Rishi Narain Singh

Rishi Narain Singh (born 1943) is an Indian geophysicist and an emeritus Professor of the National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad. He is known for his researches on the quantification of geological processes and is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences in 1985.

Biography

R. N. Singh, born on 17 July 1943 in Bajha, a small village in the Mirzapur district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh to a school teacher, did his early schooling at local village schools. His graduate degree in science came from Banaras Hindu University in 1962 after which he continued at the university to obtain a master's degree in 1964 and a doctoral degree in 1969, both in geophysics. Subsequently, he joined National Geophysical Research Institute of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1964 and served the institute for the rest of his career, barring three stints outside on deputation. While at NGRI, he took a hiatus and did his post-doctoral research at Dalhousie University and Memorial University of Newfoundland during 1970–73. Back at NGRI, he continued his service when he was sent to the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism in 1977 as an assistant professor where he worked for one year. In 1996, he was deputed to Fourth Paradigm Institute, then known as the CSIR Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation, as the scientist-in-charge and in 1999, he was shifted to National Environmental Engineering Research Institute as its director. He returned to NGRI in 2003 and served out his service there to superannuate in 2005. Post-retirement, he continued his association with the institute as an CSIR Emeritus Scientist during 2005–10 and as an INSA Senior Scientist during 2010–15. During his days at NEERI, he worked on introducing mathematical modeling for use in developing environmental technologies and evolved models of several geophysical and environmental processes such as the models of heat conduction processes in stratified crust, linear surface heat flow and surface heat generation using Thomson-Haskell matrix method which helped in quantifying the lithospheric geodynamics. ResearchGate, an online article repository has listed 110 of them. Besides, he co-edited a text, Magmatic and Allied Processes, which contains three chapters written by him.

Singh delivered a series of lectures in the 1970s propagating the inverse theory in geophysics and was involved in the coordination of more than one hundred environmental impact and risk assessment reports. The Indian Academy of Sciences elected him as a fellow in 1988 The Ministry of Earth Sciences awarded him the National Award in Geoscience and Technology in 2014.

Selected bibliography

Books

Chapters

Articles