Leadership & Service

Leadership Credential

Executive Certification in “Effective leadership and teamwork in the workplace”

University of California, San Diego Extension, La Jolla, USA

Leadership and teamwork as experienced in a professional setting were explored in an expansive manner through a deep understanding of who I am: my desires, motivations, strengths and weaknesses and how to orient myself in Organizational Behavior, Organizational Psychology, and Organizational Development.

“Project Management for the Collaborative workplace”

The course covered the basics of Project Management. It also covered a great detail about project management in a collaborative framework.

o Practicum: “IdeaWave Market Research Project”

Performed a market research study to investigate the reasons behind low faculty engagement in the IdeaWave crowdsourcing tool compared to the other groups (student and staff). Developed a research-based marketing plan and recommendations for the improvement.

Leadership & Service Roles

US House Rep. Mike Levin’s Task Force Member: Member of the Task Force founded by

the US House Representative (California 49th District), Mike Levin.

I was invited to join this task force to provide technical input to the committee in support of legislative effort to handle the nuclear waste problem in Southern California and elsewhere.

Member, Advisory Committee on Sustainability at University of California, San Diego (https://pda.ucsd.edu/about/campus-reps.html), 2017- Present.

This committee advises a set of recommendations to the office of the Chancellor to better prepare the campus for sustainable future. I represent the post-doctoral scholars and their viewpoints on this particular issue.

Scientific Consultant- San Onofre Nuclear Waste Management, Samuel Lawrence Foundation, 2018 - Present.

San Onofre Nuclear Power Generating Station is being decommissioned. About 3500 million pounds of highly radioactive nuclear waste is being buried in the plant area which is 108 feet from the Pacific Ocean. Naturally, the common people are concerned over it as there is about 8.5 people lives in the vicinity of 50 miles of the plant. The foundation approached me to scientifically examine the risk involved in the process with an open mind.

Co-Chair, Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), Houston, TX, March 2010, March 2016.
Co-convener, 22nd V. M. Goldschmidt Conference, Montréal, Canada, 24-29 June 2012 (Carbon-iron-sulfur partitioning in modern and ancient sediments: Global sulfur cycle and diagenetic pathways: Session 16C).
Member, Scientific and Local Committee, a Third international symposium on isotopomers (ISI 2006), San Diego, CA, USA.
Reviewer

Science Magazine; Nature; Nature Geosciences; Nature Reports; Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences; Astronomy and Astrophysics; Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta; Meteoritics and Planetary Science; Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres; Deep Sea Research-II; Rapid Communication of Mass-spectrometry; Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Planetary Space Science.

Judge, Stephen E, Dwornik Award by Lunar and Planetary Institute, 2009-present. Judging graduate and undergraduate students based on their oral and poster presentations.
Judge, Best student presentation award, 22nd V. M. Goldschmidt Conference, Montréal, Canada, 24-29 June 2012.
Treasurer, biennially elected member of the executive committee of a non-profit, charitable organization- SAIKAT, serving the Indian community in southern California, 2014-2017.

Oversaw an annual budget of $75K. Undertook drastic measures to set this 30-years old organization in a financially sustainable path that included fundraising resulted in significant growth of the reserve fund (50% increase during my tenure).

Student representative and spoke person of Research Scholars, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India, 1998-2003.

Solved decade-long issues related to student hostel accommodations, basic necessities (e.g., to make washing machine facility available to the students), reducing the student hostel’s electricity bill by re-defining as residential use (worked with the city electric supply office).

Elected student representative of the class, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, 1995-96.

Worked with the administration to set student-friendly exam schedule, successfully pursued the administration to cover the medical expenses of an accident victim from our class. Successfully pursued the local congressman for additional help for the victim’s family.