Profile of NERCI Scientists

Prof. (Dr.) N.R. Menon is presently the leading scientist, Chairman of the Scientific Research advisory board and one of the Board Directors of NERCI. He is also an Emeritus Professor at School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology, India.His field of expertise is in Taxonomy and Ecology of Marine Foulers; Marine Biodeterioration; Marine Pollution Monitoring; Toxicology Biodiversity and coastal zone management. He has worked in various scientific capacities at different institutes for more than thirty years now. He has more than 150 scientific publications. He has worked as a senior scientist in International Indian Ocean Expedition. Read More...

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Profile of NERCI Scientist

Prof. (Dr.) N.R. Menon is presently the leading scientist, Chairman of the Scientific Research advisory board and one of the Board Directors of NERCI. He is also an Emeritus Professor at School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology, India.His field of expertise is in Taxonomy and Ecology of Marine Foulers; Marine Biodeterioration; Marine Pollution Monitoring; Toxicology Biodiversity and coastal zone management. He has worked in various scientific capacities at different institutes for more than thirty years now. He has more than 150 scientific publications. He has worked as a senior scientist in International Indian Ocean Expedition.He was involved in the investigation on the distribution of the Toxic Algal Blooms along the EEZ of India and the distribution of micro and macro benthos along the EEZ of India involving planning the experiments, deployment of suitable scientific personnel, analyses and interpretation of data. He was the main coordinator of the Netherlands MHO programme implemented at Cochin University of Science and Technology from 1999. He was the Principal investigator and Co-ordinator for two multi-institutional projects of the Marine Living Resources Programme sponsored by the Department of Ocean Development, Govt. of India (MLR-DOD). He has worked as Member of National Research Advisory Committee for the MLR- DOD Programme and many other national programmes. Prof. N. R. Menon is the Chairman of RAC of Ecology and Environment Committee. Kerala Govt. Member of the Assessment of Performance Appraisal of Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt of India and Vice President. Marine Biological Association of India.

Research interest- Marine and freshwater ecosystem studies, marine pollution, Harmful Algae Bloom studies, Coastal Zone Management.

Recent Publications:

N. R. Menon (2010). Effects of temperature on lower marine invertebrates. In: Climate change and aquatic ecosystems. (A. Joseph, Bijoy Nandan and S. Arun Augustine (eds.) pp. 100-115.

K. B. Padmakumar, N. R. Menon and V. N. Sanjeevan (2010). Occurrence of endosymbiont Richella intracellularis (Cyanophyte) within the diatom Rhizosolenia hebetata in Northern Arabian sea. Int. J. Biodiversity and Conservation 2 (4): 70-74.

K. B. Padmakumar, G. SreeRenjima, C. L. Fanimol, N. R. Menon and V. N. Sanjeevan (2010). Int. J. Oceans and Oceanography, 4(1): 55-63.

K. B. Padmakumar, B. R. Smitha, Lathika Cicilly Thomas, C. L. Fanimol, G. SreeRenjima, N. R. Menon and V. N. Sanjeevan (2010). Blooms of Trichodesmium erythraeum in the south eastern Arabian sea during the onset of 2009 summer monsoon. Ocean Sci. Journal, 45 (3): 151-157.

K. B. Padmakumar, N. R. Menon and V. N. Sanjeevan (2010). Is occurrence of harmful algal blooms in the EEZ of India on the rise? Symposium on Indian Ocean Marine Living Resources (Abstracts), pp. 88-89.

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Prof. P.V. Joseph was for thirty-two years part of the India Meteorological Department, working in Geomagnetism, and in the operational jobs of Weather Prediction, Aviation Meteorology and Cyclone Warning. Served as Director of the Meteorological Training School of IMD at Pune where he taught tropical meteorology and weather prediction at advanced levels. After retiring from IMD in 1989 he took up various assignments in USA and India.Currently Dr. Joseph is Associate Scientist and Group Head at the Monsoon, Ocean variability and Climate change studies at NERCI and also Professor Emeritus at the Department of atmospheric science, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin. Read More...

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Prof. P.V. Joseph was for thirty-two years part of the India Meteorological Department, working in Geomagnetism, and in the operational jobs of Weather Prediction, Aviation Meteorology and Cyclone Warning. Served as Director of the Meteorological Training School of IMD at Pune where he taught tropical meteorology and weather prediction at advanced levels. After retiring from IMD in 1989 he took up various assignments in USA and India.Currently Dr. Joseph is Associate Scientist and Group Head at the Monsoon, Ocean variability and Climate change studies at NERCI and also Professor Emeritus at the Department of atmospheric science, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin.Dr. Joseph has done original research for five decades in Tropical Meteorology (Monsoons, Cyclones and Thunderstorms), Climate Change and Ocean-Atmosphere interaction. He has about 60 research publications in reputed Scientific Journals on these subjects. Dr. Joseph is the team leader for the studies of Monsoon and ocean variability, Climate change and sea level variations. Prof. P. V. Joseph is the member of the International Advisory Panel in Meteorology of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India and continued to be Co-Chairman of the STORM Field Experiment's Implementation Committee. He is the elected President of the Ocean Society of India.

Recent Publications:

Joseph P.V and Jayakumar A. 2011. Role of Ocean in the Active – Break cycle of Monsoon --–Invited talk at "Monsoon /variability" – An International Monsoon Workshop, Bangalore organised by CAOS, IISC, August 17-19, 2011.

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Dr. K. Ajith Joseph Doctorate in Physical Oceanography from Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), India in 1998. He joined Nansen Environmental Research Centre - India as Scientist in 2000. He is the Executive Director of NERCI since 2009 after his tenure as Research Director for two years. He is also a member of the Board of Directors. More than fourteen years of research and ten years of project management experience with CUSAT and NERCI through various projects.He is also an Associate scientist at NERSC, Bergen, Norway from February 2011 also a member of the doctoral committee of Institute of Remote Sensing, Anna University, Chennai. Read More...

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Dr. K. Ajith JosephDoctorate in Physical Oceanography from Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), India in 1998. He joined Nansen Environmental Research Centre - India as Scientist in 2000. He is the Executive Director of NERCI since 2009 after his tenure as Research Director for two years. He is also a member of the Board of Directors. More than fourteen years of research and ten years of project management experience with CUSAT and NERCI through various projects. He is also an Associate scientist at NERSC, Bergen, Norway from February 2011 also a member of the doctoral committee of Institute of Remote Sensing, Anna University, Chennai. Serves as the expert committee member of the Curriculum structuring for Oceanography and Ocean modelling course of Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, Cochin. He has headed projects funded by UNEP-APFED and SAC, ISRO in his capacity as PI and Co-PI. He was the Indian coordinator for the Indo-Russian workshop on Regional Climate Change held at Cochin in October, 8-9,2009 under the DST-RFBR 2009 Call and the Nansen International Summer School held in India from Feb 6-12, 2010. Dr. Ajith is presently the Principal investigator of UNEP-APFED project on Regional climate change studies and its impact on sealevel and also the co-investigator of SARAL-Altika data utilisation project funded by SAC-ISRO.

Research Interest:

Coastal oceanography ,Ocean colour and microwave Remote sensing, HAB monitoring, Climate change impact studies.

Recent Publications:

Chiranjivi Jayaram, Neethu Chacko, Ajith Joseph K., A.N.Balchand. Interannual variability of upwelling indices in the southeastern Arabian Sea: A satellite based study. Ocean Science Journal, 45, pp 27 – 40.

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Dr. N. Nandini Menon Doctorate in Marine Biology from Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), India. She joined NERCI as Senior Scientist in 2009 and has fourteen years of post doctoral research experience and thirteen years of teaching experience. Had been working in CUSAT as Ad-hoc lecturer / Research Associate in projects funded by various national agencies like MoEF, DBT, CSIR, DST and MoES before joining NERCI. Also working as Guest faculty for M. Tech programme in Marine Biotechnology of CUSAT and M. Phil programme of Dept. of Chemical Oceanography of CUSAT.Has implemented independent project as PI under the DST –SERC ... Read More...

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Dr. N. Nandini MenonDoctorate in Marine Biology from Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), India. She joined NERCI as Senior Scientist in 2009 and has fourteen years of post doctoral research experience and thirteen years of teaching experience. Had been working in CUSAT as Ad-hoc lecturer / Research Associate in projects funded by various national agencies like MoEF, DBT, CSIR, DST and MoES before joining NERCI. Also working as Guest faculty for M. Tech programme in Marine Biotechnology of CUSAT and M. Phil programme of Dept. of Chemical Oceanography of CUSAT. Has implemented independent project as PI under the DST –SERC young scientist scheme in CUSAT. She was the Organising secretary of the Indo-Russian workshop on Regional Climate Change held at Cochin in 8-9th October, 2009 under the DST-RFBR 2009 Call and also for the Nansen International winter school held at Cochin, India from February 6-12, 2010.

Research Interest:

Marine ecosystem, marine optical and primary productivity studies.

Recent Publications:

Nandini Menon. N. and N. R. Menon. 2009. Tissue pathological studies on marine clam Sunetta scripta L exposed to petroleum hydrocarbons. ICFAI J. Env. Sci., Vol. III (3); 46-57.

Jayaram C, Nandini Menon, Ajith Joseph K and Balchand, A N. 2010. Monitoring of Trichodesmium blooms in Arabian sea using in situ and satellite products during the past decade ––SAFARI Remote sensing and Fisheries International Symposium 15-17th Feb.

Nandini Menon, Ajith Joseph K and Saramma A V. 2010. Fluorescence emission rations as a method for determining the source of CDOM in Cochin estuary, SW coast of India –SAFARI Remote sensing and Fisheries International Symposium 15-17th Feb.

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A. Jayakumar a post graduate in Meteorology from Cochin University of Science and Technology. He joined NERCI as a Scientist in 2011 after submitting his doctoral thesis entitled "Understanding the intraseasonal variability in the tropical Indian Ocean using Ocean General Circulation Model Studies", at the Theoretical Studies Division of Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune. He currently works on Indian monsoon variability with the Climate Group of NERCI. He has sufficient experience in studying Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) in the thermocline ridge of the Indian Ocean. He conducted different ocean model sensitivity experiments ... Read More...

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A. Jayakumara post graduate in Meteorology from Cochin University of Science and Technology. He joined NERCI as a Scientist in 2011 after submitting his doctoral thesis entitled "Understanding the intraseasonal variability in the tropical Indian Ocean using Ocean General Circulation Model Studies", at the Theoretical Studies Division of Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune. He currently works on Indian monsoon variability with the Climate Group of NERCI. He has sufficient experience in studying Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) in the thermocline ridge of the Indian Ocean. He conducted different ocean model sensitivity experiments to understand the air-sea Ocean. He conducted different ocean model sensitivity experiments to understand the air-sea interaction involved in the monsoon intraseasonal Oscillations and MJO.

Research Interest:

Air-Sea interaction in the tropical Oceans, Ocean Modelling, Intraseasonal variability of the ocean

Recent Publications:

Jayakumar , J. Vialard, M. Lengaigne, C. Gnanaseelan, Julian P. McCreary, B. Praveen Kumar, Processes controlling the surface temperature signature of the Madden-Julian Oscillation in the thermocline ridge of the Indian Ocean, Climate Dynamics, Online Published, 2010, DOI 10.1007/s00382-010-0953-5, 1-18

J. Vialard, A. Jayakumar, C. Gnanaseelan, M. Lengaigne, D.Sengupta, B.N. Goswami, Processes of 30–90 days sea surface temperature variability in the northern Indian Ocean during boreal summer, , Climate Dynamics, Online Published, 2011, DOI 10.1007/s00382-011-1015-3

A. Jayakumar and C. Gnanaseelan, Study the mechanism of surface chlorophyll variability in the Southern tropical Indian Ocean using an OGCM, J. Mar. Geodesy, Accepted, 2011.

A. Parekh, C. Gnanaseelan and A. Jayakumar, Impact of improved momentum transfer coefficients on the dynamics and thermodynamics of the north Indian Ocean, JGR oceans, Vol. 116, 2011, DOI:10.1029/2010JC006346

B. H. Vaid, C. Gnanaseelan and A. Jayakumar, Intraseasonal signals in the daily high resolution blended Reynolds sea surface temperature product over the tropical Indian Ocean and their validation, IJRS, Online Published, 2011, DOI: 10.1080/01431161.2010.489585.

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A. Smitha Post graduate in Meteorology from Cochin University of Science and Technology. She has worked as Senior Research Fellow in the Oceanography Division of National Remote Sensing Centre (ISRO), Hyderabad, before joining NERCI in 2010 as a research fellow in the Oceansat II data utilization project funded by SAC-ISRO. Concurrent to her project work, she is also pursuing her PhD degree on the topic "The influence of wind on surface chlorophyll distribution in Bay of Bengal" at CUSAT. She has more than 7yrs of research experience in satellite data processing, ocean colour studies and, estimation of primary productivity using bio-optical algorithms. Read More...

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A. Smitha Post graduate in Meteorology from Cochin University of Science and Technology. She has worked as Senior Research Fellow in the Oceanography Division of National Remote Sensing Centre (ISRO), Hyderabad, before joining NERCI in 2010 as a research fellow in the Oceansat II data utilization project funded by SAC-ISRO. Concurrent to her project work, she is also pursuing her PhD degree on the topic "The influence of wind on surface chlorophyll distribution in Bay of Bengal" at CUSAT. She has more than 7yrs of research experience in satellite data processing, ocean colour studies and, estimation of primary productivity using bio-optical algorithms.

Research Interest:

Ocean colour and other EO data (IR, Microwave) in synergy to study eddy induced algal blooms.

Ocean colour and upwelling studies using visible, IR and microwave data.

Recent Publications:

Smitha, A., Ajith Joseph, K., Chiranjivi Jayaram and A. N. Balchand, Upwelling in the southeastern Arabian Sea as evidenced by Ekman mass transport using wind observations from OCEANSAT–II Scatterometer. Proceeding of the OSICON'11 Technologies for Ocean Exploration, 13-15 Jul 2011, Chennai.

K. H. Rao, A. Smitha & M. M. Ali, 2006. A study on cyclone induced productivity in south-western Bay of Bengal during November-December 2000 using MODIS (SST and chlorophyll-a) and altimeter sea surface height observations, Indian J. Mar. Sci., 35(2), June 2006, pp 153-160.

Smitha. A, K. H. Rao, M. M. Ali, 2005. The effect of geostrophic currents on surface chlorophyll patterns in the Bay of Bengal. Proceedings of "Oceanographic features of the Indian coastal waters", 6-7 Oct 2005, Kochi.

Smitha. A, K. H. Rao & D. Sen Gupta, Effect of May 2003. Tropical Cyclone on physical & biological process in the Bay of Bengal, Int .J. Remote Sens., 27(23), December 2006, pp 5301-5314.

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Mary Swapna George PhD student currently at the Mohn-Sverdrup Center for Global Ocean Studies and Operational Oceanography (MSC) at NERSC. Her PhD programme is funded by Trond Mohn c/o Frank Mohn AS, Norway. Her studies comprises implementation and validation of the TOPAZ HYCOM model for the Indian Ocean and applications for meso-scale studies of the northern Indian Ocean . Read More...

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Mary Swapna George - PhD student currently at the Mohn-Sverdrup Center for Global Ocean Studies and Operational Oceanography (MSC) at NERSC. Her PhD programme is funded by Trond Mohn c/o Frank Mohn AS, Norway. Her studies comprises implementation and validation of the TOPAZ HYCOM model for the Indian Ocean and applications for meso-scale studies of the northern Indian Ocean

Recent Publications:

George MS, Bertino L, Johannessen OM, Samuelsen A. 2010. Validation of a hybrid coordinate ocean model for the Indian Ocean. Journal of Operational Oceanography. Vol.: 3,No.2,p.25-38(14).

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Dr. K. Shadananan Nair Consultant Senior research scientist at NERCI, has doctorate in Hydrometeorology from Cochin University of Science and Technology. With a post doctoral research experience of over 20 years, Nair is a member of many national and international research societies and is a visiting faculty at M. G. University, Kerala. He has also undergone advanced training in hydrometeorology and coastal zone simulation. He is also the executive Secretary of Centre for Earth Research and Environment Management, Kochi. Read More...

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Dr. K. Shadananan Nair Consultant Senior research scientist at NERCI, has doctorate in Hydrometeorology from Cochin University of Science and Technology.With a post doctoral research experience of over 20 years,Nair is a member of many national and international research societies and is a visiting faculty at M. G. University, Kerala.He has also undergone advanced training in hydrometeorology and coastal zone simulation.He is also the executive Secretary of Centre for Earth Research and Environment Management,Kochi.

Research Interest:

Impact of monsoon and climate variability on total coastal livelihood.

Recent Publications:

K.S.Nair, 2009. Impact of climate change and human interference on the hydrology of small basins of Kerala, , IAHS Red Book Series, IAHS Publ. 33X, 2009.

K.S.Nair,2009. Inde Les mégapoles en première ligne, Courrier de la Planète n° 89|90, pp80-85, 2009 (in French).

K.S.Nair,2009. Impacts of Climate Change on Food Security in the Drier Zones of India, (accepted for publication by Springer).

K.S.Nair,2009. Contributed the chapter 'historical developments in transboundary water disputes' for the forthcoming UNESCO/IWHA book series.

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Support Staff

Mr. KS. Hariharan graduate in commerce, is the financial manager and chief accountant of NERCI. He has more than 40 years of experience in administration and accounting at NORINCO Pvt. Ltd., a shipping engineering company based in Cochin.

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Mr. Manuel Prakasia joined NERCI administration in 2008 after having more than 18 years of service at the office of Department of Physical Oceanography, Cochin University of Science and Technology.

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ALUMNI

Dr. Felix Jose

Prasanth Divakaran

Roshin P. Raj

Chethana A.

Geetu Rose

R.Madhusoodanan

Chv.C. Jayaram

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