OUR GURUS

Kamaljit S Bawa is a Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and Founder-President of ATREE, one of India’s top-ranked environmental think tanks, based in Bangalore. He has done extensive work in the Himalaya for a number of years on a wide range of issues from biodiversity conservation to climate change. Among the many awards he has received are: Bullard Fellowship at Harvard University (1972, 2009) Guggenheim Fellowship (1987), Pew Scholar in Conservation and the Environment (1992), Giorgio Ruffolo Fellowship at Harvard University (2009), the Gunnerus Prize in Sustainability Science from the Royal Norwegian Society of Letters and Sciences (2012), the international MIDORI Prize in Biodiversity (2014) from the Aeon Foundation in Japan, the Linnean Medal (2018), and honorary doctorates from the University of Alberta (2014) and Concordia University in Montreal(2019). He is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2012), the Royal Norwegian Society of Letters and Sciences (2012), the Royal Society (2015), and the American Philosophical Society (2019). Kamal Bawa is the founding Editor-in-Chief of two interdisciplinary journals: Conservation and Society and Ecology, Economy and Society .

Prof. Maharaj K. Pandit is a Professor of Environmental Studies and the Chief Executive Officer, Institution of Eminence at the University of Delhi. He also holds the position of Chairperson, Research Council, University of Delhi. Prior to assuming this office, he was the Ngee Ann Kongsi Distinguished Visiting Professor at National University of Singapore and Radcliffe Fellow (Life Sciences) at Harvard University, Professor and Head of Environmental Studies and Dean, Faculty of Science at the University of Delhi. He is also an Adjunct Full Professor at the Graduate School, Department of Natural Resources Science, University of Rhode Island, USA. His recognitions and awards include: Elected Member to American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Distinguished Service Award, University of Delhi (2019), Fellow, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi (2016), Radcliffe Exploratory Seminar Award, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University (2016), Fellow, Linnean Society of London (2001), amongst others.

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Prof. Devesh K Sinha is at present, Director, Delhi School of Climate Change and Sustainability Institution of Eminence) and Professor of Oceanography and Marine Geology in the Department of Geology, Centre of Advanced Study at Delhi University. He held one of the top administrative positions in the University of Delhi and worked as Dean of Colleges from 2016-2018. Prof. Sinha has been a member of several important academic committees including those of CSIR and ISRO and UGC and DST (SERB). Prof. Sinha has been a member of Governing Bodies of prestigious Institutions of Delhi University including Miranda College, Patel Chest Institute, BRA Centre for Biomedical Research, CPDHE, and Ex-Chairman of the Governing Body of Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences. Prof. Sinha was also honored with membership of Majlis-i-Talimi (مجلس اے تعلیمی) (Academic Council) of Jamia Millia University, Delhi. He is the recipient of the prestigious Paleontologist Gold Medal from PSI. Prof. Sinha has also been a Participating Shipboard Scientist in International Oceanographic Expeditions conducted under JOINT GLOBAL OCEAN FLUX STUDIES (JGOFS) in Indian Ocean.

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Jaideep Prabhu is Professor of Marketing, Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business and Enterprise, and Director of the Centre for India & Global Business at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. He has published in and is on the editorial board of leading journals such as the Journal of Marketing. He has appeared on BBC News24, BBC Radio 4 and Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and has been profiled in BusinessWeek, BBC World Service, The Economist, The Financial Times, Le Monde, The New York Times and The Times. He has consulted with executives from Bertelsmann, Barclays, BP, BRAC, BT, GE, IBM, ING Bank, M&S, the NHS, Pearson, Roche, Shell, Siemens, Unilever and Vodafone. He is the co-author of Jugaad Innovation: Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth, described by The Economist as “the most comprehensive book yet” on the subject of frugal innovation. His 2015 book Frugal Innovation: How to do Better with Less won the CMI’s Management Book of the Year Award 2016. His most recent book How Should a Government Be: The New Levers of State Power was published in February 2021.

Born in the rural St. Lawrence Valley of New York State, Prof. Shannon Olsson has travelled across four countries and three continents to dedicate herself to listening to nature’s chemical conversations across India’s diverse ecosystems. Her science is committed to laying the foundation for a sustainable India, and her recent studies address, amongst others, ecological agriculture in India's coffee plantations and the effect of climate change on our ecosystem services. A Fulbright Scholar, Ramanujan, and INK Fellow, Shannon’s research has been featured by CNN, Inverse, Cosmos, TEDx, Syntalk, Sci-Illustrate, Dublin Science Gallery, V&A London, Chemical and Engineering News, and the DST Science Express train. With the advice and encouragement of Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, she started the echo network,an international social innovation partnership with the specific focus of increasing scientific awareness, engagement, and insight for sustaining India's human and environmental ecosystems. She also serves through the echo network’s international hub as Special Scientific Envoy to India with the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences (ATV) in close collaboration with the Danish Innovation Center in India (under the auspices of the MFA and the MHER).

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Dr Vibha Dhawan is the Director General of India’s premier research institution- The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and has been associated with TERI since 1985. Dr Dhawan is actively involved in research as well as policy development at the national and international levels. Dr Dhawan is a well-published researcher and has been instrumental in the establishment of the highly successful Micropropagation Technology Park at TERI. In the area of advanced biofuels, she guides the activities of the DBT-TERI Centre on Integrated Production of Advanced Biofuels and Biocommodities. She is the winner of Indian Women Achievers Sammaan 2017 by NRI Achievers; Women Leadership Agriculture Award 2016 by the Indian Council of Food & Agriculture; First Biotech Product and Process Development and Commercialization Award of the Department of Biotechnology in 2000, the Kamal Kumari National Award for Science and Technology and the first All India Biotech Association (AIBA) award in 1998.

Dr. Swati Hegde is a sustainability research specialist with expertise in the areas of waste to value added products, food-water-energy systems, bioplastics, renewable fuels, microplastic pollution in water, and water-gender nexus. Dr. Hegde holds a PhD in Sustainability from the Golisano Institute for Sustainability, Rochester, New York. She holds a Master's degree in Industrial Biotechnology from National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal. In her previous roles, Dr. Hegde worked as Senior Academic Research Coordinator for the Water Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Gender and Water, and as an Assistant Professor of Biotechnology in India. She has over ten years of multidisciplinary experience in applied scientific research, teaching, science communication, environmental impact assessment, and sustainability. As a FCL Guru at TERI, she aspires to empower the younger generation with knowledge, skills, values and attitudes needed to solve the climate crisis

Kaushik Deb is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where his research focuses on policies to achieve a just and efficient energy transition in developing countries, especially the role of oil and gas markets. Prior to joining the Center, Kaushik led the Markets and Industrial Development Program at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center in Riyadh, managing the Center’s engagement with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy in supporting the development of short and long term strategies for oil and gas markets to achieve the Kingdom’s energy sector objectives.

Before this, Kaushik was the Head, Global Gas Markets in Group Economics in BP overseeing analysis that formed the basis for the investment and trading strategy of the company in natural gas. He also led the gas sections of BP’s flagship publications, the Statistical Review of World Energy and the Energy Outlook. Prior to BP, at IDFC (now IDFC Bank), his portfolio included policy research and advocacy on infrastructure and environmental economics issues such as low carbon infrastructure, decentralized electricity services in rural areas, and organized intermediate public transport systems for small towns. He has also guided and implemented research in applied economics in TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) and was the Programme Director of the MBA Programmes at TERI University. Kaushik has a Doctor of Science degree from ETH Zürich and a Master of Arts in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics.