Faculty

Shalini Dixit is an M.Phil-PhD from Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Masters in Psychology. She received NCERT Doctoral Fellowship in the year 2009. Her doctoral work on the ‘understanding of history’ was awarded D Sinha Best Doctoral Dissertation Award by the National Academy of Psychology, India, in the year 2013. She has had years of experience in teaching and research in a number of colleges at the University of Delhi including Jesus & Mary College, Mata Sundri College for Women (Department of Elementary Education) and Kamla Nehru College (Department of Psychology) as Assistant Professor. She has also worked with the Department of Educational Psychology and Foundations of Education, NCERT; Save the Children, Finland; and James Cook University Australia, Singapore Campus. 

Research Interests:
Her disciplinary training is in the area of cognitive, social, and cultural psychology. Her primary research interest has been educational experiences of marginalised communities, identity studies, historical thinking among children and adults, and education for sustainability. She has been applying qualitative research methods and mix-methods in her interdisciplinary research endeavours

D. Suba Chandran is a Professor and Dean, School of Conflict and Security Studies. He is the Programme Head of two Programmes namely Conflict Resolution and Peace Research,  and Science Diplomacy.  His primary focus areas are Pakistan, Afghanistan, Armed Conflicts and Peace Processes in South Asia. He edits an annual titled Armed Conflicts in South Asia, published by the Routledge/SAGE. He is an Associate at the Pakistan Study Research Unit (PSRU), University of Durham, UK.  Earlier, he was a Visiting Professor at the Pakistan Studies Programme, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi and a Visiting Fellow at the following places: Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, UK; ACDIS, University of Urbana-Champaign; and the University of Jammu, J&K. 

He holds a PhD in international relations from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi and a MA in Political Science from Madras Christian College (MCC), Chennai. Until 2015, he was with Director at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), New Delhi 

Joined NIAS on 2nd July 2004. Most significant research contribution: Pioneered the study on the societal implications of nanotechnology, and development of an atlas of Indian science. After an outstanding academic record in Loyola College, Chennai and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Prof. Ranganathan obtained his PhD from Cambridge University, UK in 1965. His academic career as an educator and researcher in metallurgy for the past four decades has been outstanding. His seminal research contributions have advanced our understanding of the structure of metals through 300 publications including books on Wootz steel and new geometries. He is currently Honorary and INAE Distinguished Professor at the Indian Institute of Science and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore. His contributions have been recognised by fellowships to five academies and numerous awards. His interests at NIAS include materials heritage, an atlas of India in Science and Societal Impact of Nanotechnology

Prof. Dinesh Kumar Srivastava is Homi Bhabha Chair Professor in the Energy and  Environment Programme. 

Prof. Srivastava  has held many distinguished positions in the past such as DAE Raja Ramanna Fellow; Director and Distinguished Scientist in Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata; Honorary Professor, Amity University, NOIDA;  Emeritus Professor, Homi Bhabha National Institute.  

Prof. Srivastava started his career as Scientific Officer at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in 1971 and moved to Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre Kolkata in 1979 to retire as Director and Distinguished Scientist of this Organization in 2016. He has held visiting positions at KfKKarsruhe, GSI Darmstadt, University of Bielefeld and University of Frankfurt in Germany, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, University of Minnesota and Duke University in the USA, McGill University Canada, and the University of Cape Town, South Africa of various durations. 

Prof. Srivastava is Fellow of National Academy of Sciences as well as Indian National Science Academy. He has about 160 publications in refereed journals and has delivered more than 100 talks at national and international conferences. About 300 lectures, seminars and colloquia on nuclear physics and the need for basic research and outreach. He has been honoured with several  national and international awards for research and academic activities.

Prof Roy is Visiting Professor at NIAS and has been awarded the prestigious Senior Homi Bhabha Fellow by Homi Bhabha Fellowships Council, Mumbai, for a period of two year from June 1, 2018

Chetan Choithani obtained his PhD in Development Geography from the University of Sydney, and prior to his present employment at NIAS he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Urban Studies Institute of Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University. His research and teaching interests include migration and urbanization, food and nutrition security, livelihoods, gender, and social policy, and how they relate to human development, particularly in the Indian context.

Dr. Janaki Balakrishnan anchors the Complex Systems Programme in the School of Natural Sciences & Engineering at NIAS. She obtained her PhD in Theoretical High Energy Physics from the University of Delhi. She has subsequently worked and published in a wide range of areas covering many diverse areas of physics, ranging from quantum field theory in curved space and theoretical high energy physics to dynamical systems theory and biological physics. She was an Associate Professor of Physics at the Central University of Hyderabad for several years before moving to Bangalore. Earlier she has held Visiting and other positions at various places including the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, Centre for Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (CAIR), Bangalore, CMMACS, Bangalore, JNCASR, Indian Institute of Science, Raman Research Institute, The University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, U.K., Max-Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig, Germany, the Max-Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany, etc.

Dr Aleena Sebastian is an Assistant Professor at NIAS, Bangalore. Before joining NIAS, she was postdoctoral Fellow in a DBT Wellcome Trust/India Alliance Senior Research Fellowship research project with The Humsafar Trust, Mumbai. Dr. Sebastian secured her doctoral degree from the Department of Sociology, the University of Hyderabad in October 2019. 

Her research interests include the following: Social anthropology in South Asia, kinship and gender (with special reference to the matrilineal Muslim communities), health and Social Policy (with special reference to sexual gender minority communities)