Adjunct Faculty

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.

Shivanand Kanavi is former Vice President, TCS and is currently Adjunct Faculty at National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru.

His core competencies are in communication of complex ideas in business, science & technology, Indian history, political economy and philosophy.

He is a popular speaker in IITs, Universities and higher educational institutions, as well as in Radio and TV.

Shivanand studied Theoretical Physics at IIT Kanpur; Northeastern University, Boston and IIT Bombay.

He was the Executive Editor of Business India magazine, a pioneer in Business Journalism in India till 2004. He has written extensively on Business and Technology. He was awarded the Madhu Valluri Award for IT Journalism for the year 2004.

Shivanand has authored the highly acclaimed “Sand to Silicon: The amazing story of digital technology” (Tata-McGraw Hill 2004, Rupa 2006). A Kannada version of the book was published by Government of Karnataka as “ಡಿಜಿಟಲ್ ಕ್ರಾಂತಿ ಮತ್ತು ಭಾರತ” (2016).

Shivanand worked in the largest IT services company TCS as Vice President-Special Projects from 2004 to 2010. He has edited, “Research by Design-Innovation and TCS” (Rupa, 2007).

He was Global Head, Marketing and Strategic Communication of CMC Ltd, a subsidiary of TCS, from 2010 to 2013.  Twitter: @shivanandkanavi ,

Dr. Krishnan Raghavan specializes in climate modeling to understand scientific issues relating to “Climate Change, Asian Monsoon and Water Cycle”. Under his leadership the Centre for Climate Change Research (CCCR) @ IITM, Pune, developed the first Earth System Model (ESM) from India that contributed to the CMIP6 and IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. He was a Coordinating Lead Author in the IPCC AR6 WG1 report (Chapter-8: Water Cycle Changes) and a Drafting Author in the Summary for Policymakers. He was a Member of the Joint Scientific Committee (JSC), World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). He and his team from CCCR-IITM published the First National Climate Change Assessment Report of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt of India in 2020. After obtaining M.Sc degree in Applied Mathematics from the Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai, he pursued Ph.D. research in Atmospheric Sciences at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad. He was awarded Ph.D. degree from Univ. of Pune in 1994. He has published over 165 scientific articles/papers, supervised/co-supervised 26 PhDs [21 (awarded) + 1 (submitted) + 4 (ongoing)] & 7 Master (M.Sc/M.Tech) dissertation. He offered training lectures in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics & Atmospheric Sciences.

Dr. Dhananjay A. Sant, a retired Professor of Geology from the Department of Geology at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, India, holds over 38 years of academic and research experience. His expertise spans multidisciplinary studies in geology, geomorphology, paleoclimatology, geoarchaeology, and near-surface seismology. Dr. Sant obtained his Ph.D. in Geology in 1992 and a master’s degree in Geology (Honors) in 1987 from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. His research focuses on climate change dynamics, sedimentary processes, and subsurface imaging techniques. His impactful publications have significantly contributed to Earth Sciences, appearing in prestigious journals such as Geophysical Research Letters, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Frontiers Earth Science, Cretaceous Research, Current Science, Journal Geological Society of India. Dr. Sant has collaborated with esteemed institutions, including IISc Bangalore, Department of Ancient History and Archaeology at MSU, CSIR Fourth Paradigm Institute, Bengaluru, Geological Survey of India, Jammu University, Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, and the University of Cambridge. He has guided numerous Ph.D. students and serves as a reviewer for numerous international scientific journals and funding bodies. Dr. Sant’s pioneering research is on high-resolution quantitative sedimentology and profiling low-velocity zones within Quaternary sediments and beneath the Deccan Traps using microtremor HVSR technique. Microtremor HVSR technique has practical applications in engineering and mineral exploration, as well as carbon dioxide and hydrogen sequestration. Additionally, Dr. Sant actively participates in professional associations and has held key administrative positions at the university, including serving as a Senate member and Director of the All-India Central Services Training Centre.

Dr. Ashwagosha Ganju is a snow science and avalanche expert with over 32 years of experience at the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). He holds a PhD in Quaternary Environment Reconstruction and advanced degrees in Geology from Punjab University. As Director of SASE, he led numerous pioneering initiatives in avalanche forecasting, climate impact assessment, remote sensing, and cryospheric hazard mitigation. He spearheaded major projects like PARWAT, HIMVIVIDHITA, HIM SANDESH, and ANUMAN, and developed advanced models and training systems for snow and avalanche risk management in the Himalayas.

He has advised the Indian Army on safe troop mobility, established observatories across the Siachen region, and trained personnel in avalanche rescue and safety. Dr. Ganju has presented his work at international forums, including Switzerland, Canada, Japan, and Antarctica, and has collaborated with agencies like DST, MoES, and NASA-ISRO. His work has earned him multiple awards, including the Defence Technology Spin-Off Award and the HR Leadership Award.

A prolific researcher, Dr. Ganju has authored over 70 papers and two books, contributing significantly to the field of cold region science making him a key figure in Himalayan environment studies and disaster risk reduction.

Prof. Rajat Mazumder is a field geologist with a specialization in sedimentology and stratigraphy. He earned a Ph. D in Geology in 2002 (Jadavpur University, India) and have 23 years of postdoctoral research and teaching experience in India, Japan (JSPS Postdoc, 2002-2004 at Yokohama National University and JSPS invited research fellowship for 2 months in 2008), Germany (Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow at Munich University, 2005-2006), Australia (UNSW Sydney, Curtin University), Malaysia (Curtin University) and Oman (German University of Technology in Oman).

He has participated in field expeditions in the remote areas of Japanese islands, east Malaysia, Western Australia and Germany. Prof. Mazumder has published over 100 research papers both as a single author and as a member of the international research team since before his Ph. D award in peer reviewed Earth science journals. He is currently one of the subject editors of J. Geol. Soc. London, an associate editor of Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, Sedimentology (IAS), Geology (Geol. Soc. America), and Geol. Soc. America Bull.

Dr. Nanjangud C Narendra (NCN) is a retired Master Researcher at Ericsson Research, currently working as a Consultant Technologist in Artpark, IISC, Bangalore. Prior to joining Ericsson, he worked in MS Ramaiah University, Cognizant, IBM Research, HP India and Motorola India. He has about 32 years R&D experience in the Indian IT industry. His research interests span Software Engineering, Workflow Management, Web Services, Service Oriented Architecture, Cloud Computing, Internet of Things, Edge Computing, Data Management and Analytics, 5G/6G applications, AI/ML applications. He has published over 120 papers in international conferences and journals. He has been Program Committee member for several key conferences such as Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS), International Conference on Service Oriented Computing (ICSOC), IEEE International Cloud Computing Conference; he was also Program Committee Chair for ICSOC (Industry track) in 2012 and ICSOC (Research track) in 2015. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of Service Oriented Computing and Applications journal and IEEE Transactions on Services Computing journal. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and ACM.

The overarching philosophy of Samira Agnihotri's research is ‘listening ecology,’ which aims to draw attention to diverse voices – human and more-than-human, and in doing so, encourage people to listen more -- to the sounds of nature around them, and to each other. Her work crosses disciplinary boundaries, from birdsong and bioacoustics to anthropology and linguistics, and is embedded in the biocultural landscape of the Biligiri Rangan Hills, where she has worked since 2004 in collaboration with the Solega people.