About the Speaker

Dr M Ravichandran, Secretary to the Government of India (which is the apex rank within the Indian bureaucracy), is a technocrat in the finest sense of the term, who currently heads the technical-cum-administrative functioning of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). Holding a Master of Science degree in physics from Alagappa University, Tamil Nadu, and a PhD in physics from the University of Pune, he is a richly experienced scientist and physicist of impressive repute, with deep and abiding research interests spanning a wide range from atmospheric physics to ocean dynamics, terrestrial and satellite-based ocean observation systems, ocean modelling and data assimilation. He has, over the years, built-up a formidable professional reputation as a major scientific and technocratic asset in a number of India’s leading scientific institutes set up under the Government of India’s “Earth System Science Organisation” (ESSO), which is administered by the MoES. These include the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune; the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai; the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad — where he formulated and executed India’s contribution to the international Argo Project; and the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) at Goa — where he distinguished himself as the Director, from 2016 to 2021 before taking up his present appointment as Secretary, MoES. He enjoys global renown as a leading authority in the field of ocean research and has over a hundred international peer-reviewed scientific papers and articles to his credit. Dr Ravichandran represents India with great distinction in a number of international bodies including the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs, the Antarctic Treaty System, the CLIVAR/IOC-GOOS Indian Ocean Region Panel (which provides scientific and technical oversight for implementation of the sustained ocean observing system for the Indian Ocean), the Scientific Steering Committee of the Sustained Indian Ocean Biogeochemical and Ecological Research (SIBER), amongst several others.