Sixth 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 Michael H. Bergin Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Duke University USA

Prof Michael H Bergin is currently a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University and Faculty Network Member of The Energy Initiative. His general research focus is on the influence of air pollution on both climate and human health. Prof. Bergin's specific interest is particulate matter (PM) in which he has done a wide range of studies on the emission, formation, deposition and impacts of PM. More recently he has been studying the influence of PM on human health with emphasis on determining the relative contributions of sources (such as biomass burning and vehicular emissions) to acute health impacts. He was also involved in developing and deploying the next generation of air quality sensors to inform citizens on the quality of the air they are breathing so that they can make informed decisions to improve their air. Prof Bergin's vision involves combining a multidisciplinary, multicultural approach to research and education that brings together researchers from around the world to collectively work together to make the air cleaner. He has won several awards for teaching and research including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest award bestowed upon an engineer/scientist at the onset of their careers.

Prof Souvik Bhattacharyya Vice Chancellor and Senior Professor BITS Pilani Pilani, India

Prof Souvik Bhattacharyya is the Vice-Chancellor of the BITS Pilani, prior to which he served as the Deputy Director of IIT Kharagpur and the Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Prof. Bhattacharyya graduated from Jadavpur University with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering followed by Master's from University of Cincinnati and PhD from Texas A&M University. After a brief post-doctoral stint at Texas A&M, he joined the faculty of IIT Kharagpur where he also served as the Dean of Students' Affairs and Professor (HAG). He also held faculty position at University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand and served as a Member of the Research Council of CSIR-CGCRI, the General Council & Executive Board of ISM, Dhanbad, the Civil & Mechanical Engineering Project Advisory Committee (PAC) of SERB, DST and a member of the Committee on Fast track scheme for young scientists, DST during 2007 - 2012. A Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), National Academy of Science, India (NASI) and WB Academy of Science & Technology, Dr Bhattacharyya has been on the Editorial Boards of International Journal of Power and Energy Systems, Journal of Nano Energy and Power Research, Energy Conversion and Management, and International Journal Alternative Energy. His research interests include heat transfer enhancement, thermodynamic optimization, energy engineering, natural refrigerant based transcritical heating-cooling systems and natural circulation loops. He is also the co-author of the celebrated Heat Transfer text with J P Holman. He is well known as a teacher among the students of IIT Kharagpur and was the first recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award of Indian National Academy of Engineering in its inaugural year in 2013.

Prof. Bakul Dholakia Former Director Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Prof Bakul H Dholakia is a Professor at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and currently the Director of Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management. During his 42 years of professional career, Prof Dholakia has served in various capacities and headed several committees most notable of which include the Director, Reserve Bank of India Chair, Dean, Chairman of the MBA Program and Chairman of Economics Area at IIMA. He has also served as the Board Member of Reserve Bank of India Western Area Board, Chairman of the National Board of Accreditation for Technical Education in India and External Director on the Board of public and private sector companies. Over the last two decades, Prof Dholakia has worked on numerous government committees including the Rangarajan committee on pricing and taxation of petroleum products and the expert group on pension fund constituted by the government of India. He has also been a member of the jury for various corporate excellence awards and selection committees for CEOs. A Gold Medalist from Baroda University and with a Doctorate in Economics, Prof Dholakia has guided 19 Ph.D. students and received the IIMA Best Professor Award for his teaching contributions. His achievements in institution building and contribution to management education in India have been recognized nationally and internationally through various awards and honors including 2007 Padma Shri by the Government of India and 2008 Bharat Asmita National Award by the Honorable Chief Justice of India. He was honored by the Association of Indian Americans in North America (AIANA) at the World Gujarati Conference at New Jersey, Global Associations of Business Schools and was nominated to the Board of Global Foundation for Management Education to represent Asia.

Prof Deepak Kunzru Distinguished Professor (Chemical Engineering) Ahmedabad University Ahmedabad

Prof Deepak Kunzru is a Distinguished Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Ahmedabad University. Prior to this position he was the Chevron Chair Professor at IIT Kanpur and served the institute as the Head of Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Dean of Resource Planning and Generation and Dean of Research & Development and as an expert in several national committees. He received his BTech from IIT Kanpur in 1968 and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 1972. Professor Kunzru's main research interests are in the area of microstructured reactors, chemical reaction engineering, pyrolysis of hydrocarbons and petroleum processing. His current research focuses on the use of monolithic reactors for gas-liquid reactions and steam reforming of methane, production of hydrogen from ethanol in micro channel reactors and the development of catalysts for hydrodesulfurization. Presently, he is Chairman of the Program Advisory Committee (Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering) of Science and Engineering Research Board, New Delhi; Research Advisory Committee of HPCL R&D and Independent Director of Green Gas Ltd. He served as Member, Board of Governors, and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology from 2007-16. He has been elected as Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (2002) and the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad (2009), and has been a recipient of the Herdillia Award, IIChE (1992), Kuloor Memorial Award, IIChE (1999) and the G.M. Abhyankar Memorial Distinguished Fellowship in Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai for 2010-2011.

Prof. Indira J Parikh President Antardisha

Prof. Indira J. Parikh is the President of Antardisha (Directions from Within). Antardisha is a private entity creating a space for individuals, collectivities, organizations and institutions to have a dialogue to discover themselves, to review their past, to reflect on the present "Here and Now" and renew themselves for the future. Prof. Parikh is the Founder President of FLAME University, Pune until 2015. She has been involved in creating the academic vision of holistic and Liberal Education and shaping FLAME. She has also conceptualized the models of management development programs anchored in thresholds of Life, Life Space and Work Space, and Life Roles and Identity. Her focus is on transformation and lifelong learning, development and growth. She is the founder member of Sumedhas Academy of Human Context. She is also the founder of AURONYA College at Puducherry. Prof. Parikh has done M.Ed from University of Rochester, New York USA and the Doctorate from Gujarat University. She was a faculty at IIM-Ahmedabad for over 30 years and Dean from 2002 to 2005. She has taught at INSEAD, Fontainebleau (France) and Texas A&M University. She has specialized in organization development and design, and institution building. She has been a consultant and conducted diagnostic studies for organizations. She has designed and conducted leadership and institution building programs in public sector, private sector and multinational organizations. Professor Parikh is on several boards of companies as an independent director. Prof. Parikh has been honored with several life time achievement awards both nationally and internationally for her contribution in Education, HR and for Women. She has written numerous articles published in National & International Journals and is the co-author/ author of several books. Her lifelong journey has been in education and transformation of women, men and youth to grow into fine human beings.

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.