Home Institution India: National Institute of Technology Rourkela

Manoj Hariharan

Manoj Hariharan’s love of science began with a trek in fall, with his father, when his eyes captured the changing color of leaves in the midst of sheets of rain that turned paths into bewitching rivulets. Pursuing a doctorate nurtures this fascination scientifically. It also brings a deeper glimpse into all the good nature can do, from uncovering our survival to understanding Earth’s processes that shape our world.

At the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, Hariharan covers biosphere-atmosphere interactions and intends to understand how climate, pollution, atmospheric and geographic sciences shape and are shaped by the terrestrial carbon cycle. He tries to picture them mainly with the “eye in the sky.” He is a graduate of the Department of Geography at the University of Madras, Chennai, and a Project Fellow at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun. He loves stargazing in his downtime.

As a Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellow, Hariharan anticipates spending time with climate models at a supercomputer cluster to understand the dynamic traits of carbon. He will focus on the sensibility of the terrestrial ecosystems to environmental change, by attributing the processes to observed changes in the carbon pools using an integrated data platform. He expects the outcomes to draw him closer to better quantifying the trajectory of terrestrial carbon pools. Besides, he plans to explore the starry nights of the Colorado mountain trails and eagerly awaits experiencing a snowy Christmas eve.

Dibyashakti Panda

Dr. Dibyashakti Panda obtained his BSc from Dharanidhar Autonomous College, Keonjhar, in 2014 and MSc from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela in 2016. He then received his Ph D in 2021 under the supervision of Dr. Bhaskar Kundu at NIT . His doctoral research involved crustal deformation and seismic hazard assessment of the Indo-Burmese Arc region by using geodetic measurements, which has a huge impact on human society. He was also associated with several other research problems, e.g. earthquakes and v olcano related deformation, g reat earthquakes cycles and related deformation process, p late boundary vs. p late interior deformation process, c limate and tectonic interaction, etc. He has published several research papers in a wide range of international journals. He has been awarded the Institute Silver Medal in MSc Applied Geology (2014-2016) from NIT Rourkela, secured the second position in Science Category during Research Scholars Week 2019, NIT Rourkela, and qualified CSIR-NET 2020 for Lectureship/Assistant Professor with All India Rank 1. He has also received both national and international grants from both the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), India, and American Geophysical Union Student Travel Grant to attend the AGU Fall Meeting 2018 in Washington D.C. .

During his postdoctoral work supported by the Fulbright-Nehru F ellowship, Dr. Panda will try to provide a clear picture about the interseismic coupling and earthquake potential along the Himalayan arc by considering dense geodetic networks. The present proposal will also provide a novel method to update the kinematic coupling picture of the Himalayas by inverting GPS-derived velocity fields. Further, a realistic and precise 2D and 3D numerical dynamic fault model will be constructed to characterize the long-term fault behavior and earthquake rupture propagations.

Shantanu Kumar Behera

Dr. Shantanu Behera is currently an Associate Professor of Ceramic Engg. At NIT Rourkela. He holds a bachelor’s degree from NIT Rourkela and a Doctorate in Materials Science and Engineering from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, USA. He worked on analysing the atomic structural features of dopant segregated grain boundaries in alumina using transmission electron microscopy at Lehigh and synchrotron x-rays at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (NY, USA). Following his doctorate, he worked at the University of Colorado Boulder (USA) on various aspects of Polymer Derived Ceramics before relocating to India. Dr. Behera’s research interests over the last decade at NIT Rourkela includes development of nanostructures and hybrids from preceramic polymers with potential applications in batteries, supercapacitors, and in high temperature resistant bulk materials and coatings.

Dr. Behera was an invitee in the Indo-German Frontiers of Engineering Symposium following which he was a Visiting Scientist at the Forschungszentrum Julich, Germany. He reviews scientific literature for more than 30 journals and is an outstanding reviewer for a few. He speaks regularly in his mother tongue (odia) in All India Radio on popular and informative scientific topics.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Research Fellowship, Dr. Behera aims to fabricate novel Si-C hybrids using preceramic polymers for application as efficient anodes for Li ion batteries. With his expertise in preceramic polymer processing, microstructural characterization, and the resources at CU Boulder, he plans to develop a series of Si-C nanostructures, test their electrochemical properties to gain insights on the processing, microstructure, and performance relationship in these materials.