Sunil Kumar Singh

Sunil Kumar Singh (born 1971) is an Indian geochemist, a professor at the Physical Research Laboratory on lien and serving as Director of the National Institute of Oceanography, India since 2017. He is known for his studies on low temperature elemental and isotope geochemistry and his researches are reported to have assisted in widening the understanding of the evolution of the Himalayas and biogeochemical cycling in the Indian Ocean. His studies have been documented in several peer-reviewed articles; Google Scholar, an online repository of scientific articles, has listed 99 of them respectively.

Singh, born on 16 March 1971, has done his education BSc, MSc(Tech), at Banaras Hindu University and PhD in geology at Physical Research Laboratory and MS University, Vadodara. He is a former Scientific Steering Committee member and the incumbent member of the Data Management Committee of GEOTRACES, an international forum for research on the marine biogeochemical cycles of trace elements and isotopes. As a collaborator, he is associated with the Ganga Corridor program, an initiative of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and the Department of Science and Technology, India. He was the co-coordinator of Weathering and Erosion session of the 2016 Goldschmidt conference held in Yokohama. He is a recipient of the National Geoscience Award and an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, India, and the Indian National Science Academy. 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 2016.

Awards Source: 2012: National Geoscience Award 2014: Eminent Mass spectrometry Award ISMAS 2016: Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize 2016: Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences 2017: Asian Scientist 100, Asian Scientist 2018: Indian National Science Academy (INSA) 2019: Doctor of Engineering, NIT Goa 2019: Fellow, National Academy of Sciences, India 2021: Ocean Science Awards, The Ministry of Earth Sciences 2022: Life time Achievement Award, Indian Society of Applied Geochemists (ISAG) 2022: Recognised as one among "75 Under 50 Scientists Shaping Today's India" from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India 2023: JC Bose Fellowship, SERB 2025: Awarded IGU–Prof. K.R. Ramanathan Memorial Lecture in recognition of outstanding contributions to Earth Sciences

Selected bibliography Malla N. and Singh S.K., Atmospheric deposition, shelf sediment supply, riverine input, and redox conditions control dissolved manganese in the Indian Ocean. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 39, e2025GB008660, 2025 Yadav C., Singh S.K. and Chinni V., Persistent elevated levels of dissolved lead in the Indian Ocean post-leaded gasoline ban: The impact of anthropogenic activities, sediment desorption, and dust storms, Marine Pollution Bulletin 215, 2025: 117874; https://doi.o rg,10.1016/j.marpolbul.2025.117874 .