Dr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat
Dr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat is a highly esteemed scientist and Member of NITI Aayog, renowned for his extensive experience in defense research encompassing both fundamental and applied sciences. Having served as the Secretary of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), he has made remarkable contributions to the indigenous development of missiles like Prithvi, Dhanush, Prahar and Agni-5 as well as the two-tiered Ballistic Missile Defence system. Dr. Saraswat played a pivotal role in establishing infrastructure to support the Nuclear Doctrine, developing cyber security technologies, and enhancing the nation’s defense capabilities against ballistic missile threats.
Furthermore, he has been actively involved in the development of alternative energy systems, such as clean coal technologies, concentrated solar power systems and bioenergy, hydrogen based economies. He has been pursuing major initiatives in the Sustainable and Resilient transportation system viz. E-vehicles, FCV, Hybrid Vehicles and Hydrogen powered long haul transport system.
Dr. Saraswat has also made significant contributions to the advancement of technology, including the development of silicon photonics, the configuration of the M-Processor for ICT applications and the roadmap for the Indian Railway Research Institute.
As a Member of NITI Aayog, Dr. Saraswat has initiated the “Methanol Economy” program, aiming to utilize methanol for transportation, energy generation and chemical production. Additionally, he has chaired committees on technical textiles and body armor, contributing to the futuristic growth of these sectors in India. Dr. Saraswat’s outstanding achievements have been recognized through numerous awards, including the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, as well as honorary doctorates from over 25 universities.
Mahendra Singhi
Mr. Mahendra Singhi is a Member of the Board of Directors and Strategic Advisor at Dalmia Cement, where he was Managing Director and CEO until December 2023. Dalmia Cement is a leading cement manufacturing group in India, ranked No. 1 globally by CDP for its Low Carbon Economy Transition and praised by the UN Secretary-General for its climate innovation, having one of the lowest carbon footprints globally.
Mr. Singhi also leverages his expertise by serving on the Governing Council of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), a leading Indian think tank, and as a Member of the Board of Governors at the National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCCBM), a prominent public sector research institute for building materials in South Asia.
Mr. Singhi also Chairs the Environment and Climate Change Committee of FICCI, one of the biggest industry associations in India. He is also a Board member of Global Cement and Concrete Association, London.
Mr. Singhi is recognised as one of the five global Climate Defenders by BBC World. He has represented Indian industry in leading global platforms and presidency dialogues such as UN Assembly Climate Action Summit, French Presidency and United Nations Climate Conferences as COP Business Leader.
He has keen interest in the Religious and Spiritual field. He identifies himself as a Climate and Happiness Worker. Mr. Singhi is a Law Graduate and Chartered Accountant.
Atanu Mukherjee
Atanu Mukherjee is CEO of Dastur Energy Inc. and M. N. Dastur & Co (P) Ltd.(Dastur). Dastur works with the energy, materials, and commodity industry globally in areas related to strategy, technology, engineering, economics, and finance. Atanu works with enterprises, governments and international institutions on energy transition, industrial transformation & decarbonisation, and CCUS. In the recent past, he has been working with the US Department of Energy, Government of India, G20 Presidency and other governmental institutions on research, innovation, policy, economics, and technology directions for deep decarbonization of the hard-to-abate sectors through carbon capture utilization and sequestration and EOR.
His firm also advises enterprises, private equity firms and investors on project development, project engineering, project finance, asset revitalization, M&As and investment strategies for metals, mining, energy and commodity related businesses. Prior to working in the energy sector, Atanu was in senior leadership positions at MicrosoftCorporation in Redmond, WA and Digital Equipment Corporation in Boston, MA.
Sushma Rawat
Ms. Sushma Rawat is the Director (Exploration) of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), India’s National Oil Company, looking after its Exploration and Development activities. Ms. Rawat has more than three decades of rich experience in all aspects of petroleum exploration and development. She is the first woman to work in a rigorous 14 days shift at a wellsite in ONGC and climbed up to become the first women Director (Exploration). Additionally, she had been on the board of OPaL (ONGC Petro Addition Ltd.) and OTPC (ONGC Tripura Power Company Limited) as Director. She is also a member of two Inter-Ministerial Technical Committees for the implementation of CCUS Projects in India by NITI Aayog.
Ms Sushma Rawat also looks after Carbon Management and Sustainability Group of ONGC and steering its efforts to achieve the ambitious target of reaching Net Zero by 2038 w.r.t. Scope-1 & Scope-2 emissions. She has the distinction of being an experienced and outstanding Basin and Petroleum System Analyst as well as an accomplished Exploration Process Analyst and Implementer. She has worked in several Government of India initiatives, of appraising the un-appraised basins of the country and bringing new areas into the exploration fold.
She is an avid geologist and has participated & organized numerous Geological Field workshops on Modern Deltas in Kakinada, Cretaceous of Trichinapalli, Jurassics of Kutch, Triassics of Spiti, Himalayan Foreland basin & the tectonic realm of Karakoram-Zanskar. She has been actively associated as a founding member of various geotechnical societies along with organizing international level G&G Conferences like PETROTECH, APG, SPG & GEO-India. She received the prestigious L.P Mathur Memorial AAAPG-EEF Global Award-2021 for her contribution in growth and consolidation of petroleum Geochemistry in India.
Dr. Bibhas Sen
After completing his post-graduation from IIT Roorkee, Dr. Bibhas Sen joined the Geological Survey of India (GSI) in 2000. For the past two decades, he has carried out geological mapping, mineral exploration, volcanological and petrological research, and landslide susceptibility studies across various geological settings in the country. His PhD focused on the structure, geochemistry and petrology of mafic dykes in the Deccan Basalt Province. Dr. Sen has co-authored national and international papers on the volcanology and petrology of the Deccan and Sylhet volcanics. Currently serving as Deputy Director General, Dr. Sen heads GSI’s State Unit: Maharashtra from Pune, overseeing nearly 50 geological investigations and research projects, including those being carried out in collaboration with IITs and Universities.
Dr. Ryan M. Pollyea
Dr. Ryan M. Pollyea is an associate professor in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech with affiliate appointments in the Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering and the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research. Pollyea specializes in numerical simulation of non-isothermal, multi-phase fluid flow in reactive geologic settings, particularly in the context of carbon capture and storage. His CCS research spans a wide variety of geologic environments, including sedimentary basins and reactive basalt reservoirs, as well as uncertainty analysis in highly heterogeneous reservoirs. Pollyea is a contributing member of the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership and technical lead for a U.S. Department of Energy CarbonSAFE feasibility study in south Florida, USA. His research receives support from the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, and the Southern States Energy Board. In spring 2022, Pollyea was an invited member of the geologic sequestration panel for the USDOE Basic Energy Sciences Roundtable on Foundational Science for Carbon Dioxide Removal, which developed a plan for investment in basic research needs to achieve Net Zero Carbon Emissions in the energy sector by 2050. Students from Dr. Pollyea’s research group have been highly successful in both private sector and national laboratory career paths, including positions with Golder Associates, Sandia National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, among others.
Prof. Ralf Haese
Prof. Ralf Haese is an expert in aqueous geochemistry and reservoir characterization. He studies gas-fluid-rock reactions, reactive-transport in porous rocks and pore scale processes and he develops technologies to ensure safe and efficient geological carbon storage. He combines laboratory and field experiments with geochemical modelling in his research. He joined The University of Melbourne as Professor of Environmental Geochemistry and was appointed as Director of the Peter Cook Centre for CCS Research in 2017. He teaches Environmental Geosciences and Hydrogeology & Environmental Geochemistry and supervises MSc and PhD students.
Dr. Sigurður Reynir Gíslason
Sigurdur R. Gislason (Sigg) is a Research Professor at University of Iceland. He received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1985. Gislason was a co-founder and co-director of the CarbFix project 2006-2020. He has been the president of the European Association of Geochemistry and is an International Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS/USA).
Dr Shailesh Nayak
Dr. Shailesh Nayak is currently Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, Life Trustee, India International Centre, New Delhi and Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, Dehradun. He obtained his PhD degree in Geology from the M.S University of Baroda in 1980. He was Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, during 2007-2015 and provided leadership for programs related to earth system sciences, and Former Chancellor, TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi. His current research interest includes building strategy for the blue economy, sustainable development and promoting research in the Indian Ocean and polar regions.
He had set up the state-of-the-art tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean in 2007 and provided tsunami advisories to the Indian Ocean rim countries. He has pioneered the development of algorithms and methodologies for the application of remote sensing to the coastal and marine environment, and generated the baseline database of the Indian coast, and developed services for fishery and ocean state forecast. This coastal database has formed the basis for managing the Indian coast. He was instrumental in creating a database of the glaciers of the Indian Himalaya.
He is Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, Allahabad, the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru, Fellow of the International Society of Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing (ISPRS) and Academician of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). He was President, International Geological Congress during 2015-17. He was conferred the prestigious ISC Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Award 2012 and Bhaskara Award for 2009, for his outstanding contributions in remote sensing and GIS. He has published about 190 papers in peer-reviewed journals. The Govt of India awarded the Civilian Honour ‘Padma Shri’ in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the field of science and engineering.
Neeraj Sinha
Neeraj Sinha is a Geoscientist with extensive experience in Oil and gas Exploration. He is a Play analyst and a Prospect finder with deep understanding of risk and uncertainty. With a career spanning more than three decades he has made significant contributions to the India energy sector, particularly in Indian east coast deepwater and ultra-deepwater discoveries. He has published on crustal architecture of the Indian East and West coast margins and talked about geological problems. In his current role as Head of Exploration he is responsible for and instrumental in spearheading RIL’s exploration program. He has used his geological and geophysical knowledge to steer RIL’s initiatives in New Energy areas like Geothermal, natural hydrogen and CCS and is actively pursuing evaluation of opportunities in India. He believes in collaboration across disciplines and use of state of art tools and technologies as inputs to achieve desired goals of meeting growing energy demand of India while reducing the environmental footprint.