Dr. Kaustav Nag is a professional geologist with over 34 years of experience in the upstream oil and gas industry and currently serves as the Additional Director General (Exploration) at the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons. Dr. Nag holds a Ph.D. in Applied Geology from the National Centre of Experimental Mineralogy and Petrology, Allahabad.

Throughout his extensive career, Dr. Nag has worked extensively in well site operations and the technical interpretation of geo-scientific data across India's sedimentary basins. He has been a key contributor for exploratory efforts in the Assam & Assam Arakan, Mahanadi-Bengal-Purnea, and Andaman Basins during his fourteen-year tenor at E&D Directorate, Dehradun.

His proficiency extends to the technical evaluation of proposals and scientific reports, reserve estimation, and the development of play-based exploration strategies. He has also played a pivotal role in strategic planning, business development, OALP process, and acreage acquisition and bidding in ONGC, significantly expanding exploration activities in Category-II and III basins.

Dr. Nag has published over twenty research and technical papers in scientific journals and has presented his work at major international and national conferences. He also serves on the board of studies for several Indian universities.

Peter Kelemen is the Thomas A. Edison Professor in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, an adjunct scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History. He combines geochemical and geophysical techniques to study Earth processes. He has worked on reactive transport of lava in the Earth’s upper mantle and lower crust, the genesis and evolution of oceanic and continental crust, new mechanisms for earthquake initiation, geologic storage of CO2 (CCS), CO2 removal from air, and reactive cracking processes in natural and engineered settings. He teaches a popular course, “Earth Resources for Sustainable Development” at Columbia.

Kelemen was a founding partner of Dihedral Exploration (1980-1992), consultants specializing in mineral exploration of copper, gold, and platinum in Canada, Alaska and Greenland. Research and climbing have taken him to Peru, India (Ladakh), Oman, the Aleutian Islands, 7,500 meters above sea level in Pakistan (6100 in both Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh), and 5,500 meters below sea level via submersibles along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. 

He is a member of the (US) National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the Geochemical Society, and the Mineralogical Society of America. He received the AGU Bowen Award in 2004 and the AGU Hess Medal in 2022. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, and both his M.S. and PhD from the University of Washington in Seattle. He worked at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution starting in 1988, and moved to Columbia University in 2004.

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.

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. Neelima Alam is a Doctorate from All India Institute of Medical sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India and has been extensively involved in a NIH funded project as Postdoctoral fellow at Boston, U.S.A for 4 years. She joined Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India in 2007 and was primarily involved in nurturing mechanisms for Technology Incubation and Early-stage funding to Techno-Start-ups during her first posting. She later also looked after the Water Technology Interventions of DST and was involved in promoting technology development and solution centric applications for addressing various Water challenges in the country.  

In light of the Carbon Net Zero commitments, Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) gained significant relevance and accelerating the trajectory of CCUS technologies became one of the focused areas both in National as well as in global context. Dr. Alam has been crucial in evolving a vibrant vertical for RD&D in the emerging area of CCUS Technologies in DST for capacity building of the national research diaspora and has been extensively involved in leveraging bilateral and multilateral collaborations for global best practices through various transnational platforms such as Mission Innovation (MI) 1.0, Accelerating CCUS Technologies (ACT), CDR Mission MI 2.0, Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP).

She has also developed a platform for supporting Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Monitoring and Mitigation focusing both on Carbon Dioxide and Methane. For Methane, special focus is on sectors such as Oil and Natural Gas, Coal Mines, Landfills and Wastewater.

Sanjeev is Prominent Figure in the global energy landscape, serving as Custodian and Head of Reservoir Geoscience at PETRONAS and Board Member and Vice President of the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE). With over two decades of international experience spanning 20 countries, he has been a driving force in sustainable energy production and carbon footprint reduction. Sanjeev holds a Ph.D. in Applied Geophysics alongside an MBA from Melbourne Business School and advanced project management certification from Stanford. Renowned for his prolific publications, Sanjeev has authored more than 100 technical papers and two textbooks on geology and geophysics of unconventionals.

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.

Dr. Pranaya Sangvai, an esteemed alumnus of IIT Roorkee and Mumbai, boasts over 40 years of experience in the energy industry. He is a passionate advocate for Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) and Geothermal Exploration, actively contributing to efforts aimed at achieving Net Zero emissions. 

Having held significant positions at companies such as ONGC, RIL, and Oswal Infrastructure Ltd., he currently serves as the Executive Director at Samit in Gurugram. In this role, he focuses on business development and the induction of new technologies, including airborne surveys and potential field techniques for hydrocarbon, green energy, and mineral exploration. Recently, he successfully led a project on sub-basalt mapping utilizing airborne FTG Survey technology.

Dr. Pranaya’s technical accomplishments include twelve back to back oil and gas discoveries, reversing production declines, and reservoir characterization. His successful execution of corporate assignments has established him as an exceptional manager. 

He has received considerable academic and industry recognition, frequently invited to serve as a jury member, chairman, and speaker at conferences of EAGE, AAPG, SEG etc.. He has authored 28 technical publications. Additionally, he is a visiting professor at SRMT and Osmania University. He has also been a consultant for OIL and MoPNG.

Earlier, after completing a PhD in Geophysics from CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute and Banaras Hindu University, Dr. Roy led the Geothermal Studies group at CSIR-NGRI, where he specialized in geothermal field of the Earth and its applications. He has served several national and international committees, and currently serves the Executive Committee of International Continental Scientific Drilling Program.