Twelveth Academic Advisory Council

Mr Michael A. Alvarez Board Member, Hospital de la Familia Foundation and Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, USA

Mr Michael A. Alvarez is a seasoned professional with a rich career spanning multiple high-impact roles in academia, medical settings, industry, and consulting, with deep expertise advising business and medical professionals within their chosen areas of interest and specialization. His contributions are characterized by strong leadership skills, innovative program development, and the ability to structure meaningful strategic partnerships between industry and academia. Early in his career he was a management consultant with Accenture in NYC, focused on biopharma and energy clients. Mr Alvarez later founded and directed centers for workforce development industry relations, entrepreneurship, and innovation at premier institutions including Stanford University, Columbia University, UC San Francisco, and MD Anderson. His strategic vision, seasoned leadership, and management capabilities enabled him to from high functioning teams and transform the centers he has led into globally recognized world class operations. His contributions have not only driven technological advancements and enhanced the training of biomedical and business professionals, but also enhanced global health, improving access and equity in Latin America, India, and across the US, reflecting a comprehensive impact on the healthcare and life sciences industries and their workforces. He serves on several Boards including the Hospital de La Familia Foundation, advancing healthcare access in Guatemala; the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, increasing STEM education among Latinos; and the IndUS Setu Global Foundation, fostering opportunities to advance US-India shared goals related to health and economic prosperity. Mr Alvarez holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Boston College, and certificates in Executive Leadership (UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business), Intellectual Property (University of Washington), and Healthcare Economics (Harvard Business School).

Prof Rajendra Kumar Bordia George J. Bishop, III Chair Professor of Ceramics and Materials Engineering Clemson University, USA

Prof Rajendra Kumar Bordia received his undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and his M.S and PhD from Cornell University in Materials Science and Engineering. Prof Bordia is the George J. Bishop, III Endowed Chair Professor of Ceramics and Materials Engineering. He has served as the Chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Clemson University (2013-2019). From 1991 to 2013, he was a faculty member in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington (UW). He started his career as a Research Scientist in the Central Research and Development of DuPont Co. from 1986 to 1991. He is currently a Guest Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, India. Prof Bordia’s research is at the intersection of materials and mechanics and is focused on fundamental and applied studies in the processing and properties of complex material systems for energy, environmental, and medical applications. Current emphasis is on ceramics, composites, multilayered, and porous materials. He has been the thesis advisor of 18 PhD students, 15 Masters students, and mentored and supervised the research of over 20 post-doctoral research associates and over 25 visiting graduate students, scientists and professors. Prof Bordia has authored or co-authored over 190 peer-reviewed technical publications and has presented over 300 invited lectures and seminars. In his academic career, he has been a PI or Co-PI on over USD 70 Million of extramural research funding. He is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, the Indian Institute of Metals, and the International Society for Energy, Environment and Sustainability. He has also been elected as an Academician in the World Academy of Ceramic.

Prof Frederick L Coolidge Professor Co-Director of Undergraduate Education, Psychology Department, University of Colorado, USA

Prof Frederick Coolidge received his BA, MA, and PhD from the University of Florida (UF) and completed a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology at UF. He is Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS). Currently, he is also Co-Director of Undergraduate Education in Psychology, and Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Archaeology. He has received several teaching awards, including the lifetime designation as University of Colorado Presidential Teaching Scholar. He also received the UCCS LAS Annual Outstanding Research and Creative Works Award (2004), and the UCCS Annual Faculty Award for Excellence in Research (2006). Prof Coolidge is a three-time Fulbright Fellowship Award recipient (1987 NIMHANS, 1992 Manipal, 2005 India-wide). For the past nine years, he has been a Visiting Professor/Guest Professor at IIT Gandhinagar, teaching courses on research methods, brain evolution, and sleep and dreams. Prof Coolidge is a member of the Association of Psychological Science, the European Society for Human Evolution, the Society for American Archaeology, and International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences. He teaches introductory and advanced undergraduate statistics, cognitive evolution, evolutionary neuropsychology, abnormal psychology, and sleep and dreams.

Prof Ashish Garg Professor and Head Department of Sustainable Energy Engineering and Kotak School of Sustainability, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Prof Ashish Garg is an engineer by training and is currently Professor and the Head of Sustainable Energy Engineering (Founding) at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. He has founded several sustainability-related entities and actions at IIT Kanpur since 2020, including the Department of Sustainable Energy Engineering, Kesavan Center for Energy Policy and Climate Solutions, and Kotak School of Sustainability, securing external funding of over 125 Cr. Prof Garg research is on different aspects of clean energy and sustainability, with current interests in solar photovoltaics, energy harvesting, hydrogen, recycling, decarbonization, NetZero, and energy policy matters, with over 200 research publications. For his research, he has worked with several universities and companies, nationally and internationally, with executed projects of 20+ Crores as PI and co-PI. Prof Garg research has given rise to 30+ Masters and 15+ PhD theses. He is also a passionate teacher with a few courses on MOOC platform which are globally accessible. He has conducted several national-level exercises to develop a well-rounded materials engineering curriculum that has resulted in a few initiatives in IITs/NITs and IISc. He is a regular speaker and panellist on several forums related to sustainability. He passionately advocates sustainable living and sustainable practices for a better world and for adopting a collaborative approach for the same. In his free time, he loves to trek in Himalayas.

Dr Yogesh Goyal Assistant Professor Feinberg School of Medicine and McCormick, School of Engineering, Northwestern University, USA

Dr Yogesh Goyal received his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the IIT Gandhinagar and PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Princeton University. Dr Goyal is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University. His lab is housed within the Center for Synthetic Biology. With a unique background in engineering, developmental biology, biophysical modeling, and single-cell biology, the Goyal Lab develops quantitative approaches to problems in developmental biology and cancer drug resistance. Dr Goyal’s work has been awarded highly prestigious awards from various private foundations including from Pew Charitable Trust, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Jane Coffin Childs, Cancer Research Foundation, STAT Wunderkinds, and Schmidt Science Fellows.

Prof Nuno Guimarães Professor Department of Information Science and Technology (ISTA), University Institute of Lisbon, (ISCTE-IUL), Portugal

Prof Nuno Guimarães graduated in 1983 in Electrotechnical Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST/UTL), MSc. In EEC IST/UTL (1987) and got his PhD in Electrotechnical and Computer Engineering (1992) from IST, Lisbon, Portugal. He was Professor at IST/UTL (1992/1997) and Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (1997/2012), invited Professor at the TUB (Berlin Institute of Technology) Germany (2010), and consultant/researcher at AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ, USA (1989-1991). He was Dean of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (2003-2009), Pro & Vice Rector of ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon (2012-2018). He was a member of the board and founder of several startup IT companies (1999 to 2006). Prof Guimarães is Senior Member of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) since 2012, Chair of the Portuguese Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC) since 2021, and Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Cyberspace and Law Research Center of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon since 2022. His academic and scientific interests include Human Computer Interaction and User Experience, Digital Society Challenges, Technology and Law. He is a visiting scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar since 2014.

Mr Prabal Gupta Executive Director US-India Initiatives & Innovation, University of California, San Diego, USA

Shri Prabal Gupta holds a Master of Science concentrating in Research Methodology and Quantitative Methods from University of Massachusetts Amherst (1993). Shri Gupta is a senior business leader with Board level experience and leadership roles in global, blue chip financial firms across asset management, private equity, M&A and corporate finance business divisions in US, UK and Middle East. Shri Gupta has held senior executive roles in leading firms globally: Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab, Nicholas Applegate (Allianz subsidiary), Lloyds Banking Group, Bank Muscat. He spearheaded several strategic partnerships across many global jurisdictions with premiere global banks and financial institutions. Shri Gupta also served as an Officer of the Board at Nicholas Applegate Institutional Funds. He has also been featured in many trade journals & financial publications. Shri Gupta was the President of TiE, South Coast chapter ((Orange County to San Diego), which is the largest non-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals, established to foster entrepreneurship & mentorship. He was an Advisory Member of the Loomba Foundation in London (UN Approved Charity) and also was the Treasurer and Board Member of the Muscat American Business Council, US Embassy Commercial arm in Oman.

Prof Pankaj Jalote Distinguished Professor Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi

Prof Pankaj Jalote is currently a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi. He was the founding Director of IIIT-Delhi from 2008-2018. Earlier, he has also been an Assistant Professor at University of Maryland College Park, Professor and Head of Computer Science Department at IIT Kanpur, and Chair Professor at IIT Delhi, he has also been Vice President at Infosys for two years, Visiting Researcher at Microsoft in Redmond for one year, and Interim Vice Chancellor of Delhi Technological University (DTU) for six months. He has a B.Tech. from IIT Kanpur, MS from Pennsylvania State University, and Ph.D from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of five books, some of which have been translated in Chinese, Japanese, Korean etc, and the Indian edition of his text on Software Engineering was adjudged the bestselling book by the publisher. His main area of interest is Software Engineering and Higher Education. He has served on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Intl. Journal on Empirical Software Engineering, and IEEE Trans. on Services Computing. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and INAE and a Distinguished Alumnus of IIT Kanpur.

Prof Ashok Kumar Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nanotechnology Research and Education Center and Clean Energy Research Center, University of South Florida, USA

Prof Ashok Kumar received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and Ph.D. from North Carolina State University, Raleigh. Prof Kumar is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Florida, Tampa. Prof Kumar is also affiliated faculty member of Clean Energy Research Center (CERC) and USF Nanomedicine Research Center. He has published three textbooks, edited seven proceeding books, three invited review articles, 12 book chapters including 225 peer reviewed articles (approx. 125 journal articles and 97 conference proceeding articles) and has presented approximately 316 papers in regional and national conferences including 55 invited talks. He has been an invited speaker and session organizer at many national and international meetings. He has received an excess of 8.7 million dollar of research funding as PI and more than 24.3 million dollars as Co-PI. Prof Kumar also acted as Cluster Director of the Alabama NASA EPSCoR Advanced Materials research program of approx. $3.5M (1994-1999) to supervise the state-wide research activities comprising of five major universities and six small colleges with two HBCUs. His excellence as a researcher has been recognized by a number of honors, including ASM Fellow, ASM-IIM Visiting Lecture Award (2007), Theodore and Venette Askounes Ashford Distinguished Scholar Award (2006), USF Outstanding Faculty Research Achievement Award (2004), USF President Faculty Excellence Award (2003), NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award (2000), National Research Council Twining Fellowship Award (1997) and, NSF and DOE EPSCoR Young Investigator Awards (1996-97). He also received the Professor Honorario award from the Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia (2009). Dr. Kumar is Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Society of Metals (ASM), American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME), Society of Manufacturing Engineering (SME), and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

Prof Robert Lund Professor and Chair Department of Statistics, Baskin School of Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

Prof Robert Lund received his undergraduate degree from Auburn University and PhD in statistics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Prof Lund is a Professor and department Chair of statistics at the Baskin School of Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz. He is a 2007 elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association and was the 2005-2007 Chief Editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association. He has published over 110 refereed papers and has graduated 26 PhD students. His research expertise lies in probability and statistical climatology.

Prof Shekhar C Mande Distinguished Professor Bioinformatics Centre, Savitribai Phule Pune University and JC Bose Fellow, National Centre for Cell Science. Former Director General, CSIR & Secretary, DSIR, Govt of India.

Prof Shekhar Mande received his M.Sc in Physics from the University of Nagpur in 1984 and PhD in Molecular Biophysics, from IISc Bangalore in 1991. Following his PhD, he worked as a Postdoctoral researcher at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in the Netherlands. He has served on many national and international committees, including the scientific advisory committee of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Trieste, Italy; Management Council of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai; member of the Council of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; member of the Management Councils of the Solapur University and the Savitribai Phule Pune University; member of the Governing Body of the Indo-French Centre for Promotion of Advanced Research (CEFIPRA), etc. Prof Mande is currently Distinguished Professor at the Bioinformatics Centre, Savitribai Phule Pune University, the position which is generously funded by Dr. Anand Deshpande. He is an elected Fellow of all three Science academies, namely, National Science Academy of India, Allahabad; Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore and Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi. He has been recognized by many awards, mainly the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Biological Sciences in 2005. He served as the Director General of CSIR and Secretary of DSIR, Govt of India during October 2018- April 2022.

Prof Barjor Mehta President CEPT University Ahmedabad

Prof Barjor Mehta is the President of CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India. The University was established in 1962 and focuses on understanding, designing, planning, constructing, and managing human habitats. The University comprises six Faculties, namely: Architecture, Planning, Technology, Design, Management and a Foundation Program. The Government of India has recognized CEPT University as one of four Centers of Excellence in urban planning and urban design. Barjor has close to 40 years of experience working on a wide range of aspects of the urban sector. Prior to joining CEPT University, Prof Mehta worked with the World Bank for 23 years and was based in Washington DC, Dar es Salaam, New Delhi, Beijing, and Singapore from where he worked on multiple urban sector projects across several countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, and South Asia. Before joining the World Bank, Prof Mehta has lived and worked on urban initiatives in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Bhutan. Prof Mehta is an architect and urban planner.

Dr Samir Mittal Chief Technology Officer Micron Technology

Dr Samir Mittal leads AI in Silicon Systems Design and Advanced Memory Systems development at Micron Technology which comprises the following functions: DRAM module development, CXL product development, Mixed signal silicon development, Design automation, Product yield engineering, Competitive analysis, Global lab infrastructure, and Custom software development. Dr Mittal guides Micron’s university engagements for systems and design. He is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for College of Engineering at The Ohio State University. As an executive champion of the Micron’s Center of Excellence at Georgia Institute of Technology, he serves on the advisory board of the Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering. Dr Mittal is currently spearheading efforts to build a strategic relationship between Micron and IIT Gandhinagar. Prior to Micron, Dr Mittal founded SCUTI AI, a startup focused on next generation data center infrastructure for deep learning applications. Dr Mittal and the SCUTI team transitioned to Micron designing and developing data center persistent memory (3DXP) products where they launched the world’s fastest SSD in record time. Prior to SCUTI AI, he was VP of Engineering at SanDisk leading the industry transition to an All-Flash data center with full stack solutions. Dr Mittal also held senior leadership roles at Qumu Corporation delivering secure cloud services video products, and at Seagate Technology in hard disk drive-based storage products. Dr Mittal earned a doctorate from The Ohio State University, specializing in control systems and signal processing. He has been recognized by the university with the E.G. Bailey award for entrepreneurship as an outstanding alumnus.

Prof Richard K Miller President Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, USA

Prof Richard Miller earned his B.S at the University of California, Davis, his S.M. from MIT, and Ph.D from the California Institute of Technology, USA. Prof Miller was appointed President and first employee of Olin College of Engineering in 1999; in June 2020 he became President Emeritus. He then served as the Jerome C. Hunsaker Visiting Professor of Aerospace Systems at MIT (2020-2021). Prof Miller is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, The Royal Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Inventors, and a Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He is co-recipient of the NAE Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education twice—in 2013 and again in 2022. Prof Miller also received the 2017 Brock International Prize in Education, and the 2011 Marlowe Award from the American Society for Engineering Education. In 2014, he received the Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award and in 2002 he received the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award from the University of California at Davis. Prof Miller has served as Chair of the Board on Higher Education and Workforce of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and as Chair of the Engineering Advisory Committee of the National Science Foundation.

Prof Prabhat Munshi Senior Professor Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Jammu

Prof Prabhat Munshi obtained his B.Tech from IIT Kanpur in 1977, MS from the Ohio State University in 1979 and PhD from IIT Kanpur in 1989. He was a Humboldt Research Fellow at the Fraunhofer Institute for Nondestructive Testing (IZFP) in Germany (1992) before joining IIT Kanpur as a faculty member in Computer Science and Engineering. Since 2023, Prof Munshi has been a Senior Professor at IIT Jammu. His interests include Nondestructive testing, particularly with respect to nuclear safety, as well as computerized tomography and wireless diagnostics. He has published over 100 articles in various reputed journals.

Prof Govidan Parayil Dean and Professor Patel College of Global Sustainability and Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies, University of South Florida, USA

Prof Govindan Parayil earned his Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Va. (1990), his M.A. in Applied Economics from American University, Washington, DC (1985), an M.S. in Science, Technology and Policy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y. (1983), and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Calicut, India (1978) (formerly Regional Engineering College Calicut). He was a Rockefeller Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Global Environmental Change at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Since 2017, Prof Parayil has been serving as Dean and Professor of the Dr. Kiran Patel College of Global Sustainability at the University of South Florida (USF). At USF he also holds a concurrent appointment as a tenured full professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies. He was Vice-Rector of United Nations University (UNU), Tokyo, Japan (2008-2014) and Director of UNU Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (2009-2013) while on leave from the University of Oslo, Norway, where he was Professor of Science, Technology and Innovation (2004-2015). He was an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Information and Communications Management, National University of Singapore, and an Assistant Professor in the Division of Social Sciences at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He has authored, edited and co-edited six books and published more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, as well as numerous book chapters. A leading expert in the field of global sustainability with particular interest in energy and climate change, Prof Parayil follows an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability – from describing problems using knowledge and analytical tools from engineering, management and social sciences to finding innovative solutions that are user-focused and market-driven.

Shri Jignesh Patel President IIT Gandhinagar Foundation, USA

Shri Jignesh Patel received an M.S. in Industrial Administration from Purdue University in 1993, a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1992, and holds a CFA designation. Shri Patel established an investment platform Charioteer Capital in 2018 to make diversified private investments in sectors such as commercial properties and startup ventures. His venture portfolio includes 15+ companies in various domains, typically at the seed level. Prior to that, he was a Senior Managing Director at C-III Capital Partners – a $4 Billion NYC based real estate investment company where he was responsible for investments in opportunistic commercial real estate securities such as CMBS and CRE CLOs. For three years prior to C-III, Jignesh managed National Australia Bank’s (“NAB”) approx. $1 billion CMBS, CRE CDO, and commercial real estate loan and swap portfolio in the US and UK. Previous to NAB, Shri Patel was a member of the CMBS trading desk at Bear Stearns and J.P.Morgan for eight years. He was responsible for secondary trading of commercial real estate backed securities. He also headed the structuring group, where he led the structuring of over $30 billion of transactions. Shri Patel is an active participant in various nonprofit organizations: He is President of Pratham NY Tri-State, President of IIT Gandhinagar Foundation, and a board member of TiE NY. He was previously on the board of IIT Bombay Heritage Foundation.

Prof Mythily Ramaswamy Professor, Professor (Retd.) School of Mathematics Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore

Prof Ramaswamy retired as Professor in the School of Mathematics at T.I.F.R, Bangalore in 2019 and had earlier completed her term as the Dean of the center (2011-2014). She was NASI Senior Scientist attached to ICTS-TIFR, Bangalore and currently is Senior Visiting Associate, ICTS and Adjunct Professor in Chennai Mathematical Institute. 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. Prof Ramaswamy 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 lives of great mathematicians and has contributed articles in the journal “Resonance” on the lives of two pioneering women mathematicians. Prof Ramaswamy is the 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, Recipient of Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis Medal, she serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Ramanujan Mathematical Society, and earlier served in Proceedings of Indian Academy of Sciences-Mathematical Sciences and Boundary Value Problems.

Prof Supreet Saini Professor, Chemical Engineering & Fellow, Wellcome Trust/DBT (India Alliance) Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Prof Supreet Saini obtained his BTech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi in 2005 and PhD in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2010. Prof Saini is a Professor & a DBT/Wellcome Trust (India Alliance) Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Bombay. Prior to joining IIT Bombay, he was an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at IIT Gandhinagar (2010-2012), where he also headed the Faculty Recruitment Committee among other responsibilities. He is the recipient of the Young Engineer Award 2017 (Indian National Academy of Engineering) and the Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award 2011 (Department of Biotechnology). His research interests include understanding how chance, determinism, and history shape evolutionary trajectories of populations and communities.

Prof Chandrima Shaha INSA Senior Scientist Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata

Prof Chandrima Shaha received her MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Calcutta followed by postdoctoral training at the Kansas University Medical Center and The Population Council at Rockefeller University, New York. Prof Shaha is the former Director and Professor of Eminence, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, and the immediate past President of the Indian National Science Academy. Her research interest revolves around the phenomenon of cell death and her laboratory has contributed substantially to the understanding of cell death in unicellular organisms. Amongst the several prestigious awards, she is the recipient of the Ranbaxy Award for Basic Sciences and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar medal of INSA. She was a JC Bose National Fellow, Govt. of India and is an elected Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Trieste, Italy; Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Delhi; Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore; National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad; West Bengal Academy of Sciences, Kolkata. Prof Shaha served/serving as a Member of the Council of all four Academies of Sciences of India and is on the committee for TWAS Awards. She is currently a Member of the Governing Council, Indian Association of Cultivation of Science, Bose Institute, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. She is a member of the ‘Scientific Advisory Committee’ of the National Institute of Plant Genome Research, Delhi and the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa. Formerly, Prof Shaha served on the ‘International Consortium on Male Contraception’, in New York; and the ‘Steering Committee for the Task Force on Regulation of Male Fertility’ of the World Health Organization, Geneva. She was Chair of ‘Biotechnology based program for Women’, Department of Biotechnology.

Prof Nitish V Thakor Professor of Biomedical Eng, Electrical Eng, Neurology Johns Hopkins University, USA

Prof Nitish Thakor received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay and earned both M.S. in and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prof Thakor is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also has an appointment in the Johns Hopkins Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Prof Thakor directs the Laboratory for Neuroengineering and is also the director of the NIH Training Grant on Neuroengineering. He also served as the founding Director of Singapore Institute for Neurotechnology (SINAPSE) from 2008-2022. Prof Thakor teaches Medical Instrumentation and Rehabilitation Engineering, and his research focuses on neuroengineering (technologies for brain monitoring, brain machine interface, neurally controlled upper limb prosthesis). He is an author/co-author of more than 450 refereed publications and a Major Reference Work Handbook of Neuroengineering. He is actively engaged in international scientific programs, collaborative exchanges with various Universities. Prof Thakor is a recipient of a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health and a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, IEEE, Founding Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, Fellow of International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering and is an elected member of the National Academy of Inventors. Dr. Thakor is a Distinguished Alumnus and Distinguished Service Alumnus of IIT Bombay.

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

An internationally distinguished researcher and higher education leader, Prof Tripathi, PhD, is the University at Buffalo’s 15th president. Prof Tripathi, who served as UB’s provost from 2004-2011, was dean of the Bourns College of Engineering at the University of California, Riverside, from 1997-2004. Previously, he spent 19 years as professor of computer science at the University of Maryland, including seven years as department Chair. In 2024, Prof Tripathi was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A fellow of IEEE and AAAS, he has published more than 200 scholarly papers and supervised more than 30 doctoral and postdoctoral students. He served on editorial boards of many international scholarly journals and program committees of numerous international conferences. Prof Tripathi graduated at the top of his class from Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in computer science from the University of Toronto, as well as master’s degrees in statistics from the University of Alberta and BHU. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from BHU and honorary doctorates from Maharaja Surajmal Brij University, the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, and Brock University in Canada. Prof Tripathi is co-chair of the Association of American Universities (AAU) Task Force on Expanding U.S.-India University Partnerships, and he serves on the College Football Playoff Board of Managers. Previously, he was chair of the Mid-American Conference Council of Presidents and Internet 2. He also served on the boards of the AAU, the NCAA Division I, the NCAA Board of Governors, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

Prof. Nitin Kumar Tripathi Vice President of Academic Affairs, Executive Director-Special Degree Program Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand

Prof Nitin Tripathi received his PhD and MTech in Remote Sensing from IIT Kanpur in 1994 and 1987, respectively, and BTech in Civil Engineering from NIT Warangal in 1984. Prof Tripathi is the Executive Director of Special Degree Programmes at Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand, and is a Professor of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems there. Previously, he served as the Dean, School of Engineering and Technology, Director, Academic Quality, Leader ICT, and Coordinator of Remote Sensing and GIS at AIT. Before joining AIT, he worked at IIT Kanpur as a lecturer and assistant professor (1989-94). He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Geoinformatics and is a life member of Association for Geoinformation Technology and Indian Society of Remote Sensing. Prof Tripathi has authored over 232 peer-reviewed papers, Books, Book Chapters in the area of Geoinformatics applications for health, forest, environment, and marine and coastal zone monitoring, and has guided nearly 175 masters and 49 doctoral students. He is a recipient of the DAE Young Scientists Award (1994), AICTE Career Award (1996), and Osaka City University Distinguished Researcher Award (2007), as well as the Distinguished Alumni Award from NIT Warangal (2006).