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University of Arizona, USA
Ananya Mallik is an assistant professor at University of Arizona since 2020. She is an experimental petrologist. In her research group, they investigate how the interactions between the interior and surface of the Earth and planetary bodies evolve the chemistry and dynamics of these reservoirs. They primarily use high pressure-temperature equipment to simulate conditions in the interior of planets. Some of her specific research interests include: subduction zone magmatism, specifically how does subducted crust contribute to magmas formed in subduction zones and how do volatile elements participate in arc magmatism. Her research group also investigates the Moon’s interior evolution – using the mass, moment of inertia and bulk composition as constraints to understand the present-day interior structure of the Moon, including the thermal and mineralogical profile. They also investigate the effect of density-driven lunar mantle overturn on the evolution of the lunar crust and interior. More recently, they are studying the effect of hydrogen on lunar interior evolution, with a goal to constrain the bulk hydrogen content of the Moon. This may shed more light into the origins of the Earth-Moon system.
University of Bern, Switzerland
Daniela Rubatto is a metamorphic geochemist and a driving force behind the emergence of the field of petrochronology. She has pioneered new research approaches aimed at timing and revealing crystal-scale signatures to understand plate tectonic processes. Her recent interests include the dynamics of fluids in the crust investigated through mineral zoning in oxygen isotopes and trace elements. She received the 2019 R. W. Bunsen Medal from the EGU and the 2020 Dana Medal from the MSA. She graduated at the University of Torino, received a PhD from the ETH-Zurich and spent most of her academic life at the Australian National University, Canberra, before returning to Europe at the University of Bern.
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India
Dilip Kumar Mukhopadhyay is an eminent structural geologist. He superannuated in June 2019 as a professor from the Department of Earth Sciences. Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. He was educated at the Calcutta University and Indian Institute of Technology, Khraragpur, where he received his PhD degree in Geology in the year 1981. Professor Mukhopadhyay has won the IIT Silver medal for ranking First class First in M.Sc. 1975, and VV Sastri Gold Medal and Endowment Lecture, Geological Society of India, 2019. He has supervised 8 PhD students, published more than 50 peer reviewed articles and completed more than 25 projects.
Carleton University, Canada
Fred Gaidies is a Professor of Metamorphic Petrology at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada). He received a MSc from TU Berlin and GFZ Potsdam (Germany) and a PhD from University of Basel (Switzerland). His research aims at a better understanding of the fundamental processes during metamorphism. This includes the quantification of thermodynamic disequilibrium required to overcome the energy barriers associated with mineral reactions, as well as the influence of strain and interfacial energy on crystallization and rock microstructure formation. Current research areas include the Yukon-Tanana terrane and the Grenville Province of Canada, as well as the Caledonides of arctic Norway.
University of Arizona, USA
Jibamitra Ganguly was educated in India (Calcutta and Jadavpur Universities) and the University of Chicago, where he received his Ph.D. degree in Geophysical Sciences. He has published extensively in a wide range of areas in the Earth and Planetary sciences and is an author/editor of several books dealing with thermodynamics and diffusion kinetics, especially as applied to geological and planetary systems, as well as a book on the Astrophysicist Meghnad Saha and a recent Geochemical Perspective volume. Prof. Ganguly is a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt research prize from Germany, a fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America and the American Geophysical Union and is currently a Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona.
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, India
Kathakali Bhattacharyya is a field-based structural geologist primarily interested in understanding structural evolution of mountain belts. She investigates deformation structures, from orogenic wedge- to microscopic-scales, to constrain the geometry and kinematics of fold thrust belts, mechanical and kinematic evolution of shear zones, and to estimate strain and strain partitioning across scales. She obtained her PhD from University of Rochester, USA.
University of Hiroshima, Japan
Kaushik Das studied his undergraduate and post-graduate courses in geology at Jadavpur University, and did doctoral study at Hokkaido University. He is now working at the Department of Earth and Planetary Systems Science, Hiroshima University.
China University of Geosciences, Beijing
M. Santosh is Professor at the China University of Geosciences Beijing (China), Specially Appointed Foreign Expert of China, Professor at the University of Adelaide, Australia and Emeritus Professor at the Faculty of Science, Kochi University, Japan. PhD (Cochin University of Science and Technology, India), D.Sc. (Osaka City University, Japan) and D.Sc. (University of Pretoria, South Africa). He is the Founding Editor of Gondwana Research as well as the Editorial Advisor of Geoscience Frontiers. Research fields include petrology, fluid inclusions, geochemistry, geochronology, metallogeny and supercontinent tectonics. Published over 1500 research papers, edited several memoir volumes and journal special issues, and co-author of the book ‘Continents and Supercontinents’ (Oxford University Press, 2004). Recipient of National Mineral Award, Outstanding Geologist Award, Thomson Reuters 2012 Research Front Award, and Thomson Reuters/Clarivate High Cited Researcher recognition during the last six years.
University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Nic Beukes is Professor of Geology at the University of Johannesburg. He worked two years for the Geological Survey of South Africa in Pretoria before joining RAU (now UJ) in 1969 where he has risen through the academic ranks from lecturer to full professor in 1986, acted as Chair of the Geology Department (1998-2002), leader of the PPM Research Group (1997-2013) and Director of the DSI- NRF Centre of Excellence for Integrated Mineral and Energy Resource Analysis (CIMERA) (2014 to 2018).
He is essentially a field geologist, specializing in sedimentology and stratigraphy, with emphasis on understanding the origin of iron and manganese ore deposits and the nature of surface environments on early earth. He is an A1-rated scientist by the National Research Foundation since 2001 and recipient of many awards of which the Jubilee and Draper Medals of the Geological Society of South Africa and the National 2017 NSTF-South 32 Life-time Award are most significant. He has authored/co-authored 212 refereed scientific articles, three books, over 300 conference abstracts and some100 confidential technical reports to industry.
National Center for Earth Science Studies, India
Nilanjana Sorcar is Ph.D. in Metamorphic Petrology. She is currently working as Scientist at NCESS, Thiruvananthapuram. She is former DST INSPIRE Faculty at Presidency University, Kolkata. Her field of interest is in explaining mountain building processes and determination of rate of geological processes. Investigating the process of partial melting both under crustal and mantle conditions in order to gain knowledge on the growth of continental crust, is the general goal of her research. She is expert of using various techniques like textural analyses of the rocks, analyses of mineral chemistry using EPMA, geochemical modelling of phase equilibria and geospeedometry.
Bhabha Atomic Research Center, India
Dr. Pranesh Sengupta carried out his studies in Mineralogy and Petrology from Department of Geological Sciences, Jadavpur University, Kolkata and subsequently joined Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Trombay, Mumbai. He is currently Head - Geomaterials Group and Professor in Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai. Dr. Sengupta is a Member - International Predisposal Network (International Atomic Energy Agency - IAEA ), and also serving as Chief - Scientist in IAEA Coordinated Research Project on 'Ion Beam Irradiation on Nuclear Waste Form Development (INWARD). Dr. Pranesh Sengupta's research interests are (a) immobilization of high level nuclear wastes, (b) deep geological disposal of nuclear wastes, (c) natural analogue studies and d) Geomaterial Science. He has authored more than 100 research articles in Peer Reviewed Journals, recipient of several national and international recognitions and have vast experiences in serving various committees of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and also leading Departmental Plan Projects as Apex Project Coordinator.
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, India
Prof. Sanyal did his undergraduate and postgraduate studies from Jadavpur University. He obtained his PhD from Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad. Prof. Sanyal has developed new technique of measuring isotopic composition in organic molecules for paleo-climatic studies, and used them in the Himalayan Foreland Basin (HFB) to understand the evolution of Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM), ecosystem and cessation of marine incursion into the HFB. With a basinal scale study, he also showed rainfall will play an important role in determining the future flow in the River Ganga, in addition to the glacier melt contribution. From the Ganga Basin, he showed ISM not only controlled the ecosystem but also the Human settlement and their cognitive development which was indicated by controlled use of fire. He has also worked on the processes on nitrogen cycles in the river systems by using dual isotopes in dissolved nitrate.
Monash University, Australia
Priyadarshi Chowdhury is currently a research fellow at the Monash University in Australia. He did his Bachelor's and Master's at the Jadavpur University (India) and his Ph.D. at the Ruhr University Bochum (Germany). He was awarded the D.A.A.D PhD fellowship in 2013. He integrates field observations with petrology, diffusion geospeedometry and geodynamic modelling to understand the evolution of continental crust and lithosphere dynamics during the Precambrian. His current research interests include the evolution of plate tectonics, continental growth-&-recycling on the early Earth, and tectonic style at the Archean-Proterozoic boundary.
Jadavpur University, India
Pulak Sengupta is a professor in metamorphic petrology at the Department of Geological Sciences of Jadavpur University. He is known for his studies on grain-scale reaction mechanism and ultra-high temperature regional scale metamorphism. Sengupta did his master's studies at Jadavpur University and subsequently secured a PhD from the same institution before joining his alma mater as a member of faculty. He is an elected fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, and the Indian National Science Academy. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences in 2006.
Apart from earth sciences, Prof. Sengupta has a deep passion for phototography and has earned himself several national and international recognitions.
Rice University, USA
Rajdeep Dasgupta is a professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Rice University. In his research, he studies the role of subsurface melting and magma on the origin and evolution of the Earth and other terrestrial planets. Rajdeep Dasgupta earned his B.Sc. in 1998 and his M.Sc. in 2000 from Jadavpur University in Kolkata, India and completed his Ph.D. in geology at the University of Minnesota in 2006. Dasgupta was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Minnesota, and then was a postdoctoral fellow at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University. He joined the faculty of Rice University in 2008 where he is now a professor. In 2011, Dasgupta received the F.W. Clarke Medal from the Geochemical Society, an award given to an early-career scientist for a single outstanding contribution to geochemistry or cosmochemistry. The American Geophysical Union awarded him the James B. Macelwane Medal in 2014. In 2012, he won the Hisashi Kuno award, given annually to an AGU member who has made outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry or petrology. Rajdeep Dasgupta is an expert on the deep carbon cycle and his research centers on how carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen in the mantle affect magma melting processes. He has created new models for how rocks melt in carbon-rich environments and calculated carbon’s solubility in the core. Dasgupta has developed a way to use major elements in magmas to estimate their source region and composition in the mantle. He also is researching sulfur solubility, to understand sulfur transport in subduction zones.
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, India
Sanjay Kumar Mandal is a field-based geomorphologist primarily interested in the topography-tectonics-climate-erosion-sedimentation interaction in the mountain belts. His research focuses on understanding this interaction by quantifying the dates and rates of surface processes using cosmogenic isotopes, low-temperature thermochronology, geochronology, and isotopic studies coupled with numerical landscape evolution modeling. He obtained his Ph.D. from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He is a recipient of the Alexander von-Humboldt post-doctoral fellowship and DST INSPIRE Faculty Fellowship.
Presidency University, India
Sankar Bose obtained Ph.D. in Science from Jadavpur University, Kolkata in 2003 and is presently working as Professor of Geology at the Presidency University Kolkata, India. He visited Japan with the JSPS fellowship and JSPS-Bridge fellowship. With a specialization in Metamorphic Petrology, he has been busy for the last three decades researching on the ultrahigh temperature rocks of the Eastern Ghats Belt, India. He has also contributed to the geochemical and geochronological evolution of other Precambrian rocks of India and East Antarctica. He has published about 50 research papers in reputed international/national journals and books and received the National Geoscience Award from the Government of India in 2014 and INSA Teachers Award in 2019.
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India
The research of Santanu Kumar Bhowmik focuses on decoding the styles of tectonism, present and past, from oceanic subduction to continental collisions and supercontinent assembly events. For this, I use metamorphic rocks of Archaean to Phaneozoic age and a variety of tools, including reconstructions of P-T-t paths, monazite and zircon geochronology and diffusion chronometry. My current research interest lies in modeling metamorphic transformations and fluid evolution along slab-mantle wedge interfaces from Mesozoic subduction zones in Nagaland-Manipur Ophiolite Belts, NE India and studying the early earth orogenesis, centering around the question when and how did the modern-style plate tectonics begin on the Planet Earth.
Ruhr University, Germany
Sumit Chakraborty is a Professor at Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany since 1999. He is interested in the timescales over which geological and planetary processes occur. I use tools of physical chemistry, specifically through the application of kinetics and diffusion modelling, as well as thermodynamics, to study these timescales. I have been instrumental in the development of various aspects of the emerging tool of diffusion chronometry. My work focusses on high temperature processes such as volcanism, as well as many processes that occur in the interior of the Earth (e.g. mountain building) and other planetary bodies. My work involves theoretical modelling, experimental measurements and field work accompanied by analytical chemical work to an equal degree. My recent field studies have been in the Sikkim Himalaya, India; Mt. Etna, Sicily, and the Coorg region of South India. I have also studied samples from the ocean floor and from meteorites. Some of the major findings have been that many geological processes occur on much shorter timescales (e.g. days, weeks to years) than has conventionally been thought to be the case, and that there is a hierarchy of coupled timescales and rates that need to be considered to understand geological evolution.
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, India
Supriyo Mitra is a seismologist interested in earthquake source physics, internal structure of the Earth and propagation characteristics of seismic waves. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge UK and is presently a Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, IISER Kolkata. Mitra has pioneered broadband-seismological-field experiments in the Himalayas, and studies velocity structure and earthquake source properties, to test hypotheses of lithospheric evolution. Among his major contributions have been the crustal structure and evolutionary model for the Eastern-Himalayan plate-boundary system. Mitra has been a part of several international research projects, which include UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UK-IERI) Thematic Partnership, Earthquake Without Frontiers (EwF) consortium and Royal Society International Collaboration Award. He is a recipient of the INSA Young Scientist medal (2010), NASI-Scopus Young Scientist Award (2012), Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences (2011-2014), National Geoscience Award (2016), Cambridge-Hamied Fellowship (2016), and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS). He has been a Visiting Professor of the Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Japan (2019) and is a Regular Associate of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste (2019-2024).