Shakeel Ahmed

Biography

Dr. Shakeel Ahmed with M.Sc.Tech. in Exploration Geophysics from BHU, Varanasi chosen to work on Groundwater Hydrology since beginning of his carrier starting from his M.Sc. dissertation on Aquifer Modeling. Dr. Ahmed joined NGRI as scientist in 1982 and further enhanced his qualifications by obtaining Ph.D. in Hydrogeology from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris (Paris School of Mines) in France in 1987. He developed new methods of Geostatistics to apply in groundwater hydrology during his doctoral research to solve to a great extent, the problem of bridging the gap between field measurement and data requirement by the aquifer models with the development of several multivariate Geostatistical methods utilizing easily available parameters. The doctoral research was published in top journals of the field viz., Water Resour. Res. and Ground Water etc. and the thesis was also published in the form of Microfiche by M/S Atelier France Dr. Ahmed established an advanced laboratory of Numerical Aquifer modeling at NGRI. He continued his research with his French counterparts by working together and publishing joint research papers. His efforts in the Indo-French Collaboration were progressing steadily but took a quantum jump in 1999. The very first Indo-French Collaborative project awarded to NGRI in the year 1999 by the IFCPAR was led by him as Principal Collaborator from India where two Indian Organizations and four French Organizations have worked together. The most important event in the history of NGRI’s International collaboration was an MoU between NGRI (India) and BRGM (France) signed for setting up the “Indo-French Centre for Groundwater Research (IFCGR). Dr. Ahmed took the honor of being founder head of this International Centre from Indian side and he has run the centre successfully from last 12 years. Dr. Ahmed has supervised 21 doctoral and many master theses, including three doctoral theses of French students. He has more than 100 research papers to his credit in the internationally reputed journals of high Impact Factors beside many more presented in seminar and symposium. He has delivered a number of keynote addresses and invited lectures in International Seminars in India and abroad. Dr. Ahmed is an Internationally renowned scientist and he has been on the scientific committee of several International conferences including the Colloquium to celebrate 150th Anniversary of Darcy’s law in Dijon, France in 2006. He has edited two books in this period the first one published by the IAHS press and the 2nd one by the Capital Publishing Co., India as well as Springer. Dr. Ahmed’s collaboration has not been limited to France but he was invited to deliver lectures in many countries viz., Australia, Iran, Egypt, Kenya, Sudan and Pakistan as resources person sponsored by the UNESCO and CSC etc. He has successfully completed a pilot project from UNESCO on studying the variation of Fluoride in groundwater recently and also organized a regional training workshop on “Dynamics of hard rock aquifers”. He is closely associated with many International programs like G-WADI network and chairing the South Asian Regional working group on Hard Rock Hydrogeology of IAH. This is the first working group established outside Europe by the IAH. Dr. Ahmed has also been the Secretary of the National Committee of the International Association of Hydrogeologists and the Associate Editor of the Hydrogeology Journal published by Springer. He is also appointed by the Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India, the Coordinator of the Indo-Tunisian collaborative program. He is member of many professional associations as well as technical committees both National and International, member of the Editorial Board of International Journal of Chemical and environmental Research and Journal of Science Technology Education and Research. Dr. Ahmed was honored at the 7th Cannes International Water Symposium where he received the International Prize for Water Sciences for the year 2004. This is one of the 9 awards called Lights of Water. Earlier he has been recipient of Young Scientist Award in physical sciences awarded in 1999 by the MAAS. Dr Ahmed also bagged the first National Mineral Award in Groundwater in 2006 awarded by the Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India for his work in managing groundwater resources in over-exploited hard rock aquifers. He is also elected fellow of National Environmental Science Academy, Geological Society of India and is serving in a number of important scientific committees. He is a visiting Fellow in the Department of Geology, AMU, Aligarh and visiting Professor at the Department of Earth Science, University of Kashmir. Dr. Ahmed has led many important projects on groundwater hydrology, mostly International viz., Indo-French, IndoAustralian and Indo-EU to name a few. Dr. Ahmed is given the responsibility of coordinating from NGRI, a prestigious project on Aquifer Mapping, initially for pilot areas to establish effective methodology for a national program on aquifer mapping and management. He has also developed a major multi-organizational project likely to be taken up by the CSIR-NGRI under XII Five Year Plan.

Research Interest

ground water hydrology