of Process Plant and Equipment for the year 2005 for his contribution in the development of fast reactor fuel reprocessing. He is also the recipient of Indian Nuclear Society's INS award for the year 2006 for his contributions in Nuclear Fuel Cycle technologies. He was awarded the prestigious VASVIK award for the year 2014. He is a fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and honorary fellow of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers.