Job Type
Research
Decision Making & Policy
Subject Area
Climatology, Meteorology
Physical Oceanography
Research Support Services
Activities
Dr. Balakrishnan Nair , Group Director and Scientist -G , INCOIS,
India
Dr. Balakrishnan
Nair is a Senior Scientist and Director for Ocean Services and Applied Research
(OSAR) Group, at the Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services
(INCOIS), Ministry of Earth sciences, Government of India, Hyderabad- a leading
and unique organization in the field of operational oceanography viz. ocean
observation, modelling, Early warning and Marine services under the Ministry of
Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India. He is one of the founder members of
INCOIS, having over 25 years of experience as a researcher and leading the
Ocean Information and Forecast Service Group of INCOIS for last 19 years. He
was also leading INCOIS as Director-in-charge for a short span of time. He has
been instrumental in establishing the real time operational ocean observing
systems and developing an ocean forecast and early warning Services for India
and some of the Indian Ocean rim countries. He designed, developed and
sustained the ocean observation network, end-to-end multi-user, multi-parameter;
ocean forecast system which is now delivering the ocean forecast, early warning
and advisory services on a daily operational mode to India and other Indian
Ocean Rim countries.
He is a steering
committee Member for Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), Member of Expert
Team on Met Ocean Requirements (ET-MOR) of WMO, the National Coordinator for
Ship Observation Team (SOT) of GOOS, COordinated Wave CLImate Program (COWCLIP)
and member of Task Teams of SOT and Data Buoy Cooperation Panel (DBCP). He also
played a pivotal role in establishing multilateral programs with Regional
Integrated Multi-hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) to establish coastal
real-time observation systems and developing ocean forecast system for IOR
countries. He is also a member of WMO’s Severe Weather Forecast Project
(SWFP-South Asia).
Dr. Nair was
conferred with several national and international awards/fellowships, including
the prestigious National Geosciences Award-2014, from the Ministry of Mines,
Government of India, for his outstanding contributions in the field of
Geosciences; Silver Award (2008–09) for design and development of the INCOIS
website & ocean portal under the category “Best Government Website” during
the National Award for e-governance 2008–09, instituted by the Government of
India; Certificate of Merit (2007) for outstanding contribution from Ministry
of Earth Sciences, Government of India; Young Scientist Award from Indian
Association of Sedimentologists in 2000; Junior and Senior Research fellowships
(NET) from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of
India; DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) fellowship, Germany, for
advanced research in the University of Bremen, Germany.
Dr. Balakrishnan
Nair holds Ph.D. degree in Marine Science and his research interests include
Operational Oceanography and Ocean Services, Wave Modelling, Real-time Ocean
observation systems, and Marine Biogeochemistry. He published more than 75
papers in international and national SCI journals of high impact factor, in
addition to many technical reports and popular articles. He is a Fellow of the
Telangana Academy of Sciences (FTASc). He is a reviewer for many national and
international journals. He is also a recognized research guide in many Indian
universities and guided students for attaining their Ph. D degree.
