About CSECC
Environmental change and climate change are amongst the most critical issues of our time that will affect the sustainable and equitable development of all countries and their citizens. Impacts of environmental change and climate change potentially include food, water, and energy insecurity; loss of biodiversity and species extinction; changes in land use and land cover; increased frequency of extreme weather events; effects on human health; human conflict; and human migration amongst others.
The Centre for Sustainability, Environment, and Climate Change (CSECC) at FLAME University aims to address several of these critical issues through multidisciplinary research projects, pedagogical interventions, and outreach activities. The Centre projects include:
- Environmental and Climate Change Education through the FutureEd Lab that includes a repository of innovative pedagogical resources to train teachers and learners in Environmental and Climate Change.
- The Atlas of India Project through the Map Lab that aims to create a comprehensive archive of digital maps of India
People
Prof. Rahul Chopra
Director, CSECC FLAME University
Project Director, Project TROP ICSU
(PhD - Department of the Geophysical Sciences | The
University of Chicago, USA)
Dr. Rahul Chopra is the Director of the Centre for Sustainability, Environment and Climate Change and an Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at FLAME University, India. He is also the Project Director of a global climate change education project (TROP ICSU) of the International Union of Biological Sciences that aims to integrate climate change education in the curriculum across the world.
Rahul’s interests are multidisciplinary and include curriculum development in Earth and Environmental Studies; the use of satellite derived remotely sensed and in-situ data to evaluate our changing environment; historical GIS and the spatial humanities; field based geological and environmental studies, and the use of high resolution chemical analyses instruments and data to study various earth and environmental processes.
He received his Ph.D. in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago, USA.
He has been a member of the Expert Group on COVID-19 in Pune as part of the Pune Knowledge Cluster; Ambassador of The Earth Project; Visiting Professor at Ashoka University; the Coordinator and Convener of the National Resource Center on Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune.
Sanjana Singh
Senior Research Associate & Centre Coordinator &
Coordinator FutureEd Lab
(MSc. Sustainability | United Nations University, Japan)
Sanjana Singh is a climate expert who is leading the FutureEd Lab at the Centre of Sustainability, Environment, and Climate Change at FLAME University as the coordinator of the centre. She is also the coordinator of Project TROP ICSU, a project of International Union of Biological Sciences and FLAME University.
Sanjana has a Master’s from United Nations University, Tokyo in Sustainability Science. She has worked closely with educators, training them in climate change education and making them content creators. Sanjana has also created and curated many climate resources across all disciplines and has written several Lesson Plans. She has also co-authored several research papers and book chapters.
Mangesh Deshpande
Senior Research Associate & Centre Coordinator &
Coordinator The Map Lab
(Pursuing PhD Computer Studies | Symbiosis
International (Deemed University), India)
Mangesh Deshpande is a senior research associate and coordinator of Map Lab. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Computer Studies. He specialises in satellite remote sensing, image processing and applies his knowledge in the field of environment and climate change. His interests are in optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging, machine learning and socio-economic implications of natural disasters. He has worked in the field of agriculture, droughts, arctic snow and data archiving at different levels.
Mohd Islam
Senior Research Associate
(MSc. Climate Science and Policy | The Energy and
Resource Institute (TERI University)
Mohd Islam is a Senior Research Associate at The Map Lab. He earned an MSc degree in Climate Science and Policy from The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI University). With over eight years of experience in industry and research institutes, he specialises in using GIS and remote sensing technologies for ecological and water resource challenges, focusing on climate change and sustainable landscape management. His research interests include integrating GIS and remote sensing with ecohydrological principles to study landscape ecology, forest carbon mapping, rural-urban transformation, prey-predator coexistence, and glaciohydrology.
Hrishikesh Chandanpurkar
Fellow,
(Ph.D. University of California, Irvine)
Hrishikesh Chandanpurkar received his Doctorate Degree in Earth System Science from the University of California, Irvine. He has been a Postdoctoral Researcher for the Postdoctoral Researcher NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and worked as a Research Scientist in University of Saskatchewan.
Komal Dhoka
Senior Research Associate
(Pursuing PhD)
Komal Dhoka a Senior Research Associate and currently pursuing a PhD. She has a strong passion for development, programming, and innovation. Her career started in the IT industry, where she gained valuable experience before transitioning into research. She has also served as a visiting faculty, teaching courses in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Python, and other programming languages. This diverse background has equipped her with a unique perspective, blending industry experience with academic expertise to drive forward-thinking solutions and advancements.
Sanchit Sant
Research Associate
(B.E. Mechanical Engineering | Savitribai Phule Pune
University)
Sanchit Sant has been working as a Research Associate at the Centre for Sustainability, Environment and Climate Change, FLAME University since March 2022 under the direction of Dr. Rahul Chopra (Director, CSECC, FLAME University). He is a member of Project TROP ICSU, a Climate Change Education Project of the International Union of Biological Sciences and FLAME University.
His academic interests include content development on climate awareness for middle school and high school and facilitating training workshops for teachers towards inculcating climate awareness.
Faculty
Prof. Anuradha Batabyal
Assistant Professor - Environmental Studies
(PhD - Ecology | IISc, Bangalore)
Prof. Anuradha Batabyal received her Doctorate Degree in Ecology from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. She has completed Master’s Degree in Zoology from Pune University, and Bachelor’s Degree in Zoology from the University of Calcutta.
Prof. Jayant Pande
Assistant Professor - Physics
(PhD - Physics | Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg - Erlangen, Germany)
Bio- Prof. Jayant Pande, is Assistant Professor – Physics has received his Doctorate Degree Doctorate Degree in Physics from Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany, and has completed Masters in Science from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
Prof. Abhineety Goel
Assistant Professor - Environmental Studies
(PhD - Geography | Texas A&M University - USA)
Postdoctorate, Texas A&M University; PhD in Geography from Texas A&M University, USA; Master’s and M.Phil from Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi; B.A. (Hons) Geography, University of Delhi.
Prof. Rishi Jha
Assistant Professor – Public Policy
(PhD - Faculty of Social Sciences (Social Work) | Lund University, Sweden)
Prof. Rishi Jha is Assistant Professor – Public Policy at FLAME University. He holds a Doctorate Degree in Social Work from Lund University, Sweden. He also has a Master’s Degree in Philosophy and a Master’s Degree in Arts from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He has completed Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture from Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Delhi.
Prof. Barun Kumar Thakur
Associate Professor - Economics
(FPM - Environmental Economics | IIM Mumbai)
FPM in Environmental Economics from IIM Mumbai, Mumbai; M.A in Economics; B.Sc. in Information Technology; B.A in Economics
Prof. Balaji Kalluri
Assistant Professor - Environmental Studies
(PhD - Building Sciences | National University of Singapore - Singapore)
Prof. Balaji Kalluri, is an Assistant Professor – Environmental Studies. He earned his Doctorate (Ph.D.) in inter-disciplinary field of Building Sciences from the National University of Singapore. Prior to this, he has completed Masters in Microelectronics engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Pilani Campus and Bachelors in Electronics and Communication engineering from Anna University, Chennai.