People Page

Dr Arshiya Bose is a Human Geographer whose work bridges rigorous academic inquiry with hands‑on conservation practice. She holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Cambridge, UK, where her doctoral research examined market incentives for biodiversity conservation, using sustainability certifications in the coffee sector as a critical lens. Following her doctorate, she was appointed to a Post‑Doctoral Fellowship at ETH‑Zurich, deepening her expertise in agroecological systems and participatory research methodologies.
In 2016, Arshiya founded Black Baza Coffee, a social and conservation enterprise operating in India’s Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot. Over nearly a decade, she has developed and refined a participatory model that engages smallholder producers to restore native tree species on their coffee farms, protect local ecosystems, reduce household debt and strengthen rural livelihoods. This pioneering work earned Black Baza Coffee the Specialty Coffee Association’s Global Sustainability Award in 2025—the first and only Indian organisation to receive this honour. Arshiya is an Acumen Fellow, a National Geographic Explorer and Associate Director of Kinship Conservation Fellows. She holds Coffee Quality Institute's accreditation as a Post‑Harvest Processing Professional and serves as a Lecturer in Post‑Harvest Processing. Her academic and practice interests focus on co‑designing market‑based solutions that deliver tangible social, economic and ecological benefits for smallholder producers and the landscapes they steward.

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.

Dr P Sasidhar is an Environmental Scientist with 40+ years of experience in hazardous and radioactive waste management, environmental impact assessment, groundwater modelling, and sustainability studies. Extensive contributions to safety assessment, remediation technologies, and regulatory compliance for nuclear and industrial facilities.

Education • Ph.D. (Environmental Science/Chemistry), Anna University, 1995 • M.Phil. (Chemistry/Spectroscopy), University of Hyderabad, 1977 • M.Sc., B.Sc. (Chemistry), Osmania University, 1975 & 1973

Certificate Courses: • Disasters and Ecosystems: Resilience in a Changing Climate – Diversity GmbH (2015) • Introductory e-Course on Climate Change – UN CC:Learn & UNITAR (2015) • AI for All: From Basics to GenAI Practice – NVIDIA Academy (2025)

Professional Experience • Scientific Officer (B–G), Dept. of Atomic Energy (BARC, AERB), 1977–2012 – Research in waste treatment, radionuclide migration modelling, environmental safety. • Senior Scientist, IIT Madras – Indo-German Centre for Sustainability, 2013–2017 – Projects on climate change and ecological resilience. • Senior Scientist, Stratus Environmental Inc., 2017–2019 – Groundwater remediation and site assessment studies.

Key Contributions • Developed numerical models for radionuclide migration and site performance assessment (IAEA projects: NSARS, ASAM). • Guided 4 Ph.D. and multiple PG/M.Tech. scholars. • Expertise in Remote Sensing & GIS, Bio-treatment, and Waste-to-Energy studies. • Published ~50 papers; delivered 70+ conference presentations

Paavana P. Varma is a doctoral student in the School of Humanities. Her research explores the concept of charisma in conservation, examining how narratives about nature and species shape human perceptions, ethics, and relationships with the environment. Her research interests include environmental humanities, conservation narratives, human–nature relationships, affect studies, and interdisciplinary approaches to the Anthropocene.

Rupsa Karmakar is a PhD student at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (School of Humanities), Bengaluru, whose research involves archaeometallurgy, indigenous smelting, the history and the processes of metal crafting technology, ethnoarchaeology, and preservation of both tangible and intangible heritages in India. She holds an M.Sc. In Anthropology with a specialization in Paleoanthropology-Prehistoric Archaeology and a B.Sc. in Anthropology from the University of Calcutta.

Manikranth Chakravarthula is a doctoral student at the Conflict Resolution and Peace Research Programme, School of Conflict and Security Studies, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. He holds a Master’s degree in Conflict Analysis and Peacebuilding from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and History from Hindu College, University of Delhi. His research interests centre on political violence and peacebuilding in South Asia, with a focus on Indian approaches, state responses, and the role of civil society in negotiating state-society relations in conflict and post-conflict contexts

Suhas M. is a PhD student at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (School of Humanities), Bengaluru, whose research applies remote sensing and multi sensor geospatial techniques to the documentation, monitoring and conservation of India’s built heritage. He holds an M.Tech in Remote Sensing & GIS (IIRS-ISRO) and a B.E. in Civil Engineering and has worked on digital documentation projects for sites such as Srirangapatna, Raya Gopura (Melukote) and Pattadakallu.

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.