Adjunct Faculty

Prof MK Surappa   former Vice-Chancellor of Anna University (2018-2021), Chennai and Founding Director of Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar (2009-2015).  Previously he was the Dean, Faculty of Engineering (2016-17) and Honorary Secretary, Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology (2004-2009) and President of Bharath Gyn Vigyan Samithi (Unit of people’s science movement) during the period 2001-2009.

He is also Honorary Distinguished Professor for Life at the University of Mysore.

Prof Surappa received his BSc degree from Mysore University and went on to complete his B. E (Metallurgy), M.Sc. and PhD. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He worked as Research Associate at Drexel University (USA), Cavendish Laboratory at University of Cambridge, UK and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne. He returned to Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1987 as Assistant Professor and rose to become Professor in the year 1998.

Prof. Surappa has made outstanding R&D contributions to the Science and Technology of Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs). For over three decades, he has pursued many innovative investigations on synthesis, processing- microstructure-property correlation and application development of MMCs based on light alloy matrices.  He has published 100 research papers in peer reviewed Journals and has secured one US and 3 Indian patents.

In his role as a Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at IISc, Prof Surappa was highly instrumental in stimulating, invigorating, and amplifying the quality and rigor in the evaluation process of research output by scholars. As a Founding Director of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Prof Surappa played a very inspiring and a key role in catapulting a new young institution into the Top 10 of the country (NIRF Rankings 2015-16, MHRD, Government of India). As an Honorary Secretary of the Karnataka State Council for Science & Technology, his inspiring leadership had led to the Council being recognized as the top performer across the 31 State Councils in the country.  His penchant passion towards creating societal benefits through Science & Technology, led to a noteworthy and a stellar implementation of a Rainwater Harvesting System in over 23,000 Government Schools across the length and breadth of the State of Karnataka. As a President of the Bharath Gyan Vigyan Samithi (Unit of “Peoples Science Movement”) he catalyzed teams to create awareness on sanitation  & hygiene and enabled in  eliminating the myth behind the ostensible miracles.

 As Vice Chancellor of Anna University, Prof Surappa worked passionately to transform Anna University into high impactful institution. His efforts to restore the legacy and revive the University to its pre-eminent position through fair and transparent governance system are unparalleled.

In the recent years he has been examining and studying the factors contributing to sub-optimum performance of higher educational institutions in India and has been keenly understanding the eco system required to be put in place to make Indian Institutions to be more impactful.

LM Patnaik obtained his PhD in the area of real-time systems  in 1978  and DSc in the areas of computer systems and architectures in 1989 both from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. During 1971-2011 he was on the faculty of the Indian Institute of Science engaged in teaching and research in the areas of computer science and engineering and real-time systems .His teaching and research interests have been in the areas of computer architecture, parallel and distributed computing including high-performance computing, soft computing including neural networks and evolutionary computation, computational neuroscience, theoretical  computer science,  computer cognition including artificial intelligence and machine learning. In these areas he has published over 1300 papers in refereed international journals, conference proceedings, book chapters, books and technical reports.

He has supervised over 30 Doctoral students and over 200 Masters's students in the above areas. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE,  Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and all the four leading  Science and Engineering Academies of India. As a   Founding Vice Chancellor of the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology under the Ministry of Defence, Government of India, he had initiated a number of programs in the areas of nanotechnology and cyber security for defence applications. After his superannuation in 2011, he has been serving as an Honorary Professor with the Indian Institute of Science and Adjunct Professor, INSA Senior Scientist and Honorary Scientist with the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS).

Currently, he is a NASI Senior Scientist and Adjunct Professor with the NIAS. For his research contributions, he has been awarded over  30 Awards, notable among them is the IEEE Computer Society’s Technical Achievement Award . One of his papers on Adaptive Genetic Algorithms has been cited over 4000 times by Google Scholar. Other than his research interests, he has been spending substantial amount of his time in visiting a number of engineering colleges in the country to interact with faculty members and students, to organize conferences and deliver talks, primarily to improve the quality of Indian engineering education.

Click here to know more details about his academic activities.

Before enrolling as a research student, an engineer by profession, he has completed MTech in Microwave Engineering from IIT Delhi, Masters in Financial Management from JBIMS, Mumbai and M Sc (Defence and Strategic Studies) from Madras University.

He is an alumnus of the Defence Services Staff College. He has an advanced diploma in Russian Language. He is an Adjunct Faculty with this institute. A submariner by profession, he has vast experience in the field of naval systems and technologies, projects and systems engineering. After more than three decades of service, he retired as a Commodore from the Indian Navy.

Prof. Dr Ummu Salma Bava is Professor of European Studies and Jean Monnet Chair in the EU, Security, Peace and Conflict Resolution (EU-SPCR). She was Chairperson, Centre for European Studies (November 2017- November 2019 and July 2009 - July 2011), School of International Studies; Director, UGC Europe Area Studies Programme (November 2011- March 2014) and Director, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Studies (December 2012 – December 2014), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. She is a guest faculty at the Foreign Service Institute, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.

With over thirty years of teaching and research and administrative experience, she is one of the leading Indian experts on contemporary Europe, EU, Germany and India with a focus on domestic and foreign and security policy. She also works on regional integration and organization, emerging
powers, international politics, global governance, norms and peace and conflict resolution and higher education. She has numerous publications and her latest articles are published in EU-India Relations - The Strategic Partnership in Light of the European Union’s Global Strategy (Springer
2021) Regionalism and Multilateralism: Politics, Economics, Culture. (Routledge, 2020); Challenges in Europe. Indian Perspectives. (Springer 2019), China, the European Union and the Developing World (Cheltenham, UK, 2015), The EU’s foreign Policy. What kind of Power and Diplomatic Action? (Ashgate, 2013); From BRIC to BRICS (Johannesburg: Institute for Global Dialogue and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2011), Does South Asia Exist?: Prospects for Regional Integration (Brookings, 2010); Regional Leadership in the Global System. Ideas, Interests and Strategies of Regional Powers (Ashgate 2010); Partnerships for Effective Multilateralism: EU Relations with Brazil, China, India and Russia (Chaillot Paper – No. 109, May 2008).

She is International Member, Academic Advisory Board, German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, Germany (November 2014-17; 2017-) and was member of the Research Advisory Council of Germany’s leading Think Tank - Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), Berlin, Germany (June 2013- 2019). Prof Bava was selected by the European Commission for the Jean Monnet Chair, recognizing her as one of the leading experts on European Union in India. She was also selected and awarded in the first round of the UGC- DAAD IGP Project 2016-2020 and
was part of the EU funded FP7 Marie Curie ITN Network – PRIMO (2013-2017), lead by the University of Hamburg, Germany. She has been conferred with different Fellowships and awards and she has been recognised by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2005) and the US
Department of State (2007). She is fluent in English, Hindi and German.

Prof. Bava was conferred in January 2012 with Germany’s highest civilian honour - the prestigious Order of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz) by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Prof. Dr. Heribert Dieter is a Senior Fellow, at the Research Unit Global Issues, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Berlin (since September 2001.

His research focus include the following: global governance, development, trade and fiscal policy.

He is a Visiting Professor of International Political Economy, Zeppelin University, Lake Constance (since 2013), and also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Potsdam (since 2017)

Dr T.C.A Raghavan retired from the Indian Foreign Service in December 2015 as Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan (2013-15). He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1982.

He had earlier served as Deputy High Commissioner in Pakistan (2003-2007) and High Commissioner to Singapore from 2009 to 2013. During his last posting in New Delhi (2007-09) in the Ministry of External Affairs, he was appointed the Joint Secretary of the Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran Division. He has also served in United Kingdom (1995-1998), Bhutan (1992-1995) and Kuwait (1983-1986). His earlier posts held in the Ministry of External Affairs include Director of the Office of the External Affairs Minister (2000-2003).

He was appointed as Director-General of the Indian Council of World Affairs in New Delhi from July 2018 to July 2021. 

He is the author of several books including, ‘Attendant Lords, Bairam Khan and Abdur Rahim- Courtiers and Poets in Mughal India’ was awarded the Mohammad Habib Memorial Prize by the Indian History Congress in December 2017. His other books include, ‘The People Next Door- The Curious History of India’s relations with Pakistan’ (Harper Collins, 2017); ‘History Men: Jadunath Sarkar, G.S. Sardesai, Raghubir Sinh and their quest for India's Past’ (2019).

He completed his PhD from the Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1992. His dissertation was on the economic history of India. He finished school at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and his college and university were at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University.