Alumni

Shalini Dixit, is an M.Phil- PhD from Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Masters in Psychology. 

She received NCERT Doctoral Fellowship for her PhD research. Her doctoral work on the understanding of history was awarded D Sinha Best Doctoral Dissertation Award by the National Academy of Psychology in the year 2013. She has had years of experience in teaching and research in a number of colleges in University of Delhi including Jesus & Mary College and Mata Sundri College (Department of Elementary Education) and Kamla Nehru College (Department of Psychology) as Assistant Professor. She also worked with Department of Educational Psychology and Foundations of Education, NCERT; Save the Children, Finland; and James Cook University Australia, Singapore Campus. Her familiarity and interest lies in Cultural and Cognitive Processes in appreciation of History, Critical aspects Educational Psychology , Cultural Processes, Social Psychology, Gender Issues with Social Psychological perspective, and Rojerian approach to Personality and Communications etc. 

Her research area has been understanding and notions of history amongst people in Santali tribal cultural community

Shivali Tukdeo was an Associate Professor in the education programme at NIAS. Her scholarly engagements are rooted in diverse disciplinary interactions including education policy, critical social theory and sociology of education among others. Her research interests include sociology of education, global studies in education and gender studies. 

Mr. Aariz Ahmed’s thesis titled “Interlinking of Rivers for Integrated Water Resources Management” has been awarded the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Ph.D) by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE).  He worked under the guidance of Prof. R Srikanth. 

His broad research interest lies in water resources management, geospatial application for sustainable development and natural resources management. His Ph.D. thesis, titled “Interlinking of Rivers for Integrated Water Resources Management”, Prior to joining Ph. D at NIAS, he worked as a Project Associate at CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur. He has also been a part of HERE Technologies, a mapping and cloud company in Mumbai. Aariz has completed M.Tech (Environmental science and Technology), PG diploma in Remote sensing and GIS from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

Brief Description of PhD Thesis 
India's water resources planning, management, and development has been strongly affected by the intense spatial and temporal variations in precipitation patterns. These trends have prompted the Government of India and several State Governments to take up major water transfer projects towards overcoming the water scarcity issue. In view of this, National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has taken up a massive river-interlinking project, and nearly 30 links have been proposed encompassing the major rivers. The focus of my doctoral research lies in the Krishna (Almatti)-Pennar ILR project, in the peninsular India. The study aims to investigate the Social, Environmental, and Hydrological dimensions of the ILR project. Further, advanced geospatial techniques will be used to explore feasible alternative routes for the Almatti-Pennar ILR Project to maximise the socio-economic benefits, while minimizing costs and social/environmental impacts. This Research will also provide a conceptual template to look at other ILR projects.

Mr. Soumya Deep Das’s thesis titled Way Forward for the Viability of Power Distribution Sector in India – A Case Study in Karnataka has been evaluated and he is declared eligible for the Award of Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Ph.D) by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE).  He worked under the guidance of Prof. R Srikanth. 

Prof Mahalingam has served as a full-time regulator, having been a Member of Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board for five years from its inception in 2007.  She was also energy member of National Security Advisory Board that advises the Prime Minister through the National Security Advisor on issues related to India's national security. She has also been Visiting Fellow at international universities, Senior Fellow at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi and guest faculty at LBSNAA, Foreign Services Institute, National Defence College etc.  Prof Sudha Mahalingam has been awarded Doctorate by the University of Technology, Sydney in March 2020 on the thesis topic  A Review of Independent Regulation in India’s Downstream Hydrocarbon Sector. 

Harini Santhanam an environmental scientist with 6+ years’ experience in studying multiple aspects of natural systems such as biogeochemistry, hydro-geological processes and land-water-human nexus from an ecosystem perspective. She has been a long-term researcher with IISc Bangalore, working in multi-disciplinary teams with a focus on water-related issues. She has a Ph.D in coastal ecosystem modelling and a M.Sc. degree in Environmental Science from Anna University, Chennai. She also has UGC-NET eligibility for Lecturership in Environmental Science. Recently, she has also been the Principal Investigator of a DST-funded Woman Scientists project (2015- 2018) at IISc.Her research interests include the use of integrated modelling approaches for aquatic ecosystem investigations, studying the ecosystem-human nexus over the land-water-air continuum and investigating short-term and long-term changes of lacustrine systems using environmental proxies.

Dr Tejal Kanitkar was a Professor in the Energy, Environment, and Climate Change Program, the School of Natural Sciences and Engineering, NIAS. She is a mechanical engineer by training and has worked on in the area of energy and climate studies since 2006.

Tejal did her PhD in energy science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, a master’s in mechanical engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering in Mumbai University. She has been teaching since 2011.   

Her research interests lie in the areas of energy, development, and climate policy. She works on trying to integrate perspectives from the natural sciences, engineering, and social sciences to understand the interconnected aspects of energy production, environmental constraints, and economic development, with a perspective that prioritizes equity in the era of acute environmental crises such as climate change. 

Amit Mukherjee served as an Assistant Professor in the International Strategic & Security Studies Program and the Conflict Resolution and Peace Research Programme at the School of Conflict and Security Studies, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, from October 3, 2017, to August 1, 2023.