- DAAD Research Ambassadors
- DAAD Research Ambassador Network
- Research Ambassadors 2022-25
- Agriculture, Forestry, Geo- and Hydroscience
- Architecture and Planning
- Bioscience
- Chemistry
- Computation, Data Sciences
- Engineering
- Humanities, Social Sciences and Language
- Management
- Material Sciences
- Mathematics
- Physics
- The Research Ambassadors Network till 2022
- Want to be a Research Ambassador?
DAAD Research Ambassador Network
DAAD Research Ambassadors have been involved in research projects in Germany and are interested in promoting research in Germany among peers and students. They inform students, academics and researchers about the rich and varied opportunities to conduct research, receive project funding and initiate collaborative projects with partners and mentors in Germany. The DAAD RA network, as it is fondly referred to, has been around for over 15 years mentoring and guiding.
Research Ambassadors 2022-25
The 2022-25 batch of DAAD Research Ambassadors is presented here and you are welcome to get in touch with them to get insights into the German research landscape and their guidance.
Agriculture, Forestry, Geo- and Hydroscience
Dr Amar Agarwal
IIT Kanpur
India
Focus Areas: Applied Structural Geology; Impact Cratering; Rock Magnetism
Dr Archana Raghavan Sathyan
Kerala Agricultural University
India
Focus Areas: Climate Change and Adaptation Studies; Gender; Citizen Science
Dr Ankit Agarwal
IIT Roorkee
India
Focus Areas: Hydro-climatic patterns, teleconnections, and extreme events; Multi-scale dynamics of the Earth system; Big data, wavelets and complex network; Statistics of extreme/rare events, statistical/machine learning, and different flavors of regression
Dr Chamila Madurangani Dias
Open University of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Focus Areas: Hydrology – Irrigation management on rice cultivation
Dr Rumana Rana
Khulna University
Bangladesh
Focus Areas: Study of wood chemical components by spectroscopic method; Functional anatomy of tropical hardwood species; Study of hydraulic architecture of different wood species
Architecture and Planning
Prof. Dr Gaurav Raheja
IIT Roorkee
India
Focus Areas: Design for human inclusion – ageing and gender; Universal design; Inclusive mobility systems; Accessibility policy; Social equity; Child-friendly urbanism; Contextual research methods; Visual communication; Design thinking; Architectural theory and pedagogy
Bioscience
Dr Areejit Samal
Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), Chennai
India
Focus Areas: Complex networks; Systems biology; Metabolic networks; Gene regulatory networks; Chemical spaces for drug discovery and toxicology; Protein secretion system; Next generation sequencing data analysis; Geometry-inspired measures for complex networks; Statistical genetics
Dr Avinash Sonawane
IIT Indore
India
Focus Areas: Host-pathogen interactions in tuberculosis; Leukemia drug development
Dr Jaydeep Bhattacharya
Jawaharlal Nehru University
India
Focus Areas: Nanobiotechnology; Biosensors; Single molecule fluorescence microscopy
Dr Sagar Pandit
IISER Pune
India
Focus Areas: Agrobiotechnology; Biopesticide discovery; Chemical ecology; Molecular ecology; Restoration ecology
Dr Sirsha Mitra
Savitribai Phule Pune University
India
Focus Areas: Molecular Biology – Herbivore-induced changes in the plant’s proteome and the role of atypical herbivore-responsive proteins in Nicotiana attenuata
Dr Vasudharani Devanathan
IISER Tirupati
India
Focus Areas: Cell adhesion molecules in neurodegeneration and neurite outgrowth; Neuronal membrane proteins; G protein signalling in platelets and neutrophils; Teaching methods in interdisciplinary biology
Chemistry
Dr Anant Kapdi
Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) Mumbai
India
Focus Areas: Palladium Catalysis- Homogeneous catalysis using palladium and nickel based complexes, C-H bond Functionalization of heterocycles; Green Chemistry approaches to synthesis; Microwave assisted organic reactions in aqueous media; Nucleoside modification and development of fluorescent and biological probes; palladium-based anticancer agents development
Dr Kiran R Gore
IIT Kharagpur
India
Focus Areas: Bio organic Chemistry; Chemically modified siRNAs for therapeutic applications; Design and development of chromogenic sensors for the detection of biologically important molecules.
Dr M. Nuruzzaman Khan
University of Dhaka
Bangladesh
Focus Areas: Surface modification by E-beam/UV promoted chemical lithography; Effect of environmental estrogens in breast cancer; Removal of heavy metals from tannery waste; Complex sculpturing of 3D DNA nanostructures, synthesis of DNA brush by SIEP; Development of biomaterials for bio-medical applications; Fabrication of natural fiber composites for construction and engineering
Khan
Dr Sukhendu Nandi
NIPER Mohali
India
Focus Areas: Bottom-up and top-down approaches for the syntheses of carbon dots for multicolour real-time visualization of membrane processes; Live cells imaging, bacteria sensing and detection, structural studies of membrane binding proteins and dynamics of binding; Novel approaches for lipid modification of carbohydrates-syntheses; Surface-Active properties and supramolecular self-assemblies
Computation, Data Sciences
Dr Nagarajan Ganapathy
IIT Hyderabad
India
Focus Areas: Artificial Intelligence (AI) for healthcare; Affective computing; Big data in medicine; Internet of Medical Things, Explainable AI, Wearable and smart sensors; Behavioural informatics; Signal and Image analytics; Drug discovery and repurposing; Federated Learning
Prof. Dr Shajulin Benedict
IIIT Kottayam
India
Focus Areas: Cloud Computing; IoT; Supercomputers; Parallel Compilers
Engineering
Dr Saptarshi Sasmal
CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Center, Chennai
India
Focus Areas: Health monitoring and assessment of critical infrastructures; Performance based design and life extension of aging infrastructure; Nonlinear ultrasonic and vibro-acoustical techniques for integrity assessment; Nano-engineered novel and smart composites for disaster resilience and embedded sensing for continuous health; Analysis and design of special structures
Prof. Dr Vasant Matsagar
IIT Delhi
India
Focus Areas: Multi-Hazard Engineering: Blast, Fire, and Wind Engineering; Earthquake Engineering; Structural Dynamics and Vibration Control; Computational/ Finite Element Methods; Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRP) in Prestressed Concrete Structures; Bridge Engineering
Dr Subhamoy Mandal
IIT Kharagpur
India
Focus Areas: Medical Image & Signal Processing; Medical Imaging, Photoacoustics/Optoacoustics; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Augmented Surgeries; Point-of-care diagnosis
Humanities, Social Sciences and Language
Dr Farhat Naz
IIT Jodhpur
India
Focus Areas: Natural Resource Management; Water Governance; Forest Governance; Disaster Risk Reduction; Climate Change Adaptation; Resilience; Poverty Reduction; Agroforestry; Gender; Social Exclusion; Caste; Sanitation; CSOs; Governance Studies; Public Goods & Services Management; CPR
Dr Milind Brahme
IIT Madras
India
Focus Areas: Literary Studies; German language and literature; Education / Pedagogy
Management
Material Sciences
Prof. Dr Ashok Raichur
IISc Bangalore
India
Focus Areas: Engineered nanomaterials for a variety of applications including nanomedicine to treat cancer, hepatitis C and bacterial infections; Nanocomposites – core-shell and hybrid nanoparticles for toughening epoxies; 3D Bioprinting for tissue engineering; Nanotoxicology – Fate and effect of engineered nanoparticles
Dr Mayur Vaidya
IIT Hyderabad
India
Focus Areas: Diffusion behaviour of deformed and nanocrystalline materials; Design and development of novel high entropy alloys; Thermal stability and environmental interaction of materials during real time applications; Processing, characterisation and stability of nanocrystalline alloys
Mathematics
Dr Panchatcharam Mariappan
IIT Tirupati
India
Focus Areas: Numerics for PDEs; Computational Fluid Dynamics; Mathematical Modeling; GPU computing; Numerical Linear Algebra; Mesh Free Methods; FEM; FVM; Computational biology; Heat Transfer
Prof. Dr Subbiah Sundar
NIT Mizoram
India
Focus Areas: Numerics for PDEs; Mathematical Modeling & Numerical Simulation
Physics
Prof. Dr Aranyabhuti Bhattacherjee
BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus
India
Focus Areas: Quantum photonics; Quantum optomechanics; Quantum optics of nanostructures; Modeling of quantum devices
Dr Gopal Dixit
IIT Bombay
India
Focus Areas: Ultrafast physical and chemical processes; Natural timescales; Attosecond and femtosecond
The Research Ambassadors Network till 2022
Subject Fields and Affiliations
Architecture and Planning
- Dr Gaurav Raheja
IIT Roorkee, India
Focus area: Universal design; Design for disabled; Inclusive mobility; Urban futures; Design thinking; Visual communication; Environment behaviour studies; Public spaces; Urban design - Dr Janaka Wijesundara
University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
Focus Area : Sustainable urban design; Urban and community planning; Place; Urban architecture and cultural identity; Urban generation; Ancient planning and urban design in South Asia
Biosciences, Medicine
- Dr Chandan Goswami
NISER Bhubaneshwar, India
Focus Area : Cell biology; Implications in pain and pathophysiology - Dr Jaydeep Bhattacharya
JNU, New Delhi, India
Focus Area : Nanobiotechnology; Biosensors; Single molecule fluorescence microscopy - Dr Ram Kulkarni
Symbiosis International(Deemed University), India
Focus Area : Food biotechnology; Biochemical and molecular characterisation of probiotic; Lactic acid bacteria - Dr Satish Kumar Adiga
Manipal Academy of Higher Education ( MAHE), India
Focus Area : Clinical Embryology; Clinical Embryology; Assisted Reproductive Technology; Andrology; Fertility Preservation - Dr Vasudharani Devanathan
IISER Tirupati, India
Focus Area : Cell adhesion molecules in neurodegeneration and neurite outgrowth; Neuronal membrane proteins; G protein signalling in platelets and neutrophils; Teaching methods in interdisciplinary biology
Chemistry
- Dr Aruna Dhathathreyan
Emeritus Prof. AcSIR, CSIR-CLRI, India
Focus Area : Biophysical Chemistry; Design of new materials at interfaces; Thin polymeric and protein films; Adhesion proteins; Soft condensed matter; lipid-protein interactions ; Bio-nanotechnology - Dr Arvind Natu
IISER Pune, India
Focus Area : Organic chemistry; Bio organic chemistry; Combinatorial chemistry; Biology in drug discovery - Dr Dinesh Sawant
CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, India
Focus Area : Catalysis – homogeneous, heterogenous, nano, organocatalysis, bioorganometallics; Organic synthesis; Physical organic chemistry; C1 chemistry; Catalysis for energy - Dr Kalidas Sen
University of Hyderabad, India
Focus Area : Density functional theory; Confined electronic systems; Chemical applications of information theory - Dr Prasanta Ghorai
IISER Bhopal, India
Focus Area : Methods for organic synthesis with chemo-, regio-, diastereo- and enantio-selectivity; Synthesis of complex molecules possessing interesting structural, biological and physical properties - Dr Thiruvancheril Gopalakrishanan Gopakumar
IIT Kanpur, India
Focus Area : Molecular functional materials; Scanning tunneling; Atomic force microscopy; Surface science
Computation, Data Sciences, Mathematics
- Dr Areejit Samal
Institute of Mathematical Sciences, India
Focus Area : Network biology; Computational biology; Systems biology - Dr Pratibhamoy Das
IIT Patna, India
Focus Area : Numerical analysis; Moving mesh methods; Singular perturbation; A posteriori error estimates; R-refinement strategy; Integral equations; Fractional order equations; Nonlinear problems - Dr Sashikumaar Ganesan
Indian Institute of Science, India
Focus area: Numerical analysis; Finite elements; Computational fluid dynamics; Simulation of multiphase flows; Population balance modelling; High performance computing - Dr S Sundar
IIT Madras, India
Focus Area : Numerics for PDEs; Mathematical modeling and numerical simulation - Dr Tanka Dhamala
Tribhuvan University, Nepal
Focus Area : Modelling and solving the real-life problems; Simulation and heuristic algorithms; Shop scheduling; Just-in-time sequencing; Network optimisation; Emergency evacuation planning; Disaster scenarios
Engineering
- Dr Amitava Gupta
Jadavpur University, India
Focus Area : Distributed Real-time Systems; Power Plant Simulation & Control; Nuclear Power Engineering - Dr Gargeshwari K Suryanarayana
Dayananda Sagar University (Ex-NAL), India
Focus Area : Reduction of aerodynamic drag; Innovations in active and passive flow control; Unsteady aerodynamics; Air-intake aerodynamics; Transonic flows - Dr Jyotirmay Mathur
MNIT Jaipur, India
Focus Area : Energy efficiency in buildings; Passive cooling systems; Renewable energy and energy policy modelling; Development of codes and standards; Low energy cooling - Dr Manmohan Goel
VNIT Nagpur, India
Focus Area : Finite Element Analysis and Modeling; Computational and Continuum Mechanics; Structural Analysis; Materials Engineering; Solid Mechanics; Numerical Simulation - Dr Ramesh Kumar Maskey
Kathmandu University, Nepal
Focus Area : Hydraulic engineering; Hydropower engineering; Energy technology; Robotics; Mechatronics - Dr Srinivas Boppu
IIT Bhubaneshwar, India
Focus Area : High level synthesis; Programmable hardware accelerators; Coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures; System-on-Chip design; Low power VLSI, CAD for VLSI - Dr Subha Narayan Rath
IIT Hyderabad, India
Focus Area : Molecular analysis angiogenesis and osteogenesis; Application of biomaterials; 3-D bioprinting using stem cells; Biomaterials to fabricate organs; Evaluation of biomaterials - Dr Vasant Matsagar
IIT Delhi, India
Focus Area : Multi-hazard protective structures; Fibre reinforced polymer; Composite materials and mechanics; Structural dynamics; Earthquake engineering; Wind and fire engineering
Environmental Sciences, Energy
- Dr Anwar Zahid
Water Development Board, Bangladesh
Focus Area : Hydrogeology; Groundwater; Water Quality; Environment; Hydro geochemistry; Water Chemistry; Water Resources Management; Water Quality Monitoring; Water Quality Analysis; Water Sampling - Dr P K Joshi
JNU, India
Focus Area : Advanced geospatial (RS, GIS, GPS/GNSS) analysis and modeling; Landscape and vegetation analysis; Climate change vis-à-vis ecological studies (incl. natural resource management)
Management
Dr Rajendran C
IIT Madras, India
Focus Area : Scheduling in manufacturing and service systems; Logistics management; Inventory optimization ; Lot sizing problems; Heuristics, metaheuristics and applications; Total quality management
Physics
- Dr Aranya Bhuti Bhattacherjee
BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus, India
Focus Area : Quantum optics of nanostructures; Quantum Photonics; Quantum gases; Optomechanics - Dr Gopal Dixit
IIT Bombay, India
Focus Area : Ultrafast physical and chemical processes; Natural timescales; Attosecond and femtosecond - Dr Nilotpal Ghosh
SERB-DST, India
Focus Area : Super Conductivity; Material science; Condensed matter physics; Growth of single crystals and material synthesis; Transport and magnetization measurements at low temperature
Want to be a Research Ambassador?
Find out how it works...
The applications for 2022-25 now stand closed.
DAAD Research Ambassadors are academicians and scientists who have a long standing relationship with Germany and are interested in promoting Germany as a destination for higher learning and scientific cooperation by sharing their experience, mentoring students and colleagues. As established members of the academic/scientific community they help inspire their colleagues and students to consider Germany as a partner in their work or as a destination for study or research by answering their questions and by organising events on and off campus. As Research Ambassadors they also support the DAAD in organising and conducting PhD Proposal Writing Workshops.
DAAD has an extensive network of Research Ambassadors spread over India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Research Ambassadors are appointed by the DAAD Regional Office New Delhi for a duration of three years and work on an honorary basis.
Requirements
A DAAD Research Ambassador
- is an academician/scientist or works for R&D in the industry, and has a PhD
- is a citizen of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal or Sri Lanka
- has studied/done research in Germany or have cooperation with German academic/research institutions, and
- is upon selection invited attend an orientation workshop in New Delhi
Application and Deadline
An application together with the following is required from potential candidates:
- Curriculum vitae
- Recent photograph
- Ideas and an open mind
If you have any questions about the programme, please write to marketing.newdelhidaad.de.