Vilayanur S Ramachandran
Prof V.S. Ramachandran is Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition and Distinguished Professor with the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego, and Adjunct Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute. Ramachandran initially trained as a doctor (MBBS) at Stanley Medical College, Madras, India, and subsequently obtained a Ph.D. from Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. After that, he received an honorary FRCP; London (Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians) and two honorary doctorates (DSc; honoris causa). Ramachandran’s early work was on visual perception but he is best known for his experiments in behavioral neurology which, despite their apparent simplicity, have had a profound impact on the way we think about the brain. He has been called “The Marco Polo of neuroscience” by Richard Dawkins and “The modern Paul Broca” by Eric Kandel.
In 2005 he was awarded the Henry Dale Medal and elected to an honorary life membership by the Royal Instituion of Great Britain, where he also gave a Friday evening discourse (joining the ranks of Michael Faraday, Thomas Huxley, Humphry Davy, and dozens of Nobel Laureates). His other honours and awards include fellowships from All Souls College, Oxford, and from Stanford University (Hilgard Visiting Professor); the Presidential Lecture Award from the American Academy of Neurology, two honorary doctorates, the annual Ramon Y Cajal award from the International Neuropsychiatry Society, and the Ariens-Kappers medal from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. In 2003 he gave the annual BBC Reith lectures and was the first physician/psychologist to give the lectures since they were begun by Bertrand Russel in 1949. In 1995 he gave the Decade of the Brain lecture at the 25th annual (Silver Jubilee) meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. In 2010 he delivered the annual Jawaharlal Nehru memorial lecture in New Delhi, India.
The President of India has conferred on him the second highest civilian award and honorific title in India, the Padma Bhushan.
And TIME magazine named him on their list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Ramachandran has published over 180 papers in scientific journals (including five invited review articles in the Scientific American). He is author of the acclaimed book “Phantoms in the Brain” that has been translated into nine languages and formed the basis for a two part series on Channel Four TV (UK) and a 1 hour PBS special in USA. NEWSWEEK magazine has named him a member of “The Century Club” – one of the “hundred most prominent people to watch in the next century.” He has been profiled in the New Yorker Magazine and appeared on the Charlie Rose Show. His new book, "The Tell Tale Brain" was on the New York Times best-seller list.
Ramachandran has a deep interest in history and archaeology.
R Nagaswamy
His Fields of specialization are: Art, Archaeology, Architecture, Literature, Epigraphy, Paleography, Numismatics, Temple rituals and philosophy, Ancient law and society, Music, Dance and South Asian Art.
Dr.Nagaswamy served as Curator for Art and Archaeology, Madras Museum (1959-63) and later joined the Tamilnadu State Department of Archaeology as Assistant Special Officer (1963-65) and became the First Director of Archaeology of the State and held that post till retirement (1966-88). After retirement he headed the Epigraphy Program, EFEO Pondichery, and as Consultant, Government of India, Documentation of Cultural property Tanjavur Brahadisvara Project (UNDP program), under the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts .
He was mainly instrumental in developing the State department of archaeology in all aspects of Archaeological activity and started as many as 12 regional museums including a Prehistoric museum at Poondi, and Islamic museum at North Arcot besides a number of District museums and site museums. He started an Institute of Epigraphy under the Tamilnadu State Department of Archaeology to train students in post-graduate diploma in Epigraphy and Art.
Many important excavations at places like Karur, Alagankulam, Korkai, Gangaikonda-cholapuram, were conducted by him.
Dr.Nagaswamy made Archaeology a very popular subject in Tamilnadu, especially among Children through publication of Pocket book guides. He was also responsible for protecting several historic monuments like the 1st century Chera inscriptions at Pugalur, the Palace site of the Imperial Cholas at Gangai-konda-cholapuram, the famous 17th century Thirumalai Nayak palace at Madurai, the 17th century, Danish Fort at Tranquebar, and the birth place of Great National Poet Subramanya Bharati at Ettayyapuram besides excavating the palace site of Virapandya-kattabomman at Pancalamkurchi.
Dr.Nagaswamy piloted and directed the Sound and Light ("Son En Luminaire") program in the 17th cent. Thirumalai Nayak palace at Madurai. Nagaswamy was the first to carry out Under Sea Archaeological Survey off the Coast of Pumpuhar in Tamilnadu.
An acknowledged International Expert on South Indian Bronzes, Dr Nagaswamy appeared as an Expert Witness in the London High Court, in the now famous London Nataraja case. The Judge of the London High Court, in his Judgement described Dr.Nagaswamy as an unequalled expert in his subject.
Dr Nagaswamy has been honoured by various organisation for his contribution to Tamil Archaeology, among which the award of Kalaimamani by the Government of Tamilnadu deserves special mention. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.
He has published several books including "Master pieces of South Indian Bronzes", "Siva Bhakti", Tantric Cult in Tamilnadu, "Uttaramerur" in French with Dr.Francoise Gros (1970) and "Facets of South Indian Art and Architecture".Dr.R.nagaswamy is an eloquent speaker and has given frequently talks in Radios and Television including in BBC.
Ravi Korisettar
His contribution to geoarchaeology, especially Quaternary stratigraphy and tephrochronology is well recognized. His geo-archaeological research in the Kaladgi Basin gained sufficient strength by the discovery of buried stone lines containing Acheulian artefacts that gave new leads to reconstructing Quaternary landscapes. This work has resulted in the recognition of alluvial fans and lake facies as well as a sequence of alluvial deposits with which the Early Palaeolithic sites have been found associated.
Work on the origins of agriculture in south India has realized in exciting results and helped establish the independent origins of Neolithic agriculture in south India characterized by the domestication of local millets and pulses before the introduction of cereal crops from outside. Nearly 40 Neolithic sites distributed between Eastern and Western Ghats in the Lower Deccan Region covering Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were revisited. At the end of this survey he launched excavation of Sanganakallu Neolithic site. Results of these excavations have been widely published.
His discovery of the volcanic ash site of Jwalapuram near Banaganapalle and the follow up excavations both at Jwalapuram and Billasurgam caves in the Kurnool district, the eastern part of lies in the in the Kurnool basin, opened up ample scope for establishing geochronology of Palaeolithic cultures, and documentation of hundreds of painted rock shelters as well as excavation of Late Pleistocene occupation of rock shelters by hunter-gatherers. The painted rock shelters are comparable to the Bhimbetka complex in Madhya Pradesh, were systematically documented and well published in national and international journals. The findings opened up the debate on when did modern humans enter India. In addition the oldest known microliths, stone beads, and fragmentary human remains were recovered from rock shelter excavations, ranging in time from 35,000 – 12, 000 years ago.
He is also actively engaged in public outreach activity and has established Robert Bruce Foote Sanganakallu Archaeological Museum at Ballari in Karnataka and regularly conducts interactive sessions on archaeological heritage of the region with schoolteachers, in collaboration with the Azim Premji Foundation.
Rajesh P N Rao
Rajesh P. N. Rao is the CJ and Elizabeth Hwang Professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle. He is also the co-Director of the Center for Neurotechnology (CNT), Adjunct Professor in the Bioengineering department, and faculty member in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at UW. He directs the Neural Systems Laboratory located in the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering. His awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholar award, an NSF CAREER award, an ONR Young Investigator Award, a Sloan Faculty Fellowship, and a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship.
His research interests span computational neuroscience, brain-computer interfaces, and artificial intelligence as well as the Indus script and classical Indian paintings.
Rajesh P. N. Rao was born in Madras (now Chennai) and grew up in Hyderabad, India where he graduated from Kendriya Vidyalaya Kanchanbagh (a Central Government school). During high school, he obtained 2nd rank in science in the nation in 10th grade board exams and was selected as one of five high school students from India to participate in the 1987 Research Science Institute (RSI) summer program: as part of RSI, he was fortunate to get his first taste of scientific research when he worked in a lab experimenting with high-temperature superconductivity at the University of Maryland, College Park, and his article Epitaxy of high-t_c superconductors was selected for a best paper award.
Rajesh Rao received a Robert and Nona Carr academic scholarship to attend Angelo State University, a Texas State university, where he graduated summa cum laude with a double major in computer science and mathematics, and a minor in physics.
He received his M.S. and PhD degrees from the University of Rochester and was an Alfred P. Sloan postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies before joining the University of Washington as an assistant professor in Computer Science and Engineering in 2000.
Rajesh is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholar award, an NSF CAREER award, an ONR Young Investigator Award, a Sloan Faculty Fellowship, and a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. He is the author of the textbook Brain-Computer Interfacing (Cambridge University Press, 2013) and co-editor of two volumes, Probabilistic Models of the Brain (MIT Press, 2002) and Bayesian Brain (MIT Press, 2007).
K Ramasubramanian
Prof K Ramasubramanian is Professor at IIT Bombay in the Cell for Indian Science and Technology in Sanskrit, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. Prof. Ramasubramanian holds a doctorate in Theoretical Physics, a Bachelors in Engineering, and a Masters in Sanskrit.
For completing a rigorous course in Advaita Vedanta (a 14 semester program) he was honored with the coveted title “Vidvat Pravara” by the Shankaracharya of Sri Sringeri Sharada Peetham in the year 2003. He is one of the authors who prepared detailed Explanatory Notes of the celebrated works Ganita-yuktibhasha (Rationales in Mathematical Astronomy) and Tantrasangraha which brings out the seminal contributions of the Kerala School of astronomers and mathematicians in the field of Mathematics and Astronomy.
Besides this, he has edited other works in Indian Astronomy and Mathematics, as well as authored several research papers, both individually and jointly with others. In 2008, he was conferred the prestigious award of Maharshi Badarayan Vyas Samman by the President of India in recognition of his scholarship as well as the outstanding research work done by him to the process of synergy between modernity and tradition. In 2010, the National Academy of Sciences India, honored him by conferring upon him the R. C. Gupta Endowment Lecture Award.
He was elected as a Council member of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology in the year 2013. He was a Member of the Second Sanskrit Commission formed by the MHRD, Government of India, in the year 2014, and is a Member of the Central Sanskrit Board formed in 2015.
Adam Hardy
Adam Hardy is Emeritus Professor of Asian Architecture at Cardiff University, UK. He trained as an architect at Cambridge University, and later did his PhD on how temples developed in Karnataka between the 7th and 13th centuries, published as Indian Temple Architecture: Form and Transformation (1995).
Subsequent work on temples throughout India has led to numerous publications, including two further books, The Temple Architecture of India (2007), and Theory and Practice of Temple Architecture in Medieval India: Bhoja’s Samaranganasutradhara and the Bhojpur Line Drawings (2015).
His most recent research projects have been ‘The Nagara Tradition of Temple Architecture: Continuity, Transformation, Renewal’ (Leverhulme Trust), and ‘Tamil Temple Towns: Conservation and Contestation’ (funded by AHRC and ICHR).
As an architect, he has been involved in the design of several new temples, most recently for a temple near Bangalore re-creating the long-dormant tradition of the Hoysals. Adam’s involvement with organisations concerned with South Asian cultures has included editorship of the journal South Asian Studies (1999-2016), and committee membership of the European Association of South Asian Archaeology and Art (President 2015-17).
Reena Puri
Reena I. Puri, Executive Editor, Amar Chitra Katha, has been with the company since 1991. Earlier, she worked with various newspapers, magazines and television production houses, even becoming a radio jockey with All India Radio for a short while, till she discovered that writing comics was her forte.
Reena was Associate Editor of Tinkle from 1991 and worked with its founder editor Anant Pai till 2005. During these years she learned from Mr Pai how to communicate effectively with children and use the comics format to convey inspiration, encouragement, hope and joy.
In 2008 she took over as Editor of Amar Chitra Katha and has led the team in the revival of the series. This has seen the creation of new titles and special issues after a gap of over 20 years. The titles include mythology, history, biographies and folklore. She and her team created the six-volume series of Valmiki's Ramayana and also the recently released Mahadeva - Stories from the Shiva Purana. Right now she is engaged in creating a collection of stories that tell the mythology behind some of our rivers. Her other special interest is collating lesser known folktales from across India and putting them in the comics format for children, particularly the stories from tribal communities.
Reena has published short stories in The Illustrated Weekly of India, Femina, Imprint, Caravan, and with Pratham Books and the Children's Book Trust. Two of her short stories have also been broadcast over BBC Radio.
Vikramjit Singh Rooprai
Vikramjit Singh Rooprai is an Author, Educator and Historian, who has developed creative ways to teach conventional subjects. He worked in Digital Agencies for 14 years where he designed solutions for brands like Samsung, Coke, Pepsi, Nestle, Airtel, Microsoft and many more. His IT career inspired him to develop techniques to study liberal arts through modern day technology. Vikramjit headed India and Asia-Pacific teams of different companies, managing their Digital Marketing and Software divisions.
In 2009, Vikramjit started studying Delhi’s Heritage and soon turned into a Heritage Activist. He founded ‘The Heritage Photography Club’ to promote Indian heritage through travel & photography. Vikramjit left his Digital Marketing career in 2015 and turned into an Educator. He established 'Heritageshaala', where his team sets up Heritage Labs in schools. They developed special programs for Corporate, Teachers and Students, that can empower them to learn various management, curriculum & co-curriculum topics through events from history. Heritageshaala also launched card and board games to promote Interdisciplinary Project-Based Learning, where a single game can benefit multiple classes and teach topics from different subjects at the same time. He has delivered 5 TEDx talks so far, 3 of which revolve around the education system of India.
Vikramjit has served as an Auditor for UNESCO, to ensure that monuments like Red Fort are disabled friendly. He has also served as an Auditor for Aga Khan Trust for Culture and Education Quality Foundation of India. He trains teachers on Inclusiveness, Sustainability, Multiple Intelligences and Interdisciplinary Project Based Learning. He was an active member of the Organizing Committee of International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) during their General Assembly (2017), handling the events related to Education Sector. He has also acted as a consultant for Delhi and Punjab governments. He is currently a visiting faculty at National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT)-Delhi, The NorthCap University and few schools.
Since 2009, Vikramjit has been studying Delhi’s Heritage. He spent over 5 years researching in National Archives, IGNCA Archives, ASI Photo Archives, National Archaeological Library, and old British Era travel documents. His knowledge of Urdu and Punjabi helped him study records, that have not been translated yet. He was able to convert his findings to form a book series titled “Delhi Heritage Top 10”. The first book in this series is dedicated to Delhi’s Stepwells, to be followed by Forts and then Monument Complexes of Delhi. His book on Baolis maintained a rank in top 10 on amazon (Travel Illustrated Category) for long since launch and went into reprint within 2 months of release, turning him into a Bestselling Debut Author.
Anirudh Kanisetti
For his podcasts and work on history communication on social media, Anirudh received the New Indian Express' 2020 edition of the 40 under 40 Award.
Prof Thomas E Levy
Thomas Evan Levy is Distinguished Professor and holds the Norma Kershaw Chair in the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands at the University of California, San Diego. He is a member of the Department of Anthropology and Judaic Studies Program, and leads the Cyber-archaeology research group at the Qualcomm Institute, California Center of Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). Thomas Levy received his PhD from the University of Sheffield in 1981.
Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Levy is a Levantine field archaeologist with interests in the role of technology, especially early mining and metallurgy, on social evolution from the beginnings of sedentism and the domestication of plants and animals in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (ca. 7500 BCE) to the rise of the first historic Levantine state level societies in the Iron Age (ca. 1200 – 500 BCE). A Fellow of the Explorers Club, Levy won the 2011 Lowell Thomas Award for “Exploring the World’s Greatest Mysteries.” Levy has been the principal investigator of many interdisciplinary archaeological field projects in Israel and Jordan that have been funded by the National Geographic Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, and other organizations.
Tom also conducts ethnoarchaeological research in India. Levy, his wife Alina Levy and the Sthapathy traditional craftsmen from the village of Swamimalai co-authored the book Masters of Fire - Hereditary Bronze Casters of South India. Bochum: German Mining Museum, 2008).
Tom has published 12 books and several hundred scholarly articles. Levy’s recent book is entitled Historical Biblical Archaeology – The New Pragmatism (London: Equinox Publishers, 2010 that in 2011won the ‘best scholarly book’ from Biblical Archaeology Society (Washington, DC). Levy and his colleague Mohammad Najjar won Biblical Archaeology Review’s ‘Best BAR Article’ for “Condemned to the Mines: Copper Production & Christian Persecution.” His most recent book is: Levy, T.E., M. Najjar, and E. Ben-Yosef, eds. 2014. New Insights into the Iron Age Archaeology of Edom, Southern Jordan - Surveys, Excavations and Research from the Edom Lowlands Regional Archaeology Project (ELRAP). Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press UCLA
He is Co-PI on the NSF IGEERT $3.2 million grant entitled “Training, Research and Education in Engineering for Cultural Heritage Diagnostics (TEECH). Levy directs the UC San Diego Levantine and Cyber-Archaeology Laboratory and is Associate Director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3) at UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute – California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). Tom was recently elected Chair of the Committee on Archaeological Policy (CAP) of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR).
Prof Sharada Srinivasan
Prof. Sharada Srinivasan’s landmark contributions include archaeometric characterisation of bronzes of South India using lead isotope analysis and archaeometallurgical studies on ancient mining and metallurgy in southern India. These span studies on the production mechanisms of high carbon wootz steel and documentation of artisanal technologies such as Aranmula high tin bronze metal mirror making, bronze casting at Swamimalai and ancient and continuing traditions of high-tin bronze working, while she has worked on artefacts in the Government Museum, Chennai, British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, ASI and so on.
Prof. Sharada Srinivasan is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and World Academy of Art and Science. Her awards include the Dr. Kalpana Chawla Young Women Scientist Award for 2011, the Indian Institute of Metals, Certificate of Excellence 2007 and Materials Research Society of India Medal 2006, the Malti B. Nagar Ethnoarchaeology Award (2005), and the DST-SERC Young Scientist Fellowship, the Flinders Petrie Medal 1989 from University of London, the Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award 1996, the DST Nurture Scheme and Young Scientist Awards and the British Chevening Scholarship for her Phd work. She has been a Forbes Research Associate at the Department of Scientific Research and Conservation, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, USA in 1999 and Homi Bhabha Fellow at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore from 1996-98. She has been a co-recipient of awards from UKIERI, UK, (on pioneering iron and steel metallurgy), AHRC, UK, (on interfaces between archaeology and drama), SSHRC Canada, Royal Society, National Science Foundation and other international bodies.
Prof Sharada is first author of the book ‘India’s Legendary Wootz Steel’ and contributing author to ‘Ecstasy of Classical Art’, the bronze catalogue of National Museum, Delhi and co-editor of ‘Digital Hampi’ on digital explorations into the art and architecture of Hampi. She is on the Standing Committee of the international Beginning of the Use of Metals and Alloys Conference. She has also been an accomplished exponent of the classical dance form of Bharata Natyam and has given numerous lecture-demonstrations such as on the artistic and scientific perspectives on the Chola Nataraja bronze at international museums such as Royal Academy of Arts, London (2007) and with a photo-exhibition on the theme at Space City, Toulouse (2009) apart from national venues.
She has earned her PhD from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London (1996) on Archaeometallurgy of South Indian bronzes; MA from School of Oriental & African Studies, London (1989) and BTech in Engineering Physics from IIT Bombay (1987).
Jigna Desai
Jigna Desai is an Associate Professor and is the Program Chair for Masters in Conservation and Regeneration at the Faculty of Architecture, CEPT University, India. Presently, her area of study is to arrive at frameworks, tools and methods, through which theoretical ideas of sustainability and conservation of living historic environments can be translated into practice, while addressing the challenges of (co)production of space and commodification of heritage. This area of interest was triggered through her involvement with preparing the World Heritage Nomination Dossier for the Historic City of Ahmedabad where she has closely observed the transformations within the historic city.
She is also a director at a small, award-winning practice – JMA Design Co – that she co-founded with Mehul Bhatt in 1999. She has worked extensively on architecture projects and conservation research in different parts of India and carried out advocacy for community-based conservation in partnership with national and international institutions.
Jigna was invited to be a part of the Gyeongju Declaration for World Heritage Cities in the Asia Pacific region in September 2015. She is an Associate Member of the International Scientific Committee for Historic Towns and Villages, International Council for Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and is an active member of ICOMOS, India.
Jigna has been teaching since 2002 at various institutions in India before joining CEPT University in a full-time capacity in 2009. She brings her experience in working with traditional urban environments and framing how traditional architecture may be understood, studied and transformed.
S Swaminathan
Prof. S Swaminathan is a co-founder of Tamil Heritage Trust.
A Professor in Mechanical Engineering in Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi for more than 30 years, Swaminathan also worked in the Centre for Rural Development in IIT Madras, Bharath Gyan Vigyan Samithy, Delhi as the National Coordinator for watershed development and Integrated Rural Technology Centre, Palakkad, Kerala.
During his years in Delhi, he developed a deep and abiding interest in India’s fabulously rich heritage and made it his life’s mission to educate, inform and inspire interested audiences to learn more about it.
Fuelled by an infinite curiosity, his interests range far and wide. He has written a book on the Pallava Art of Mamallapuram. His lectures on the paintings of Ajanta are legendary. His talks on an array of topics – 5000 years of Indian Art, The Story of Scripts, the Mathematics of Kolams, the Trees of India and so on - have served as wonderful introductions to these aspects of India’s Heritage. His erudition makes him equally at home with the fine nuances of Carnatic music, the complexities of Gandhian thought and the refined ideas of Nehru’s scientific temper.
His passion for education, especially of young minds, has led him to work pro-bono with schools and colleges – helping to redesign curriculum at one institution, assisting teachers to bring practical science to the class rooms at another, planting a Sangam-age orchard of tress in a third, and readily sharing his wisdom for the benefit of teachers and students everywhere.
And, in co-founding and guiding the Tamil Heritage Trust, Prof Swaminathan helped establish an organisation that provides a platform for the expert and the enthusiast to meet, to share their passion for Indian Heritage and spread their knowledge to the rest of society.
Madhusudhanan Kalaiselvan
Madhusudhanan was the recipient of the first THT-Prof S Swaminathan Heritage Award, instituted by Tamil Heritage Trust.
He is currently pursuing his doctoral research on “Temple Town Planning” and also serves on Government instituted panel for conservation of temples in Tamil Nadu.