Vinay Kumar Dadhwal

Vinay Kumar Dadhwal is currently Indira Gandhi Chair Professor of Environmental Sciences in the School of Natural Sciences and Engineering at NIAS. Prior to joining NIAS, he had a distinguished 38-year career (1983-2021) in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Department of Space (DOS), holding leadership positions as Director, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST/DOS, Thiruvananthapuram, 2016-21), Director, National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC/ISRO, Hyderabad, 2011-16) and Dean, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS/ISRO, Dehradun, 2004-10) and held concurrent positions at UN Centre of Space Science and Technology Education in the Asia Pacific (UN CSSTE-AP, Dehradun, 2004-10).

Vinay Kumar Dadhwal was born and educated in Delhi where he graduated in Botany from Hansraj College (Delhi University, 1976) and completed Master of Science (1978) and PhD (1983) in Plant Physiology from Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI, New Delhi) and started his career in remote sensing applications at Space Applications Centre (SAC/ISRO, Ahmedabad, 1983). 

Early in his career Vinay developed a methodology for use of remote sensing for crop identification, and crop mapping and later expanded it to yield modelling and crop production forecasting at district to state and national scale under a major program funded by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC), Government of India. He has extensively worked with EO data for applications in land transformation, land surface modelling, deforestation, geo-hazards and hydro-meteorological disasters, to name a few. He was Project Director for the National Carbon Project (NCP) under ISRO Geosphere-Biosphere Program(IGBP), a multi-institutional national effort that established an observation network of carbon flux and atmospheric CO2, and geospatial mapping of national forest biomass and soil organic carbon in high detail. His extensive research is described in more than 300 co-authored peer-reviewed journal publications. His current research at NIAS covers various dimensions of assessment and modelling of the terrestrial carbon cycle of India.

During his tenure at various institutions major long-term programs were initiated, including a satellite-based education program hosted by IIRS for PG students nationally, expanded EO products and services from NRSC for land resources, near real-time flooded extent and forest fires, climate information products, digital elevation models and ocean applications. Establishment of spacecraft and payload development laboratory and space technology incubator at IIST. As a science leader, Vinay has extensive experience in bilateral and multi-lateral space cooperation, including as a member/leader of the Indian delegation to the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) from 2012 to 2016 and was Chairman of the 53rd Session of Science and Technology Subcommittee (STSC) of UNCOPUOS in 2016.