Dehradun, January 31
Dr VP Dimri, Director, National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad, who was awarded the Padma Shri on Republic Day is among the world’s leading scientists in geo-sciences in the past four decades.
Dr VP Dimri, Director, National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad, who was awarded the Padma Shri on Republic Day is among the world’s leading scientists in geo-sciences in the past four decades.
A native of Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, he was born at Dimmar village. His father late Ghanshyam Chamoli was the first member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council of the Badri-Kedar region.
Dr Dimri has received all his education in India and has made all his contributions in geo-sciences while working in India.
His research papers are rated as milestone work by reviewers and readers and have had a high impact on the development of the New Theory of Deconvolution, Inversion and Fractals.
He is the author of three books, over 100 research papers and one patent which is being commercialised.
His first book “Deconvolution and Inverse Theory” Elsevier, 1992, was declared a didactical masterpiece and serves as a reference book in the field of inversion.
Dr Dimri designed major scientific programmes in the sectors of ocean studies, energy and water security, risk assessment and frontier research areas in solid earth geophysics.
At NGRI, he formulated two successful major national programmes on gas-hydrates and legal continental shelf of India.
He pioneered two crucial projects in collaboration with Norwegian scientists out of which one is to enhance oil recovery from Indian oil fields and the other one is on geological sequestration of CO2 to reduce global warming.
He launched a successful pilot project in Nalgonda district of AP to supply fluoride-free water for over 10,000 persons.
His contributions in the field of non-linear geophysics have been recognised by the American Geophysical Union which honoured him with the prestigious Lorenz Lecturer in December 2007. He is the first Asian to receive the award.
For his pioneering contributions to geo-science, Dr Dimri has received numerous awards. He is the recipient of the prestigious National Mineral Award, DOD Award, Government of India, Outstanding Scientist award of FAPCCI and Prof GP Chatterjee Award of ISCA.
He has been elected Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Sciences, AP Akademi of Sciences and Third World Academy of Sciences, Italy.
He was made Adjunct Professor at the University of Hyderabad, IIT, Kharagpur, Osmania University, Hyderabad, and Honorary Professor at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam.
During his tenure as Director, the NGRI has entered into the top 1 per cent of institutions all over the world in terms of citations of papers published in the field of geo-sciences.
NGRI, ranked No. 1 among 38 laboratories of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in generating external cash flow during 2005-06.
The NGRI is also placed No. 1 among all Earth and planetary science institutes/establishments in the country in terms of research output.
Dr VP Dimri is the man behind the spectacular growth of the NGRI which is 63.4 per cent during 2004-06 as compared to 1996-98. It now stands at 165 per cent in 2006-2008.
