Eighth Academic Advisory Council

Prof Ravi Banavar Professor, Systems and Control Engineering Indian Institue of Technology Bombay

Prof Ravi N Banavar is a Professor in the Systems and Control Engineering group at IIT Bombay and was the Convener of the group for nearly 6 years from 2009. The Systems and Control group is a unique interdisciplinary group in India offering graduate education (Masters and doctoral program) in the field. During his convenership, the strength of the group grew from 5 to 9 members, with academic strengths in nonlinear control, switched systems, optimization, geometric mechanics, formation and cooperative control, robotics and adaptive control. His research interests are broadly in the area of geometric mechanics, nonlinear and optimal control, locomotion with applications in aerospace, mechanical and micro robotic applications. He is currently a Visiting Professor for a semester in the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Gandhinagar. Prof Banavar received his BTech from IIT Madras, M. S. from Clemson University and PhD from University of Texas, Austin. He was the Pratt and Whitney Visiting Chair Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at IISc from July to Dec 2015. He is an Associate Editor of the Elsevier journal, Systems and Control Letters, as also the Taylor and Francis publication, The International Journal of Control.

Prof. Pratim Biswas Chairman of the Department of Energy Washington University St. Louis, USA

Prof. Biswas is the Chairman of the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. He has won several teaching and research awards including the recipient of the 1991 Kenneth Whitby Award given for outstanding contributions by the American Association for Aerosol Research and the Neil Wandmacher Teaching Award of the College of Engineering in 1994. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Science, St. Louis in 2003, and a Fellow of the American Association for Aerosol Research in 2009. He has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT Bombay in 2011; and the Distinguished Faculty Award from Washington University in 2012. Prof. Biswas has played a leading role at the National and International arena in the field of Aerosol Science and Technology by serving on several National Committees. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the McDonnell International Scholars Academy, and an Ambassador to the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Prof. Biswas is also the Director of the McDonnell Academy Global Energy & Environment Partnership (MAGEEP) and a member of the Steering Committee for I-CARES (International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy & Sustainability). He is playing a leading role in advancing the state of art research in promoting Energy and Environmental areas, with a key role in establishing consortia such as CCCU (Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization) and SERIIUS (Solar Energy Research Institute for India and US). Prof. Biswas obtained his B. Tech from IIT Bombay, M.S from University of California and Ph. D from California Institute of Technology, USA.

Prof Frederick L Coolidge Professor, Psychology Department University of Colorado Colorado, USA

Prof Coolidge is a Professor of Psychology at University of Colorado (UCCS), USA. He received his BA, MA, and Ph.D from the University of Florida and completed a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology at Shands Teaching Hospital, University of Florida. He joined UCCS in 1979 and served as the Chair of the Department from 1986-1989 and as the Clinical Director from 1981-1984. Prof Coolidge is a three-time Fulbright Fellowship Award recipient (India, 1987, 1992, 2005). He has received three teaching awards including the lifetime designation, University of Colorado Presidential Teaching Scholar, received the UCCS Letters, Arts, and Sciences Annual Outstanding Research and Creative Works Award, 2004-2005, and the UCCS Annual Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, 2006-2007. Prof Coolidge is a member of the Association for Psychological Science and the European Society for Human Evolution. He teaches introductory statistics, cognitive evolution, dream interpretation as a psychotherapeutic technique, and evolutionary neuropsychology. He has published eight books and over 140 journal articles.

Prof Vipin Kumar Professor, Graduate Program Coordinator Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Washington USA

Prof Kumar is currently Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University of Washington, USA. He holds a BTech degree from IIT Kanpur in Mechanical Engineering, and M.S and MBA from University of Rhode Island in 1972 and 1974 respectively and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988. Prof Kumar's professional interests lie in the areas of design and manufacturing, including product and process design. His research program focuses on microcellular and nanocellular polymers, a family of novel cellular materials expected to be used in a variety of applications in the decades to come. Prof Kumar has a special interest in innovation and technology transfer.

Prof Mythily Ramaswamy Professor TIFR Centre for Applicable Mathematics Bangalore

Prof Mythily Ramaswamy is a Professor in the School of Mathematics at TIFR, Bangalore and recently completed her term as the Dean of the center. She was awarded the PhD from University of Paris 6 and has been visiting faculty at the University of Rome, University of Paris and Toulouse, University of Rutgers, State University of Mississippi and Virginia Tech. She was the Sofia Kowalewsky visiting Professor at University of Kaiserslautern, Germany and received the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship, 2016-17. Prof Ramaswamy's research interest lies in Analysis of differential equations and applications to control problems. She also likes to read and write about the life of great mathematicians and has contributed articles in the journal "Resonance" on the lives of two pioneering women mathematicians. Recipient of the Karnataka State Kalpana Chawla award for women scientists, 2004, a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad She serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Ramanujan Mathematical Society, Proceedings of Indian Academy of Sciences-Mathematical Sciences and Boundary Value Problems. Currently she is also a guest professor at IIT Gandhinagar and serves as a Board member of IIT Gandhinagar and NIT Calicut Board of Governors and is a member of the IISERs standing committee.

Prof Supreet Saini Assistant Professor Indian Institue of Technology Bombay

Prof Supreet Saini is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai (since 2012). Prior to joining IIT Bombay, he was an Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering at IIT Gandhinagar (2010 - 2012), where he also headed the Faculty Recruitment Committee among other responsibilities. Prof Saini completed his PhD in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2010) and B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi (2005). His research interests are in the area of evolutionary microbiology.

Prof. Dheeraj Sanghi Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor Department of Computer Science, IIT Kanpur. Kanpur

Prof. Dheeraj Sanghi is Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kanpur. From 2008 - 2010, he served as the Director, LNM Institute of Information Technology (LNMIIT), a public-private partnership University in Jaipur. He was Dean of Academic Affairs at IIT Kanpur from 2011 to 2014. His administrative experience includes running the Institute Computer Center, managing Graduate Admissions, Student Counseling, managing UG education at IIT Kanpur (as Chairman of Senate Under Graduate Committee), design of CS curriculum. He is passionate about improving higher education and runs a popular blog on the topic. During 2006, he visited about 70 colleges in India to discuss issues related to career planning, including the need to do post-graduate studies. Professor Sanghi has a B. Tech from IIT Kanpur, and M. S. and Ph. D. from University of Maryland. His research interests lie in Computer Networks and Network security.

Prof. Satish K. Tripathi President State University of New York Buffalo, USA

Prof. Satish K. Tripathi serves as President of the University at Buffalo. An internationally recognized computer scientist, Prof. Tripathi joined UB as Provost - the university's chief academic officer - on July 1, 2004, after serving as Dean of the Bourns College of Engineering at the University of California, Riverside. He was one of the creators of the UB 2020 strategic plan to achieve academic and research excellence. Prior to joining UC Riverside in 1997, he was a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, where his 19 years as a faculty member included being chair from 1988 -1995. He was a visiting professor at the University of Paris-Sud in France and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany while at the University of Maryland. He has published more than 200 papers and supervised more than 30 Doctoral and Postdoctoral student. He is a fellow of the IEEE and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Buffalo Urban League. Prof. Tripathi is the first international-born president in UB's history, a fitting distinction for one of the most international universities in the U.S. In addition to a doctorate in computer science earned from the University of Toronto in 1979, he holds three master's degrees, one in computer science from the University of Toronto (1976) and two in statistics from the University of Alberta (1974) and Banaras Hindu University (1970). He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree from IIIT Allahabad.