Rakesh Kumar

Dr. Rakesh Kumar has taken over as Director of the CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI). He has assumed charge on 23rd May 2016. Before becoming Director, Dr. Kumar was Chief Scientist and Head of Mumbai Zonal Laboratory, CSIR-NEERI. He obtained M.Tech. in Environmental Science and Engineering from IIT-Bombay and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from RTM Nagpur University. He has a vast experience in all fields of environmental science and engineering, especially air pollution control and management, urban air quality monitoring, emission inventory and modeling, environmental impact assessment, environmental audit, climate change and health. Dr. Kumar has given a notable contribution in developing technologies for reuse and recycle of domestic and industrial wastewater which brought a paradigm shift in the country. His efforts have always been for upliftment and application of Science and Technology for a sustainable development. His goal is to provide science and technology oriented solutions for the benefit of society and industry. He has received 9 awards for his outstanding contributions in Environmental Science & Engineering, among which the notable ones are Commonwealth Commission Award, UK in 1994; “Environmental Leadership Award” by US Asia Environmental Partnership and US-AID for the year 2005 for outstanding contribution in improving quality of life for the population of Asia. He has been given an award for largest number of technology transfer for low cost waste water treatment-PHYTORID in the year 2012. He has been given VASVIK award for 2012 for his exemplary work for urban environment improvement and sustainable technology Phytorid for sewage treatment for better environment. He has been recently awarded Hiyoshi Think of Ecology Award in September 2015 for his work on use of ecology in solving environmental engineering problems. He has also served as ‘Adjunct Professor’ at Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering, IIT-Bombay. Dr. Kumar has ten patents on pollution control devices including two international patents, and published more than 83 papers in national and international Journals and 92 papers in national and international conferences. He has authored three Self Learning Books on various topics of Environmental Science and Engineering, one of them for Commonwealth of Learning, Canada. Dr. Kumar has taken charge from Dr. Tapas Nandy who was earlier holding charge of Acting Director, CSIR-NEERI.