ANNOUNCEMENTS
Prof. Ramakrishnan Sitaraman Dean (Academic) Dr. Ramakrishnan Sitaraman is a microbiologist with research interests in microbial pathogenesis and genetics, gene regulation, restriction-modification systems and science education. He is currently a faculty member in the Department of Biotechnology at TERI SAS.
Dr. Ramakrishnan received his doctorate in microbiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (USA) and carried out post-doctoral research there. Thereafter, he undertook post-doctoral research on microbial pathogens at the National Institutes of Health (USA) and Vanderbilt University (USA). After joining TERI SAS in June, 2007, he made significant contributions to institutional development in the capacity of a founding head/chairperson/member of various departmental and university-wide administrative units. In recognition of his contributions to science pedagogy, he was invited as a Visting Scientist in 2011 by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mumbai, a National Centre of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. Dr. Ramakrishnan's research at TERI SAS has been supported by various funding agencies of the government of India such as the Life Sciences Research Board, the Department of Biotechnology, the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Science and Engineering Research Board. His multi-disciplinary scholarly contributions range from microbiology to science education to the humanities; his detailed academic profile is available on his faculty webpage.
Message from Dean(Academic)Ever since Thomas Malthus wrote his famous “essay” on the spectre of recurring mismatch between population growth and resource availability in 1798, human societies have perforce become ever more aware of the finitude of the earth's resources and energy supplies. However, with the industrial revolution, the "Malthusian trap" of the human population outstripping resource mobilization has been kept at bay for more than two centuries simply due to the availability and affordability of high quality, concentrated energy sources in the form of fossil fuels. The consequent release of greenhouse gases, notably carbon-dioxide, into the atmosphere at a rate unprecedented in the earth's history has likely led to the problem of anthropogenic climate change induced by global warming. If the historical record of the fall of civilizations due to environmental adversities is anything to go by, the consequences of planet-wide changes to ecosystems in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world would likely impact us on a historically unprecedented scale. It is to better understand these problems now that we need a new cadre of professionals who can straddle seemingly watertight disciplinary boundaries in our collective quest for effective and equitable mitigation and adaptation strategies. If a commitment to the well-being of the planet and a taste for multi-disciplinary problem-solving are part of your portfolio, we welcome you to explore and join any of the doctoral and master's programmes offered by our university. While all of us are part of the problem by default, we invite you join us and be part of the solution by intent.
List of previous Dean (Academics) at TERI School of Advanced Studies:
Dr Arun Kansal(December 2020 to January 2022)
Dr Atul Kumar(October 2019 to December 2020)
Dr Prateek Sharma(May 2015 to September 2019)
Dr P P Bhojvaid(July 2008 to July 2009)
Dr Leena Srivastava(June 2001 to June 2008)
