Foundation Day Awards - 2009

Dr.George Joseph

From 1962 to 1973 at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay, Dr. Joseph was involved in the study of cosmic rays using balloon borne detectors. A novel detector system designed by him was flown on the first Indian Satellite ARYABHATA to detect solar neutrons.

Professor Shishir Kumar Dube

former Director of Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and currently Professor at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences IIT Delhi, was born in Kalpi district of U.P., India on October 04, 1947. After doing his primary and higher education in Varanasi, he received his Ph.D. (Fluid Mechanics) degree from Lucknow University in the year 1972.

Shri K.Mullai Vendhan

Born on 20th May, 1985, Shri K. Mullai Vendhan, obtained his B.E. (Civil Engineering). Presently, he is working as Scientist-B and Head, Computational Facilities and Web Based Services Group in National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai and has been involved in Structural Analysis and Design activities in the Desalination and Offshore Structures projects at NIOT.

Dr. Pattabhi Rama Rao

born on 10th March, 1972 obtained his Bachelor of Science (B. Sc.) from Nagarjuna University (1992) and Master of Science (M. Sc. - Meteorology) from Andhra University (1995). He joined INCOIS in 2001 as a Scientist and contributed significantly to the progress and development of the organization especially in the field of Ocean Data Management.

Shri A.J. Luis

Dr. Luis joined the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) on 31st May 2005 as Scientist-C in the Polar Remote Sensing Section. He holds a M. Sc. from Goa University and a second M. Sc. in Marine Sciences from Rykyus University, Japan. He earned a Ph. D. from Tohoku University, Japan in 2000 and worked as a post doctoral student up to 2003.

Shri D. Mohan

Born on 29th April 1958, Dr.D. Mohan, possesses the Degrees of M.S.c Zoology and Doctorate in Marine Biology.Dr. D. Mohan's Scieintific contribution/Achievements :"Establishment of a modern Ecotoxicology laboratory at NIOT Campus, Chennai to conduct laboratory toxicity tests and other related experiments.

Shri N. Saravanane

Born on 21st November 1970, Shri N. Saravanane, possesses the Degrees of M.S.c in Marine Biology and Oceanography. Shri N. Saravane's Scieintific contribution/Achievements : " Lead a team of young scientists in the preparation of a digital elevation model (DEM) for Andaman & Nicobar Islands in GIS platform. " Recorded for the first time, the presence of glass sponges grounds (Monorhaphis chuni & Hyalonema sieboldi ) off North Andaman Islands.

Dr.N. Chattopadhyaya

Born on 16th January 1959, Dr. N. Chattopadhyay obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D Degrees in Agriculture from Calcutta University. He is working as Director, at the India Meteorological Department, Pune. He has published around 45 papers in reputed National and International journals and reports.

Dr.M. Mohaptra

Born on 12th August 1965, Dr. Mrutyunjay Mohapatra obtained his M. Sc. and Ph. D. degrees in Physics from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. He joined India Meteorological Department (IMD) as Meteorologist Grade II in 1992. He has been engaged in operational weather forecasting for past 16 years which also included cyclone warning services for about 10 years and allied meteorological research.

Dr. Munmun Das Gupta

Dr. Munmun Das Gupta obtained a Master's Degree in Applied Mathematics from University of Calcutta in 1987 and her Ph. D. degree in Atmospheric Science in 2007 from Berhampur University on the thesis entitled "Impact of Meteorological Data on Monsoon Simulation with a Global Analysis-Forecast system".

Dr.A.K. Sahai

Born on 17th March 1961, Dr. Atul Kumar Sahai obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D Degrees in Mathematics from the University of Allahabad. He is working as Scientist - E at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM). He has published more than 40 papers in referred International journals and reports and presented more than 60 papers in seminars/symposia/workshops.

Smt. Naresh Chopra

Smt. Naresh Chopra is working as Private Secretary in Secretary's Office, MoES. Apart from taking all dictations and typing work of Secretary's office, Smt Naresh Chopra efficiently handles the Secretary's travel scheduling, air-tickets, appointments/engagement schedules. She also does the coordination on wekly meetings. Smt. Naresh Chopra has excellent knowledge in subject of various programmes/projects of Earth Sciences.

Shri B.L. Koli

Shri B.L. Koli Parliament Assistant in the Ministry has been instrumental in timely completion of the work relating to Parliament Section starting from collecting replies from the various senior officers and get it approved from the Competent Authorities to timely submission of replies in the Parliament and timely submission of various reports of the Ministry and its institutes to Parliament. . Shri B.L. Kohli also organize Meeting of the Standing Committee of S&T efficiently.

Shri Abraham Philopose

Shri Philopose is working as Asst. Meteorologist, Gr.-II at ARGM (R), IMD, Pune and handling all the work related to designing and printing of major publications along with their e-books and e-books in PDF & HTML formats. He has been instrumental in implementation of Plan Scheme "Augmentation of the Printing Unit at Pune.

Shri Bishamber Dutt

Shri Bishamber Dutt,UDC in the Ministry handles all the work related to Protocol Division such as processing the foreign deputation cases, arranging visas for the delegation to visit abroad, booking of air tickets, timely release of payment to Air India and M/s. Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd. He also involved in organizing various meetings/conference etc. within the Ministry and outside. He has executed all the tasks assigned to him very sincerely to the utter satisfaction of senior authorities.

Shri Angshuman Kundu

Shri Angshuman Kundu is working as Scientific Assistant (SO), RMC, IMD, Kolkata and maintains the RMC Kolkata website, automatic storage of met data and coded data dowlad interface and geographical information system.

Shri Om Prakash

Shri Om Prakash meticulously carries out his duties with Secretary, MoES and Chairman to the Earth Commission. He not only takes care of the needs of his officer but also the visiting dignitaries. He also takes care to attend to the file/dak movements during the absence of regular staff.

Shri Inderjeet

Shri Inderjeet is highly proficient in his performance and achieves the target set. His prompt action and his capacity to remember even trivial matters saves time and energy in record retrieval.

Shri Subhash Singh Sajwan

Shri Subhash Singh Sajwan is working in Parliament Section of the Ministry and assisting the officers in handling all the parliament related matter in a time bound manner.

Shri Har Singh

Shri Har Singh is working as Met. Attendant in IMD and assisting the officers and technical personnel in maintaining the sophisticated communication systems and computers.

Prof Shishir Kumar Dube

Professor Shishir Kumar Dube, former Director of Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and currently Professor at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences IIT Delhi, was born in Kalpi district of U.P., India on October 04, 1947. After doing his primary and higher education in Varanasi, he received his Ph.D. (Fluid Mechanics) degree from Lucknow University in the year 1972. He worked at the India Meteorological Department from 1972-78. Subsequently he joined the faculty of IIT Delhi. Prof Dube worked at IIT Delhi in many capacities including Head of the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences (1995-98) and Dean of Industrial Research & Development (2001-02). Prof. Dube was Director of IIT Kharagpur during 2002-07 and Pro-Chancellor of KIIT University Bhubaneswar 2008-09.

Research interests of Professor Dube include Numerical Storm Surge Prediction, Ocean Wave Modelling, Coastal Marine Hazards and Regional Ocean State Forecasting Models. Professor Dube has guided 15 Ph.D. students and published about 200 research papers in various journals of international repute. He also co-authored a book on Storm Surges published from Germany. He is internationally recognized for his pioneering contributions in the field of storm surge prediction in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. He is responsible for the development of real time operational surge prediction systems which under the auspices of World Meteorological Organization (WMO) have been transferred to the National Weather Services of Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand for their operational use.

Professor Dube was the President of the Indian Meteorological Society (2001-03), President of the Indian Society for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation (2009-10) and the member of the large number of national and international societies and professional bodies. He has been member of the editorial boards of 'Proc. of Indian Academy of Sciences (Earth & Planetary Sciences)', India; and 'Natural Hazards' (Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards); Indian Journal of Marine Science; MAUSAM, Journal of the India Meteorological Department; Mathematical Modelling and Analysis of Complex Systems: An International Journal, India; Ganita, Journal of Bharat Ganita Parishad; Pakistan Journal of Meteorology, Chief Editor of the Indian Meteorological Society's journal 'Vayu Mandal'.

Professor Dube has been the member of the Governing Councils of a number of institutions and universities. He served on many committees of WMO and has visited as expert of storm surge and wind waves to more than 30 countries. He is also involved in several decision-making bodies formed by the Government of India including member of the Earth Commission.

Professor Dube was elected as the Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (2004), Elected Life Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (India) LFIEE(I), (2003), Fellow of the Indian Geophysical Union in 2002, Fellow of the Indian Meteorological Society in 2000, Fellow of the International Academy of Physical Sciences (FIAPS) 2007 and Fellow of the Indian Society for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation (2009). He has received several honors and awards including 12th MAUSAM Award for the year 1982-83, Prince Mukharramjah Endowment Lecture & Award, IGU, 2002, Distinguished Service Award for Application of Mathematics in Ocean Science, Vigyan Parishad of India, 2002, Dr K. N. Behl Memorial Gold Medal by Society of Biosciences 2003, Platinum Jubilee Lecture at 94th Session of the Indian Science Congress Association 2007 etc.

In recognition of outstanding contributions to the Atmospheric Sciences, the Ministry of Earth Sciences honours Prof. S.K.Dube with National Award in Atmospheric Sciences for the year 2009.

K.MULLAI VENDHAN

Born on 20th May, 1985, Shri K. Mullai Vendhan, obtained his B.E. (Civil Engineering). Presently, he is working as Scientist-B and Head, Computational Facilities and Web Based Services Group in National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai and has been involved in Structural Analysis and Design activities in the Desalination and Offshore Structures projects at NIOT.

Shri K. Mullai Vendhan has made outstanding contributions towards the Analysis, Design and Execution of Steel and Concrete supporting Structures for Desalination projects. Particular contributions in the projects are :

• " Structural Analysis and Design and Supervision for Construction of Steel Plant Structure with Raft foundation for Waste Heat Desalination Project at North Chennai Thermal Power Station (NCTPS) campus in Chennai.
• " Structural Analysis and Design of the Flash chamber and Condenser for the 3 island Desalination Project in Lakshadweep islands.
• " Actively worked as a team member in Hydrographic Survey for the 3 island Desalination Project in Lakshadweep islands.
• " The Structural Analyses and Design of several configurations for the Sump, Approach Bridge and Plant Structure for the 3 island Desalination Projects. The above several configurations were studied due to difficulties posed by site bathymetry, low infrastructure and absence of handling equipments. These configurations played a crucial role in accepting or rejecting the available options for the selection of an optimal design. These structures are very critical for commissioning of the plants.
• " Stability Analysis of the Low Cost Fish Aggregating Device for Ocean Science and Technology for Islands (OSTI) group.

He has been working for the past 1.5 years in the Analysis and Design Concrete and Steel Structures for Desalination Projects. He is also involved in Construction and Supervision of those Structures. He is also good in stability analysis for Floating objects. He has played a key role in the Design of Civil structures for the ongoing Desalination projects.

Shri K. Mullai Vendhan is awarded Certificate of Merit for his outstanding contribution in the field of Ocean Science and Technology.

E. Pattabhi Rama Rao

Shri. E. Pattabhi Rama Rao born on 10th March, 1972 obtained his Bachelor of Science (B. Sc.) from Nagarjuna University (1992) and Master of Science (M. Sc. - Meteorology) from Andhra University (1995). He joined INCOIS in 2001 as a Scientist and contributed significantly to the progress and development of the organization especially in the field of Ocean Data Management. Shri. E. Pattabhi Rama Rao, Scientist 'D' and Head, Data and information Management (DMG) at INCOIS has made outstanding contributions in setting up of data acquisition and processing systems, providing timely and reliable data and products for operational services, data management of voluminous oceanographic data generated by variety of in-situ and remote sensing ocean observing systems, web-based data services, and data centre activities at national and regional levels. Some of his significant contributions in the field of Ocean Data and Information Management are as follows:

• " Providing data services to the user community for National Oceanographic Data Centre, Argo National Data Centre, Argo Regional Data Centre at INCOIS
• " Development of Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS), the one stop shop for providing data on marine meteorological and oceanographic parameters of ocean and coasts on spatial and temporal domains that is vital for both research and operational oceanography.
• " Data management of heterogeneous and voluminous surface metrological and oceanographic data that include data assembly, standardisation, quality control, generation of data and meta database and data services.
• " Setting up of Satellite Data Acquisition and Processing System (SDAPS) reception of data from remote sensing satellites and in-situ platforms in real time, data processing, product generation, web publication and dissemination to the users.
• " Improved timelines considerably in providing surface meteorological and oceanographic data for in-house operational services as well as to other operational agencies in the country.
• " Web-based data services facilitating the users with data discovery, visualisation and data transport in various user defined formats.
• " Development of data products and software tools for visual quality control of Argo and moored buoy data sets.
• " Initiation of R&D in ocean data management using data warehousing and mining techniques.
• " Significant contributions to the international programmes on data management:
• o As the National Coordinator from India for Ocean Data Management he is actively involved in the International Oceanographic Data Exchange (IODE) Programme of Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)/UNESCO.
• o Developing standards, formats and quality control procedures for the time series data from moored buoys and current meter moorings, as part of the OceanSITES, a global time series program (GOOS/JCOMM) aiming to develop a data management system similar to Argo programme.

Shri. E. Pattabhi Rama Rao is awarded Certificate of Merit for his outstanding contribution in the field of Ocean Science & Technology.

A.J. LUIS

Dr. Luis joined the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) on 31st May 2005 as Scientist-C in the Polar Remote Sensing Section. He holds a M. Sc. from Goa University and a second M. Sc. in Marine Sciences from Rykyus University, Japan. He earned a Ph. D. from Tohoku University, Japan in 2000 and worked as a post doctoral student up to 2003. He was engaged as Project Scientist in this Centre for the period May 2003 to April 2005. During this tenure he setup a state-of-art Polar Remote Sensing Laboratory with latest computational facilities for processing a suite of remote sensing data. He is a principal investigator of two projects namely, Antarctic sea-ice trends and the International Polar Year (IPY) project-Monitoring of the upper ocean circulation, transport and water masses between Africa and Antarctica. His immense contribution to the International Scientific Community is an oceanographic data bank which is generated by deployment more than 500 XCTD in the Southern Ocean during the annual Antarctic Expeditions under the aegis of the IPY project. In the field of sea-ice studies, his investigation reveals that Antarctic sea-ice is showing an increasing trend, since the inception of satellite observations in 1978. He has brought laurels to NCAOR by publishing 25 research papers in peer-reviewed, high-impact International Journals including Geophysical Research Letters, JGR, Remote Sensing of Environment, etc.. He is also guiding a number of engineering students from across the country to pursue their dissertation work using the computational facilities at NCAOR.

Shri A.J. Luis is awarded Certificate of Merit for his outstanding contribution in the field of Ocean Science & Technology.

Dr.D. MOHAN

Born on 29th April 1958, Dr.D. Mohan, possesses the Degrees of M.S.c Zoology and Doctorate in Marine Biology Dr. D. Mohan's Scieintific contribution/Achievements :

• " Establishment of a modern Ecotoxicology laboratory at NIOT Campus, Chennai to conduct laboratory toxicity tests and other related experiments
• " Over all Co-ordination with the participating institutions and Implementation of the Marine Ecotoxicology Project
• " Establishment of Continuous flow through system for conduct of toxicity studies, an experimental method capable of simulating near-field conditions to the marine organisms which are exposed to sewage; industrial effluents discharged from land based developmental activities near to the coast.
• " Development of draft Sea water quality criteria expressed as Criterion Maximum Concentration (CMC) and Criterion Continuous Concentration (CCC) for heavy metals viz., Copper, Cadmium and Mercury for protection of marine food chain organisms. The Sea Water Quality Criteria (SWQC) was proposed to Central Pollution Control Board for consideration to develop SWQ standards. Such criteria are existing in the USEPA for about 165 chemicals as envisaged under Clean Water Act, hence, in India it is aimed to develop the criteria for developing WQ standards for many chemicals where standards are not available.
• Apart from the above said scientific contributions, Dr. D. Mohan also handles the following Administrative Works as Head of Office :
• " Issue of Sanction for payment of all bills related to procurement of supplies & materials, AMC, hiring of vehicles air travel, telephone bills, GPF withdrawal etc., provide approval for petty contingencies, reimbursements, conveyance etc.,
• " Routing files to PD, ICMAM on administrative matters, procurement of supplies & materials, recruitment of project staff, salary, all payments etc., for approval.

Dr.D.Mohan also functioning as Assistant Public Information Officer (APIO) for ICMAM PD, Chennai. Dr. D. Mohan is awarded Certificate of Merit for his outstanding contribution in the filed of Ocean Science & Technology.

N. SARAVANANE

Born on 21st November 1970, Shri N. Saravanane, possesses the Degrees of M.S.c in Marine Biology and Oceanography.

• " Lead a team of young scientists in the preparation of a digital elevation model (DEM) for Andaman & Nicobar Islands in GIS platform.
• " Recorded for the first time, the presence of glass sponges grounds (Monorhaphis chuni & Hyalonema sieboldi ) off North Andaman Islands.
• " Heading the data centre of CMLRE. Developed GIS database on distribution of Marine Mammals in Indian Sea in ARCGIS environments.
• " Compiled and formatted all the fishery data collected so far using the vessel FORV Sagar Sampada and created demersal fishery database and the same linked to ARCGIS platform for creation of atlas of dominant demersal fish species on the west coast of India.
• " Created a map of fishing grounds and sediment types along the west coast of India in GIS platform.
• " Developed web-based database module for archival of CTD data collected using FORV Sagar Sampada.
• " Participated in several cruises of FORV Sagar Sampada as Chief Scientist.

Apart from the above said scientific contributions, Dr. N. Saravanane also working as Public Information Officer (PIO) and handling the matters related to RTI Act.

Dr. N. Saravanane is awarded Certificate of Merit for his outstanding contribution in the field of Ocean Science & Technology.

Dr. N. Chattopadhyay

Born on 16th January 1959, Dr. N. Chattopadhyay obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D Degrees in Agriculture from Calcutta University. He is working as Director, at the India Meteorological Department, Pune. He has published around 45 papers in reputed National and International journals and reports.

Dr. Chattopadhyay has received various awards and honors like Noel Gold Medal for best paper in Agricultural Science in 1997, best poster presentation in Indian Science Congress in 2000, best paper in National Symposium on "Priorities and Strategies for Rice Research in the High Rainfall Tropics" in 2002.

Dr. Chattopadhyay has made outstanding contribution in the field of Agricultural Meteorology particularly on Agromet Services. He is effectively involved in the project "Implementation of Integrated Agromet Advisory Service in the Country". Under this project, efforts are being made to develop crop and location specific advisories and dissemination of the same in real time basis to the farmers at district/block/village level.

Dr. Chattopadhyay also working as ET member of "Content and Use of Agrometeorological Products by Farmers and Extension Services (ETCUAP)" of the World Meteorological Organization for the RAII Region since 2006.

Dr. N. Chattopadhyay is awarded Certificate of Merit for his outstanding contribution in the field of Atmospheric Sciences.

Dr. Mrutyunjay Mohapatra

Born on 12th August 1965, Dr. Mrutyunjay Mohapatra obtained his M. Sc. and Ph. D. degrees in Physics from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. He joined India Meteorological Department (IMD) as Meteorologist Grade II in 1992. He has been engaged in operational weather forecasting for past 16 years which also included cyclone warning services for about 10 years and allied meteorological research.

Dr. Mohapatra has made significant research contributions on (i) high impact weather events, especially cyclonic disturbances and heavy rainfall, (ii) monsoon circulation & precipitation, (iii) location specific forecast and (iv) forecast verification. Dr Mohapatra has 49 research publications including 25 research papers in the national and international journals. He also contributed for publication of Forecasting Manual on Cyclone and various Technical Reports by Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre (RSMC)-Tropical Cyclone, New Delhi. Dr. Mohapatra worked as National Editor for the publication of Annual Cyclone Review Report and as a Rapporteur for the publication of Panel News of World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)/ Economic and Social Cooperation for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Panel for tropical cyclones.

His significant contribution in weather forecast and cyclone warning services included:

(i) Improved performance of cyclone forecast along with introduction of location and intensity forecast upto 72 hours

(ii) Description of diagnostic and prognostic features of cyclonic disturbances in the bulletins issued to WMO/ESCAP Panel countries

(iii) Objective verification of cyclone forecast and disastrous weather warnings issued by IMD

(iv) Service to disaster management agencies

(v) Organised and imparted training at RSMC, New Delhi to WMO sponsored cyclone forecasters form the WMO/ESCAP Panel Member countries.

In addition, Dr. Mohapatra participated as an expert member from India in the WMO's Fact Finding Mission to Myanmar, during 9-13 February 2009 after the devastation due to cyclone 'Nargis'. WMO appreciated the forecast and advisory services provided by RSMC, New Delhi to Myanmar during cyclone, NARGIS. He also contributed for the development of International Best Track Archives of Tropical Cyclones in World Climate Data Centre (WCDC), located in National Climate Data Centre (NCDC), National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Asheville, USA.

Dr. Mohapatra also deals with the activities of RSMC-Tropical Cyclone, New Delhi and various technical aspects of Northern Hemispheric Analysis Centre (NHAC).

Dr. Mohapatra is awarded Certificate of Merit for his outstanding contribution in the field of Atmospheric Sciences.

Dr. Munmun Das Gupta

Dr. Munmun Das Gupta obtained a Master's Degree in Applied Mathematics from University of Calcutta in 1987 and her Ph. D. degree in Atmospheric Science in 2007 from Berhampur University on the thesis entitled "Impact of Meteorological Data on Monsoon Simulation with a Global Analysis-Forecast system".

Dr. Das Gupta joined India Meteorological Department as Meteorologist - Gr. II in 1990 worked on Numerical Weather Prediction. Subsequently she joined NCMRWF in 1995 and has since been working on different aspects of meteorological data processing and data assimilation. She has been associated with development works on global and meso-scale data assimilation system. She participated actively in various national programmes such as Arabian Sea Monsoon Experiment (ARMEX), Mountain Meteorology programme (PARWAT), etc.

Dr. Das Gupta has endeared to everyone alike, distinguishing herself as a committed and sincere scientist. She has a pleasant nature, adjustable to all circumstances, very cooperative and upright. Her constant endeavor to seek new avenues of personal and professional achievements is truly admirable.

Dr. Das Gupta has worked hard to bring laurels to NCMRWF. In particular her exemplary leadership and sincere efforts in implementing data processing, monitoring and assimilation system for the T254L64 model at NCMRWF is truly commendable. Her efforts in defining better initial position through Tropical Cyclone Relocation procedure have helped in improving the prediction of Tropical Cyclone in T254L64 model.

Dr. Das Gupta is awarded Certificate of Merit for his outstanding contribution in the field of Atmospheric Sciences.

Dr. Atul Kumar Sahai

Born on 17th March 1961, Dr. Atul Kumar Sahai obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D Degrees in Mathematics from the University of Allahabad. He is working as Scientist - E at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM). He has published more than 40 papers in referred International journals and reports and presented more than 60 papers in seminars/symposia/workshops. Dr. Sahai has received various awards and honors like Korean Brain Pool Felowship-2009, Visiting scientist Fellowship from CNPq-2001, Brazil and APCC-2006, Korea, IITM Silver Jubilee Award-2003, Best paper awards at Indian Mathematical Society-1995 and Brazilian Congress of Meteorology-2004.

Dr.A.K. Sahai has made outstanding contribution in the field of seasonal and extended range prediction of Indian summer monsoon. He has developed a novel statistical model for deterministic and probabilistic forecast of seasonal mean monsoon rainfall. He has also developed linear and non-linear statistical techniques for deterministic and probabilistic extended range empirical prediction on regional and sub divisional scale over India. Based on his pioneering works he has implemented a comprehensive statistical forecasting system for skillful real-time seasonal and extended range forecasting. He is also leading the group at IITM which is actively involved in the dynamical forecast of monsoon rainfall on seasonal and extended range using PUM (Portable Unified Model from UK Met Office) atmospheric model and Florida State University coupled model. Besides these prediction activities he has made significant contributions in understanding monsoon variability. Dr. Sahai has also played a leading role in the installation, running, analyzing and training for the PRECIS (Providing Regional Climates for Impacts Studies) simulations and to generate regional high-resolution (~50 x 50 km) climate change scenarios. This activity helped the Institute to emerge as a national and South Asian resource base for regional climate change scenarios.

Dr. A.K. Sahai is awarded Certificate of Merit for his outstanding contribution in the field of Atmospheric Sciences.