Management - aquamap

Organizational Chart

Governing Board Members

Prof -V. Kamakoti

Chairman (GB), Director, IIT Madras

Prof -V. Kamakoti

Chairman (GB), Director, IIT Madras

Prof. Kamakoti Veezhinathan received his M.S. and PhD degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Madras. He joined the faculty of IIT Madras in 2001 and took over as its Director in January 2022. He specializes in Computer Architecture, Information Security and VLSI Design. He heads the Microprocessor Development Program and the Information Security Education and Awareness Program at IIT Madras funded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. He is a member of the National Security Advisory Board. He was also the Chairman of the Artificial Intelligence Task Force constituted by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. At IIT Madras, he has served as the Chairman, JEE and as Associate Dean, Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research. He has over 150 publications in International Journals and Conferences, and guided many research scholars for their PhD and Master of Science (By research) programs. He has coordinated and successfully delivered close to 50 projects from Industry and Government R&D establishments. He serves in the Technology committees of the National Stock Exchange and Reserve Bank of India. Dr. Kamakoti is the recipient of DRDO Academic Excellence Award, Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association Techno Visionary Award, ‘Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship’, ACCS Lifetime Achievement Award, IBM Faculty Award and VASVIK Industrial Research award.

Dr -Parasuram Balasubramanian

Donor, Alumni

Dr -Parasuram Balasubramanian

Donor, Alumni

Dr. Parasuram Balasubramanian has been a consultant, group leader, CIO, CEO, and Profit Centre Head in the Information Technology industry in his career spanning four decades. He played an influential role in establishing India and India’s analytics practice as a premier offshore service destination. He was instrumental in introducing higher quality standards for software delivery services and building up the skill sets of thousands of employees. He has worked in India, Jamaica, and the USA. Over the years, he has sustained considerable interest in academics and executive training. He has been a guest faculty and invited speaker in numerous colleges, executive training programs, and industry fora. He has written chapters in Handbook of Operations Research [CRC press], Handbook of Automation [Elsevier Publishers], and in Cultural Factors in Systems Design: Decision Making and Action [CRC Press]. He is a member of the Enterprise Integration Consortium at Penn State University USA, Board of studies at RVCE and MSRIT in Bangalore, and CIT in Coimbatore. He is a Founder Trustee of Madurai School of Management in Vadipatti, Tamilnadu. He has Engineering and Management degrees from IIT, Madras, and a Doctorate from the School of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University in 1977, specializing in Operations Research. He is recognized as an Outstanding Industrial Engineering Alumnus in March 2001 and Distinguished Engineering Alumnus of College of Engineering by Purdue University in 2022; Fellow at Infosys Technologies Limited in 2002; Honorary Fellow of the Indian Institute of Materials Management in 2005. He served as an Honorary Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Purdue University, Discovery Park, from 2006 to 2011.

Mr -Krishnan Narayanan

Donor, Alumni

Mr -Krishnan Narayanan

Donor, Alumni

Krishnan Narayanan is co-founder and President of Itihaasa Research and Digital. He studies the history and evolution of technology domains in India, such as the history of Indian IT, Artificial Intelligence, Brain Sciences, Digital Transformation, and Digital Health. He brings over two decades of experience in digital consulting and technology commercialization. He was a member of the Infosys Labs Management Council, has managed a global transformation program in partnership with Microsoft, and has collaborated with research & innovation clusters from the US, Netherlands, and Australia. Earlier, he founded a water start-up that leveraged cutting-edge technologies to solve water and sanitation challenges in India. Currently, he is on the Board of Actyv.ai, a fintech startup focused on financial inclusion in India. He is the global President of the IIT Madras Alumni Association, and a member of the Science & Innovation @ Bharat Advisory Committee to the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser, GOI. Krishnan has a Bachelor of Technology degree from IIT Madras and a management degree from XLRI Jamshedpur.

Prof -Ashwin Mahalingam

Dean, Alumni and Corporate Relations, IIT Madras

Prof -Ashwin Mahalingam

Dean, Alumni and Corporate Relations, IIT Madras

Dr. Ashwin Mahalingam, serves as Dean Alumni and Corporate Relations at Indian Institute of Technology Madras since September 2024, joined the faculty in the Building Technology and Construction Management division of the Civil engineering department at IIT-Madras in 2006. Ashwin received his B.Tech in Civil engineering from IIT-Madras and then proceeded to Stanford University for a Masters in Construction Engineering and Management. He then helped start up an internet based company in the USA called All Star Fleet, aimed at providing asset management services for construction companies. Following this he returned to Stanford University to pursue a PhD in the area of Infrastructure Project Management. Ashwin's research interests are in the areas of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in Infrastructure planning and management, the management and governance of large engineering projects and the use of technology in infrastructure development. Ashwin is also a co-founder of Okapi Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd and serves as a Director on the Board. He is the Editor of the Engineering Project Organization Journal (EPOJ) and has served on many national committees.

Dr - V.K. Chaurasia

Joint Adviser (PHEE) in CPHEEO, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, GOI

Dr - V.K. Chaurasia

Joint Adviser (PHEE) in CPHEEO, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, GOI

Dr. V.K. Chaurasia is currently Joint Adviser(PHEE) in Central Public Health & Environmental Engineering Organization under Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Govt. of India. He has rich work experience of over 29 years in the field of Public Health Engineering, i.e., Water Supply, Sewerage, Solid Waste Management and Storm Water Drainage. He is involved in PHE sector Policy & Program formulation in the Ministry. He has extensively supported in implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission in the past seven years particularly in the field of Used Water Management and Solid Waste Management. He had been Member Secretary of the Expert Committee responsible for revision and updation of Manual on Solid Waste Management and also for storm water Drainage and has actively contributed in Task Force report of Planning Commission on Waste-to-Energy under Chairmanship of Dr. K. Kasturirangan. He had played key role in drafting of MSW Rules 2016 and various other policy matters like Refused Derived Fuel from time to time. He has done his B.Tech in Civil Engineering and also M. Tech in Environmental Engineering from IIT Roorkee. He has been awarded Ph.D from IIT Delhi in the area of “urban flooding exacerbated with Climate Change”.

Mr -T. M. Vijay Bhaskar

Former Chief Secretary, Karnataka(Retd)

Mr -T. M. Vijay Bhaskar

Former Chief Secretary, Karnataka(Retd)

T M Vijay Bhaskar is from Bangalore, India. He did his masters in economics from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, and an MBA in public sector from the University of Birmingham, UK. He belongs to the Indian Administrative Service, joining service in 1983. He superannuated in December, 2020 from the post of Chief Secretary to Government of Karnataka, the head of the civil service in the State administration. As a Chief Secretary for 2 years and 6 months, he was also Secretary to the State Cabinet. He was responsible for coordination with the Government of India, the State High Court, and overseeing all departments of the State Government. In 37 years in the IAS, he worked for more than 8 years in various capacities in State level Education Administration and 9 years in Rural Development at national and state levels. The remaining years were in district administration and coordination. Most of his working experience is in the fields of provision of basic needs like water supply, sanitation, school education, watershed development, roads and agricultural development. In January, 2021, the Government of Karnataka appointed him as Chairman of the Second Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission. The KARC2 is asked to give recommendations on improving the administration and on rationalisation of staff of State Government departments, boards and corporations in its tenure of two years. It has submitted its first report to Government in July 2020. His interest is in development, especially human development and improvement in quality of life.

Prof -M. S. Mohan Kumar

Professor (Retd), IISC Bangalore

Prof -M. S. Mohan Kumar

Professor (Retd), IISC Bangalore

M S Mohan Kumar is working in the broad area of flow and contaminant transport in both natural and man-made systems. The research areas are: groundwater, vadose zone hydrology, multiphase flow systems, urban water networks, irrigation systems and small experimental watersheds. He has been involved in several international as well as national projects in both research and consultancy mode. He has guided many PhD and Masters students and published many papers in international and national journals. He is a Fellow of Indian Water Works Association, Fellow of the Geological Society of India and member of several professional bodies. He has been recipient of several prestigious fellowships such as Alexander Von Humboldt Fellowship, INSA-JSPS Fellowship. He has also been awarded Amulya and Vimala Reddy award by Indian Institute of Science for sustainable development and IBM faculty award. He was a Visiting Professor to Institute for Lowland Technology, Saga University, Japan and to Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands under Utrecht-Asia program. Formerly, he was a Professor of Water Resources & Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, and Associate Faculty CiSTUP, Robert Bosch Centre for Cyber Physical Systems, ICWaR, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He was also the Chairman of Indo-French Cell for Water Sciences at IISc and Hon. Secretary, Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology. He is a member of several technical committees of Government on drinking water and irrigation systems both at State Govt level as well as at Central Govt level.

Mr -Laxmiprasad Putta

Industry Representative

Mr -Laxmiprasad Putta

Industry Representative

Mr. Laxmiprasad Putta is a successful serial tech entrepreneur with an industry experience of 22+ years. He earned a bachelors’ from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, and masters from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston. He founded Vassar Labs to deliver last mile visibility and decision support systems in water resources, agriculture, disaster management and smart cities. Earlier, he founded OAT Systems, leading provider of RFID solutions, which was acquired by Checkpoint Systems, a NASDAQ listed company. Before that, he started Auripay, a provider of secure payment solutions, which eventually got acquired by RSA, a NASDAQ listed company. His work for the Water Resources Information Management system for Andhra Pradesh, also known as APWRIMS has won many accolades. Recently it won three prizes in National Water Mission Awards 2019 and Vassar Labs got the award for best consultancy in the water sector from CBIP in 2020.

Prof -Sanjeev Chaudhari

IIT Bombay

Prof -Sanjeev Chaudhari

IIT Bombay

Prof. Sanjeev Chaudhari is a professor in the Environmental Science and Engineering Department at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. His research interest lies in the field of water and wastewater treatment. The goal of his work is to develop simple robust technologies for providing clean drinking water to rural areas. He has developed and installed community scale arsenic removal filters in different villages of Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in India. He is presently working on developing technologies for arsenic, uranium, and fluoride removal from groundwater.

Advisory Board Members

Dr -Nimish Shah

Managing Director International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), India

Dr -Nimish Shah

Managing Director International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), India

Dr. Nimish Shah is an accomplished global health & sustainable innovation, business leader. A thought leader and institutions & partnerships . Currently he is the Managing Director International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), India . He helped shape, and is on the governing council of the Global Sanitation Centre of Excellence at IIT-Palakkad. He also Chairs CII’s Food Safety & Quality Committee and is focusing on shaping a new tech. led food safety solutions for the country. He is Ex-Unilever senior leader with 25 years multi-domain global R&D experience. Previously as MD, Toilet Board Coalition, India, he led building of a vibrant innovation driven hygiene & sanitation economy in the country, through entrepreneurship and private sector engagement. Dr. Shah holds a Ph.D. degree in Microbiology and has expertise across: Water Sanitation & Hygiene and Food safety Life Sciences, Safety Sciences & Environmental impact assessments Building innovation and R&D Programs & technology scale-up Sustainability, open Innovation and leveraging partnerships for impact Some of his key accomplishments have been: Setup India organization of a global non-profit Commercialised new products and led mainstreaming of sustainable innovations Established partnerships, shaped industry consortia, and steered them towards common goals Mentored start-ups and helped them build scale Authored 15 patents & 3 times winner of Unilever Global CEO Compass Awards (Sustainability)

Mrs -Vanitha Mohan

Chairperson of Pricol Limited

Mrs -Vanitha Mohan

Chairperson of Pricol Limited

Mrs. Vanitha Mohan officiates as the Chairperson of Pricol Limited, manufacturers of automotive products. She spearheads the CSR activities of Pricol. Pricol Rural Development Program under her leadership has initiated several community development activities such as water harvesting, afforestation, tribal welfare and health care for the community in and around Perianaickenpalayam. She is the Managing Trustee of Siruthuli, an NGO which works towards a clean and green environment with special focus on the restoration and protection of water bodies of Coimbatore. Increasing the green cover of the region by involving the community in afforestation activities has yielded significant benefits to the landscape of the Kongu region. Mrs. Vanitha Mohan is the Past President of the 93 year old Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Coimbatore. Under her leadership, she initiated the formation of Kongu Global Forum comprising of business leaders from seven districts of the Kongu region. Kongu Global Forum has been successful in addressing the Air and Rail connectivity needs of the region through relentless lobbying with Central Government. She is the recipient of many awards in the sphere of women achievers and eco-conservation. Most noteworthy of them is the “Abdul Kalam Seva Ratna award” for her contribution in the sphere of water conservation from the Dalai Lama.

Mr -M.S. Unnikrishnan

Thermax- Presently, CEO, IIT Bombay Monash Research Academy

Mr -M.S. Unnikrishnan

Thermax- Presently, CEO, IIT Bombay Monash Research Academy

M.S. Unnikrishnan ( Unny ) is the CEO of IITB-Monash Research Academy, a research institute dedicated to a PhD program in cutting edge technologies and management, jointly promoted by IIT Bombay and the Monash University of Australia. He has previously held the position of M.D. & CEO of Thermax Group for over 13 years and played a pivotal role in the growth, professionalisation and globalisation of the company. He serves on KEC International, Kirloskar Brothers, and Azure Power Limited boards. He is also a trustee of “ Akshayapatra,” the largest NGO of India that feeds 19 lakhs/ day underprivileged school children, and Jehangir Hospital, Pune. Unny chairs the Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI), Durgapur, and is a member of the Governing Councils of TERI and Army Institute of Technology. He is also associated with the Government of India as – Co-Chairperson of “Srijan” program for SIDBI-TIFAC for start-up funding – Member, Apex Council, Prime Minister’s Doctoral Research Fellowship – Director of the Technology Innovation Hub, IIT Palakkad – Expert committee member, SAIF Centers, Ministry of Science & Tech, GOI – Expert committee member, SATHI program, Ministry of Science& Tech, GOI An alumnus of VNIT, Nagpur, and Harvard Business School, USA, he continues to be a keen student of energy, environment, and management.

Prof -L. Elango

Anna University (Rtd) Visiting Faculty, IITM

Prof -L. Elango

Anna University (Rtd) Visiting Faculty, IITM

Prof L. Elango is working in Anna University, Chennai since 1986 with an academic background of MSc(Applied Geology), ME (Hydrology & Water Resources Engg.,) and Ph.D in Groundwater Hydrology. His research interests includes subsurface characterisation, environmental hydrogeology and groundwater modelling. He has participated in various professional training programmes held in Danish Hydraulic Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, University of New Castle, UK and Ruhr University, Germany. He was a Vice President of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences during 2013-19. Presently, he is the President of International Commission of Water Quality of IAHS. He has coordinated a major capacity building programme for the officers of the State’s Water Resources Organisation under The World Bank Funded Hydrology Project. He has also organised four international workshops sponsored by UNESCO’s International Education Programme. He has carried out over 24 sponsored research projects on hydrogeology, where some of them are international research projects. Some of his international projects were funded by the European Commission, the British Geological Survey, the Australian Research Council and Russian Academy of Sciences. He has also carried out a number of consultancy projects for major organisations such as Dept of Atomic Energy, PWD, MECON, Larson and Toubro, HPCC, Gammon India, Gimpex etc.,. He has widely travelled and been to different academic and research institutions in different countries. He is in the editorial board of many international journals. He has published over 150 research papers and 25 scholars have completed their Ph.D under his guidance.

Prof -V. Kalyanaraman

IIT Madras (Rtd)

Prof -V. Kalyanaraman

IIT Madras (Rtd)

V. Kalyanaraman has been working to understand the rural eco-system ever since he retired in 2010 form IIT Madras, where he worked as a faculty member in the Department of Civil Engineering. He has been an advisor to RUTAG at IIT Madras, a project supported by the office of principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India to facilitate higher technical talents to address the rural technological needs. He is a Member of the Board of A.M.M. Murugappa Chettiar Research Centre (MCRC), a registered NGO, which works with many scientists, engineers, technologists and other like-minded people from several partner NGOs and SHGs to find sustainable solutions for the farming and rural communities. V. Kalyanaraman is a B. Tech. graduate from IIT Madras, MS from State University of NY at Buffalo and PhD from Cornell University. After 11 years in the US, in academic and consulting institutions, he worked as a faculty member at IIT Madras from 1980 to 2010, in the department of Civil Engineering. In addition to teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students, he has guided a number of MS and PhD student’s research work and published in national and international journals. During this tenure at IIT Madras, he also served as a Chairman for the Centre for Continuing Education and a Dean of the Centre for Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research at the Institute. He has served as a member and chairman of the Civil Engineering PAC – DST, a member Swarnajayanthi Committee for Engineering, and a member FIST Program of DST. He has served as a member of the Structures Panel of the Aeronautical Research and Development Board, Government of India. He has been a member and currently the Chairman of the CD7 Committee of the Bureau of the Indian Standards, Government of India. He has served as a member of the Indian Roads Congress – Steel Bridges subcommittee.

Prof -Manu Santhanam

Dean ICSR, IIT Madras

Prof -Manu Santhanam

Dean ICSR, IIT Madras

Dr. Manu Santhanam is a professor in the Building Technology and Construction Management division, Department of Civil Engineering and currently Associate Dean for Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (ICSR), IIT Madras. He completed his Bachelor Degree in Civil Engineering from IIT Madras in 1994. He joined Purdue University for Master’s program to explore wider research opportunities. Professor Manu joined Sika Corporation, USA as Senior R&D Chemist in May 1996 and served for more than 2 years. Later, he pursued his doctoral research from Purdue University, USA. He joined back his alma mater, Purdue University, as an instructor in May 2001 for short period. In October 2001, he joined IIT Madras as Assistant Professor in the BTCM division of the Department of Civil Engineering. He became Associate Professor on March 2009 and was promoted as Professor on July 2013. He is also a part of the National Centre for Safety of Heritage Structures (NCSHS) in IITM which focuses on scientific methods for conservation of heritage structures. He is actively involved in several research projects funded by government and private agencies on the design, durability studies and development of performance specification for high performance and self-compacting concrete. He has co-authored more than 70+ international journal publications, 30+ national journal publications and about 70 conference papers on construction material properties and performance. He is also a member of Editorial Board in leading international journal on construction materials such as Advances in Cement Research, ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering (Associate Editor), Journal of Sustainable Cement-Based Materials and Journal of Cement and Concrete Composites.

Lead Investigator

Prof. Ligy Philip is Institute Chair Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras. She is a Fellow of National Academy of Engineers (FNAE) and Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). For more than two decades, Prof. Ligy Philip has been contributing significantly to advancing the knowledge in the area of Environmental Engineering, and for the betterment of society through field and industry-oriented projects. She has conducted high quality research on treatment of industrial effluents from highly polluting industries, bioremediation of contaminated soils and groundwater, novel processes for drinking water treatment, and sustainable management of waste. Technologies developed by her have been successfully utilized by several industries and NGOs. She has provided consulting services to a large number of industries in the area of pollution monitoring and control. Reputed international organizations such as Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation utilize her expertise in the area of sanitation. She has served as a member of many expert committees set up by the National Green Tribunal, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, and Kerala Pollution Control Board, and is a member of several high-level committees of DST. She also has executed many socially relevant projects. Sustainable water and waste management projects are implemented in five villages. The technologies developed by her group were implemented in these villages.

Prof Ligy Philip

Department of Civil Engineering (Environmental)
Convener Coordinator of AquaMAP
(SUTRAM & PCoE-Water and Sustainability)

Co- Investigator

Prof. Thalappil Pradeep is an Institute Professor(*) and Professor of Chemistry. He is also an Institute Chair Professor. He has conceptualized and built the International Centre for Clean Water (www.iccwindia.org), a new initiative of IIT Madras. Pradeep was born on July 8, 1963. He earned a Ph. D degree in chemical physics working with Professors C. N. R. Rao and M. S. Hegde at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Subsequently, he spent about two years as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and Purdue University, Indiana. Since then, he has been working at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He also held visiting positions at Purdue University, Leiden University (Netherlands), EPFL (Switzerland), Institute of Chemistry (Taiwan), Pohang University of Science and Technology (South Korea), and the University of Hyogo (Japan). *Institute Professor is the highest title in the Institute and we have conferred this title on 5 faculty members on the campus.

Prof - T. Pradeep

Department of Chemistry

Prof. V.R. Muraleedharan, IIT Madras

Prof - V.R.Muraleedharan

Department of Humanities & Social Sciences

Dr. B.S.Murty has been working as a faculty member in the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras since December 1998. Prior to this, he taught and researched at IIT Kanpur from July 1989 until December 1998. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Washington State University, Pullman, the USA in 1989 and a Master’s degree from I.I.Sc., Bangalore in 1984. His main areas of research include computational hydraulics, contaminant transport modeling, and pipeline hydraulics. He has guided / co-guided a total of 13 Ph.D., four M.S. (by research), and 48 M. Tech. students in these areas. He has authored / co-authored five book chapters and 76 research publications in peer-reviewed international journals. He has carried out several sponsored research projects funded by DST (GoI), Ministry of Water Resources (GoI), Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE), and Indo-German Science and Technology Center. He has also played a key role in several interdisciplinary and inter-institutional projects in the area of water resources management. He was the area coordinator (water) of the Indo-German Center for Sustainability at IIT Madras from January 2011 until March 2020, and the coordinator of the center from June 2017 until March 2020. Earlier, he was the coordinator for the Socially Responsible Projects (SRP) program at IIT Madras for six years from 2006. He has helped several industries such as Larsen & Toubro, Tata Projects Limited, Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Ltd., APGENCO, etc. through his consulting. He is on the editorial board of journals, Sadhna (published by the Indian Academy of Sciences) and ISH Journal of Hydraulic Engineering.

Prof - B.S.Murty

Department of Civil Engineering

Dr. Balaji Narasimhan is a Hydrologist with expertise in modeling the impact of land use and climate change on hydrology using GIS, remote sensing, and hydrologic/hydraulic / crop growth models with experience of over 15 years. He is currently involved in a project funded by the Department of Science and Technology to design and develop Low Impact Development (LID) measures in the form of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) for reducing flooding and improving water security of cities such as Chennai. Balaji Narasimhan served as an advisor to the CLIMARICE project, Sponsored by the Norwegian Government at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. ClimaRice is an integrated project that aims to assess the climate variability and its impacts on the water availability and rice production systems in the Cauvery river basin of Tamil Nadu, India. He is one of the coordinators involved in the development of the Ganga River Basin Management Plan and is the lead investigator in the development of a hydrological flow health condition report for the entire Ganga River Basin. Balaji Narasimhan was also a Member of “Think Tank” for the development of the Water Resources Information System (WRIS), Ministry of Water Resources, Govt. of India. He was involved in a large team project to develop a flood forecasting system for Chennai city, following the floods of 2015, funded by the Principal Scientific Advisor, Govt. of India.

Prof - Balaji Narasimhan

Department of Civil Engineering

Dr. Indumathi M. Nambi is a Professor in Civil Engineering Department. She obtained her M.E. in Environmental Engineering (1993) from the Center for Environmental Studies, Anna University and her Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering (1999) from Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York, USA, and became a faculty member of IIT Madras in 2005. Her research focus has been primarily in the water quality sector – specifically groundwater, industrial wastewater treatment, and restoration of water bodies. She has published over 85 peer-reviewed research articles and guided more than 12 PhDs and several Master’s students. She also serves in several expert committees at the National and State level including Jal Jeevan Mission, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, Remediation of contaminated sites with NCEF. Prof Indumathi believes in developing engineers who are trained holistically which motivated her to take an active part in the development of the new Minor stream on “Sustainable Environmental and Infrastructure Systems”. She has established and served as PI and governing board of Centre for Urbanization Buildings and Environment (CUBE) sponsored by the Govt. of Tamilnadu and Centre for Technology Development Demonstration and Dissemination sponsored by Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. Prof Nambi has been promoting the conversion of research ideas from Lab to Practice through Problem Directed research, projects, and entrepreneurship. She has conceptualized, raised funds, and organized the ‘Carbon Zero Challenge’ 2017-2018 and 2018-2019, a national-level contest on Energy and Environment innovation and entrepreneurship. The contest provides a platform to students/ early age startups from across the country to ideate and innovate in the cleantech domain for the greater good of society and incubates startups to become job-creators. Prof Indumathi is the Director of Samudyoga Waste Chakra, a startup focused on providing sustainable waste management solutions through cutting-edge innovative and carbon-reducing technologies for solid wastes and wastewater. She is the founder of Water Chakra, aimed at recovering water and nutrients from urine, using waterless urinals since 2018.

Prof - Indumathi M. Nambi

Department of Civil Engineering

Dr. Sridharakumar Narasimhan received his M.Tech (Integrated course) degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1998. Subsequently, he worked for 2 years as a process engineer in the mineral process group of the R&D division of Larsen and Toubro, Mumbai for 2 years. He then started his graduate studies in Chemical Engineering and obtained his PhD from Clarkson University in 2006. From 2006-2008 he was a post-Doctoral Scholar in the department of Chemical Engineering, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway. He joined the department of chemical engineering at IIT Madras in 2008. He has visited Texas Tech University, TU Delft and RWTH Aachen. His research interests are in process operations (control, fault diagnosis), system identification and optimization. One of the major goals of his research is to arrive at designs for control structures, water networks, sensor networks, heat exchanger networks, experiments with guaranteed performance specifications. A common thread in these problems is the application of convexity theory to arrive at tractable optimization problems. He is also interested in the application of systems theory in biology, medicine and infrastructure.

Prof - Sridharakumar Narasimhan

Department of Chemical Engineering