Rengaswamy Ramesh
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Rengaswamy Ramesh (1956–2018) was an Indian
climatologist Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , ''-logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of study ...
,
oceanographer Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics ...
, a former Prof. Satish Dhawan Professor at the
Physical Research Laboratory The Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) is a National Research Institute for space and allied sciences, supported mainly by Department of Space, Government of India. This research laboratory has ongoing research programmes in astronomy and astrop ...
and a senior professor at the
National Institute of Science Education and Research The National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) is an autonomous premier public research institute in Jatani, Odisha, India under the umbrella of Department of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India. The institute is a constituent ...
, Bhubaneswar. He was known for paleo-climatic and paleo-oceanographic studies and was an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies viz.
Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In August 2019, Dr. Chandrima Shaha was appointed as the president of Indian National Science Academ ...
,
Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and Nobel Laureate C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 24 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it began with 65 founding fellows. The first general meet ...
, and the
National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, established in 1930, is the oldest science academy in India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows *Suddhasatwa Basu * Sudha Bhattacharya * Ch ...
as well as of
The World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting 1,000 scientists in some 70 countries. Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable devel ...
. The
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada''), abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the l ...
, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, Applied science, applied or Fundamenta ...
, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences in 1998.


Biography

R. Ramesh, born on 2 June 1956 in the south Indian state of
Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...
, did his graduate studies in physics (1976) at the
University of Madras The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigiou ...
and completed his master's degree at the same university in 1978. Enrolling for his doctoral studies under the supervision of Kunchithapadam Gopalan of
Physical Research Laboratory The Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) is a National Research Institute for space and allied sciences, supported mainly by Department of Space, Government of India. This research laboratory has ongoing research programmes in astronomy and astrop ...
(PRL), he secured a PhD from
Gujarat University The Gujarat University is a public state university located at Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The university is an affiliating university at the under-graduate level and a teaching university at the postgraduate level. It is accredited B++ by N ...
in 1984 and did his post doctoral studies at his mentor's laboratory during 1985–86. He joined the Planetary and Geosciences Division of PRL as a research associate in 1987 and has served the institution in such various capacities as a Scientist-Grade D (1987–94), Reader (1994–98), Associate Professor (1999–2001), Professor (2002–07) and Senior Professor (since 2008) and holds the position of a Foundation for GLocal Science Initiatives (FGSI) Outstanding Scientist. In between, he had a short stint at
Scripps Institution of Oceanography The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or Scripps) in San Diego, California, US founded in 1903, is one of the oldest and largest centers for oceanography, ocean and Earth science research ...
during 1992–93 as a visiting research associate, working under the guidance of
Devendra Lal Devendra Lal FRS (14 February 1929 – 1 December 2012) was an Indian geophysicist. Life He was born in Varanasi, India. He graduated from Banaras Hindu University. He graduated from Bombay University; his thesis was on cosmic ray physics; ...
. He died on 2 April 2018, at the age of 61.


Legacy

Ramesh is known to have contributed to the reconstruction studies of paleo-climatic and paleo-oceanographic conditions of the Indian Ocean. He is credited, along with S. K. Bhattacharya and Kunchithapadam Gopalan, with the establishment of a Stable Isotope laboratory for the first time in India. At the laboratory, he applied stable isotope methodology to study tree-rings, corals, peat deposits, speleothems, lake sediments and marine sediments and his studies assisted in widening the knowledge of the monsoons for the past 35
kiloannum A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hour ...
. He developed equations for the calculation of past temperatures and rainfall using stable isotope ratios and prepared high resolution documentation of the monsoon changes during the
Holocene epoch The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...
. His studies have been detailed in several peer-reviewed articles;
ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education'' ...
and
Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...
, two online repositories of scientific articles, have listed 208 and 267 of them respectively. He was one of the lead authors of the book, ''Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis'', a 1552-page compilation of reports of the Working Group I of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) a ...
, published by Cambridge University Press in 2014. He has mentored 15 scholars in their doctoral studies who were also trained by him in
stable isotope The term stable isotope has a meaning similar to stable nuclide, but is preferably used when speaking of nuclides of a specific element. Hence, the plural form stable isotopes usually refers to isotopes of the same element. The relative abundanc ...
methodology. He is the project director of the National Program on Palaeoclimate studies of the
ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...
-Geosphere Biosphere Programme (GBP) and sits in the Research Council of the
National Geophysical Research Institute The National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) is a geoscientific research organization established in 1961 under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India's largest Research and Development organization. It is suppo ...
as an external member.


Awards and honors

Ramesh, a National Merit Certificate holder of Ministry of Education and Social Welfare in 1972, received the All India Bengali Literary Conference Medal in 1973. He was selected for the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund Fellowship in 1976 for his project on ''The Life and Work of Professor Sir C. V. Raman'' and the Young Scientist Medal of the Indian National Science Academy reached him in 1987. The
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada''), abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the l ...
awarded him the
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, Applied science, applied or Fundamenta ...
, one of the highest Indian science awards in 1998. The Indian Academy of Sciences elected him as its fellow in 1996 and the other two major Indian science academies, the Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences, India followed suit in 2001 and 2002 respectively. He received the
TWAS Prize This is a list of recipients of the TWAS Prize, awarded annually by The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). Summary Agricultural Sciences Biology Chemistry Earth Sciences Engineering Sciences Mathematics Medical Sc ...
in 2006; TWAS honored him again in 2007 with an elected fellowship. The
Indian Space Research Organization The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...
awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) a ...
listed Ramesh as one of the scientists who contributed to reports of the IPCC, which was awarded the
2007 Nobel Peace Prize The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (founded in 1988) and Al Gore (b. 1948) "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made clima ...
. He is also a recipient of the Jagirdar of Arni Gold Medal and the Professor P. E. Subrahmanya Ayyar Gold Medal. The list of award orations and plenary speeches delivered by Ramesh includes the 2011 K. R. Ramanathan lecture of the
Indian Geophysical Union The Indian Geophysical Union is the Government of India's scientific body responsible for all activities related with Earth Science System such as seismology, magnetism, meteorology, geodesy, volcanology, oceanography, hydrology and tectonophysic ...
and the address on ''Oceanic nitrogen cycling: new results based on isotopic tracers'' of 2013 held at the K.R. Ramanathan Auditorium of the Physical Research Laboratory.


Selected bibliography

* * * * * * Lekshmy, P.R; Midhun, M; Ramesh Rengaswamy (2014). "18O depletion in monsoon rain relates to large scale organized convection rather than the amount of rainfall". ''Scientific Reports.'' doi:10.1038/srep05661


See also

*
Mass spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a ''mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is use ...
*
Mathematical modeling A mathematical model is a description of a system using mathematical concepts and language. The process of developing a mathematical model is termed mathematical modeling. Mathematical models are used in the natural sciences (such as physics, b ...


Notes


References


Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramesh, Rengaswamy Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean & Planetary Sciences 1956 births Indian Tamil academics Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Fellows of the National Academy of Sciences, India Indian geophysicists Indian oceanographers TWAS fellows Scientists from Tamil Nadu Tamil scientists University of Madras alumni Gujarat University alumni Scripps Institution of Oceanography alumni Living people TWAS laureates 20th-century Indian earth scientists