Alumni

J. N. Sandhya joined the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) on February 11, 1997. She served as an Administrative Coordinator until her retirement on July 15, 2026.

Ms J N Sandhya has a bachelor's degree in arts from Bangalore University. Proficient in technical typing in English, Kannada and mathematics, using Latex, she has worked in reputed institutions like the Indian Institute of Science (Departments of Physics, Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Applied Mathematics) and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, before joining NIAS. At NIAS, she had assisted the late Prof S Settar in the publication of his Kannada dictionary and earlier served as a secretary to the late Prof C V Sundaram, when he published his renowned book, Atomic Energy in India – 50 Years. Sandhya had also assisted the late Prof K Ramachandra in publishing 33 volumes of his distinguished Hardy Ramanujan Journal from 1997 to 2010 and in the preparation of an acclaimed book, Theory of Numbers, in 2007. Sandhya has worked on the development and maintenance of the infrastructural facilities of NIAS till 2008 and coordinated several national and international courses at the institute. She was also instrumental in coordinating the establishment of the First INFOSYS Prize for Mathematics, 2009, jointly organised by Infosys and NIAS. 

She served as a Senior Executive Assistant in the NIAS Doctoral Programme, Sandhya had been active – virtually singlehandedly – coordinating the activities of the Programme for over 16 years. This had involved guiding the admission process of all the students each year till the final submission of their thesis to the concerned university, handling the affairs of occasionally more than 70 students at a time. She also provided secretarial support to the faculty of the International Strategic and Security Studies Programme, thus being involved in the organisation of national and international conferences, other meetings and public lectures of the Programme throughout the year.   

Lt B. Lalu (Retd) joined NIAS on 16 April 2012.
Prior to joining NIAS, he has served in the Army (Corps of Engineers, MEG) for 26 years and superannuated from service on 31 October 2011.  He holds a Bachelor Degree in Arts (Economics) from the University of Kerala.

During his tenure in the Army, he served almost all parts of the country, including Operational/High Altitude Areas of Jammu & Kashmir. In appreciation of his meritorious service, he was honoured with “Lieutenant” rank by the President of India on 26 January 2012. 

As Office Manager, his duties involve supervision of Admin office/support staff, handling of petty cash expenses, maintaining office files/documents, and personal records, leave register and providing various facilities for the day-to-day functioning of the Institute.  He is also responsible for managing security staff and contract Labours as well as Institute infrastructure.    In addition to the above, he is responsible for providing logistic support, which is required in conducting various events/programmes being conducted at the Institute. He executes the works under the guidance of Head-Administration.
 

A Deva Raju joined the Institute on 28 March 1989. He has a Bachelors Degree in Commerce from Sri Venkateswara University, Thirupathi and a Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management from Pondicherry University.

He is the Coordinator (Admin & Logistics) since 1 July 2021. Earlier he was an Assistant Manager (Admin) from 1 April 2009 to 30 June 2021. 

As the Coordinator and Asst Manager, he has been looking after the Guest House, apart from coordinating the arrangements during NIAS Courses, programmes, workshops to be held at the Institute from time to time, in consultation with the Manager and the Head-Administration.

From 1989 to 2008, he provided administrative support to all Programme Coordinators of the Senior Executives Programmes from the very First Programme in 1989 to 21st Programme in 2008.

In addition, he had also worked as Secretary to Late Prof R L Kapur, who was a Professor and then the Deputy Director  of the Institute from October 1988 – November 2006.

Anupama Mahajan's thesis titled "Growing up gifted: Class, social advantaging and schooling practices" has been evaluated, and she is declared eligible for the Award of Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Ph.D) by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE). She worked under the guidance of Prof. Anitha B K. 

Ishita holds a Master’s in Public Policy from St Xavier’s College and BSc Economics (Hons) from Symbiosis School of Economics. Previously, she was associated with the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay where she worked on a project studying the effects of climate change on the fishing community in Maharashtra. Her research interests include labour, migration and livelihood studies.

Paul Thomas has completed his Integrated Master's in Economics from the University of Hyderabad. He is interested in using interdisciplinary approaches to study societies, specifically the holistic wellbeing of individuals. He likes to play badminton in the evenings.

Nisar Kannangara is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Inequality and Human Development Programme, NIAS. His research areas include political anthropology, ethnography of housing, and the autonomous adaptation of climate change. He received his PhD in Anthropology from Pondicherry University in 2019. Before joining NIAS, he was a Project Associate with the Kerala Cultural Museum, Directorate of Culture, Trivandrum, Kerala.