Chander Kumar Singh is a researcher and educator at TERI School of Advanced Studies. From a geochemistry background his interests have turned to interactions between environment and public health. In his research, he addresses critical issues and concerns of qualitative and quantitative assessment of groundwater in India. The ongoing theme of his work relates to spatial patterns of geogenic contaminants in India and South and South East Asia at large. He believes in widespread deployment of field kits to ascertain the quality of water and to understand the mechanisms that drive the complex distribution of geogenic contaminants in groundwater. He focuses on vulnerability of aquifers using deep drilling, carbon dating and more sophisticated techniques in Indus and Gangetic plains of India. He works with a large pool of earth, public health and social scientists across the world on the issues of groundwater contamination. Dr. Singh’s doctoral scholars work on a wide range of topics from Arsenic, fluoride and uranium contamination as well as to identify morphotectonic changes using hyperspectral imaging techniques. Dr. Singh has more than 60 international research papers along with many book chapters to his credit. He has also edited few books published by international publishing houses. He also leads the Analytical and Geochemistry Laboratory at TERISAS.
He has been awarded as Young Scientist Award by International Union of Geological Sciences in Euro Conference 2009, Switzerland for his work on groundwater in Aravalli Quartzites. He is member expert for Arsenic Task Force, Punjab. His recent findings on Arsenic contamination in Indus Basin has attracted national and international attention and has been rated as one of the 15 most popular achievements of Indian Scientists in 2018.
Publications:
- Van Geen, A., Farooqi, A., Kumar, A., Khattak, J.A., Mushtaq, N., Hussain, I., Ellis, T. and Singh, C.K., 2018, Field testing of over 30,000 wells for arsenic across 400 villages of the Punjab plains of Pakistan and India: Implications for prioritizing mitigation, Science of The Total Environment, 654, 1358-1363
- Singh CK, Kumar A, Bindal S. 2018, Arsenic contamination in Rapti River Basin, Terai region of India, Journal of Geochemical Exploration, 192, 120-131
- Singh CK, Kumar A, Roy SS. 2018, Quantitative analysis of the methane gas emissions from municipal solid waste in India, Scientific Reports, 8(1), 2913
- Barnwal P, van Geen A, von der Goltz J, Singh CK., 2017Demand for environmental quality information and household response: Evidence from well-water arsenic testing, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 86, 160-192
- Singh CK, Kumar A, Shashtri S, Kumar A, Kumar P, Mallick J., 2017, Multivariate statistical analysis and geochemical modeling for geochemical assessment of groundwater of Delhi, India, Journal of Geochemical Exploration, 175, 59-71
- Kumari M, Singh CK, Basistha A, Dorjie S, Tamange TB., 2017, Non-stationary modelling framework for rainfall interpolation in complex terrain, International Journal of Climatology, , 37(11), 4171-4185
- Mehra M, Singh CK, Abrol IP, Oinam B., 2016 A GIS-based methodological framework to characterize the Resource Management Domain (RMD): A case study of Mewat district, Haryana, India, Land Use Policy, 60, 90-100
- Mallick J, Rahman A, Singh CK., 2013, Modeling urban heat islands in heterogeneous land surface and its correlation with impervious surface area by using night-time ASTER satellite data in highly urbanizing city, Delhi-India, Advances in Space Research, 52(4), 639-655
- Mallick J, Singh CK, Shashtri S, Rahman A, Mukherjee S., 2012, Land surface emissivity retrieval based on moisture index from LANDSAT TM Satellite Data over Heterogeneous Surfaces of Delhi City, International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 19, 348-358
- Singh CK, Shashtri S, Mukherjee S, Kumari R, Avatar R, Singh A, Singh RP., 2011, Application of GWQI to assess effect of land use change on groundwater quality in lower Shiwaliks of Punjab: remote sensing & GIS based approachta over Heterogeneous Surfaces of Delhi City, Water Resources Management, 25 (7), 1881-1898
- Singh CK, Kumari R, Singh RP, Shashtri S, Kamal V, Mukherjee S., 2011 Bulletin of Environment and Contaminant Toxicology, 86(2), 152-158. (Springer, IF-1.480)
- Young Scientist Award by International Union of Geological Sciences
- PEER Science Award by National Science Foundation, USA
- Member, Arsenic Task Force, Punjab