Dr. Shailesh Nayak today assumed charge of Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India. He was earlier Director, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services , INCOIS, Hyderabad.
Born on August 21, 1953 at Billimora, Dist. Navasari, Gujarat, Dr. Nayak did his Ph. D. in Geology in 1980 from M. S. University of Baroda, Vadodara and specialized in Oceanography, Remote Sensing. Having also served in ISRO, his area of research includes Coastal and Ocean processes and ocean-atmosphere interaction, coastal geomorphology, hazards.
Following are the highlights of his career as a renowned scientist:
I) Disaster Management: Provided leadership to set up a state-of-the-art Tsunami Warning Centre within two years within stipulated time and cost. Interacted with fourteen institutes from four different ministries to develop entire tsunami warning system.
ii) Fishery service for Societal Benefit: Developed methodology for potential fishing zones for saving fuel and time while at the Space Applications Centre (SAC) and continued to improve further while at INCOIS, both methodology and dissemination. Initiated tuna forecast on a experimental basis.
iii) Marine Weather for safe navigation: Operationalized service related to ocean state (height and direction of wave and swell) for the entire Indian Ocean.
iv) Data Base Organisation: Conceptualised and developing Marine GIS for the country. A marine data centre has been established at INCOIS and data is being provided to web.
v) Generation of Data Base for Coastal Zone Management: Created satellite-derived benchmark database in a systematic manner on coastal landforms, mangroves, coral reef and shoreline change, high and low tide lines for the entire Indian coast for the first time.
vi) Development of Techniques and Algorithms: Developed techniques for identifying various coastal landforms, mangrove plant communities as well as high tide line and low tide line. Directed research in development of algorithms for retrieving the information on chlorophyll and coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM) and other bio-geo-chemical parameters from the space-based satellite data. The software has been installed in about twenty agencies in the country to utilise Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) data.
Dr. Shailesh Nayak has received several awards and special recognitions including National Mineral Award -2005, Indian National Remote Sensing Award for the Year 1994 ,Chair, Research Council, Centre for Earth Science Studies, Thiruvanthapuram (2007 onwards), etc. He is also Chairman, Indian Ocean – Global Ocean Observing System (IO-GOOS), 2006-2008, Vice Chair, Intergovernmental Coordinating Group on Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System (ISG-IOTWS), 2006 onwards and President, Indian Society of Remote Sensing (2008-2010).There are over 70 publications to his credit in peer-reviewed journals
PRA/SKK
(Release ID :41954)