Thesis Counts

Ph.D Theses Supervised at IISc

Under Progress

1. Baseflow trends in west-flowing Western Ghats rivers (Mr. Rajat Sharma) – external registrant, NCESS, Thiruvananthapuram.
2. Groundwater–atmosphere feedbacks in central India (Mr. C. Sarat) – joint guidance under ICWaR; PMRF awardee.
3. Estimating soil moisture from microwave data (Mr. Vaibhav Gupta) – PMRF awardee.
4. Global groundwater model with fine catchment attributes (Mr. Akshay Kaundal).
5. Water–crop–carbon cycle (Mr. Burra Karthik).
6. Water cycle in agroforestry (Mr. Yuji Shigefuji) - World Bank awardee.
7. Modeling the recycle water systems.(Ms. V Vishnudatha) - Joint guidance under ICWaR.
8. Modeling baseflow in headwater catchments of peninsular Indian rivers (Ms. Ponni Mariet George).
9. Stochastic modeling of flow and solute transport in porous media (Ms. T. Bharathi) – joint guidance with Prof. C. S. Manohar.

Completed

1. An Integrated Assessment of Carbon and Water Use Efficiencies over India using Remote Sensing. (Mr. Abhishek Chakraborty, 2025) - now Post-doc at University of California, Merced USA.
2. Assimilation of near-surface soil temperature and soil moisture in an unsaturated flow model: State and parameter estimation using synthetic and field experiments.(Mr. Rajsekhar. Kandala, 2025) - now Post-doc at University of Reading, UK.
3. Quantification of irrigation and crop water productivity using soil moisture dynamics. (Ms. Deepti Upadhyaya, 2025) – now Research associate at IISc.
4. Analysis of Groundwater Systems Using Lumped and Distributed Hydrological Models: Applications in Indian tropical region. (Mr. Shubham Goswami, 2025) thesis submitted – now Post-doc at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA.
5. Modeling and assessment of nitrate travel transit times in groundwater systems. (Mr. Baibaswata Bhaduri, 2024) - now Post-doc at University of California, Davis USA.
6. Stable Isotope and Geochemical Approaches for Hydrological Characterization and Estimation of Seasonal Groundwater Inputs in the Humid to Semi-Arid Reach of the Kabini River, South India. (Mr. Siva Naga Venkat Nara, 2024) – joint guidance under ICWaR - now post doc at University of Melbourne, Australia.
7. Spatial downscaling of rainfall for hydrological modeling (Y. Subash, 2022) – now at Pixxel, Bangalore.
8. Impact of agricultural systems on groundwater quality (S. Buvaneshwari, 2018) – was a Hydro Nation International Fellow, Scotland.
9. Novel upwind & central schemes for hyperbolic systems (Naveen K. Garg, 2017) – Assistant Professor, IIT Kharagpur.
10. Evapotranspiration from satellite data (Eswar Rajasekaran, 2017) – Associate Professor, IIT Bombay.
11. Kinetic theory based schemes for incompressible flow (A. Ruhi, 2017) – was Post-doc, Univ. of Mainz.
12. Root zone hydraulic properties via inversion (K. Sreelash, 2014) – Scientist, NCESS.
13. Soil moisture retrieval & assimilation (Sat K Tomer, 2013) – CEO, Satyukt Analytics.
14. Groundwater dynamics under rainfall variability (Y. Javeed, 2010) – was Professor, NIE Mysore.
15. Precipitation controls on hydrochemistry (B. Siva Soumya, 2009) – now at Atkins.
16. Perturbation analysis of solute transport (Abhijit Chaudhuri, 2006) – Professor, IIT Madras.
17. Solute transport & geochemistry modeling (K. V. Hayagreeva Rao, 2005) – was Senior Research Engineer, GE.
18. Recharge wells in layered aquifers (P. K. Majumdar, 2007) – was Professor, Engineering College Gujarat.
19. Solute transport in single fracture (G. Suresh Kumar, 2003) – Professor, IIT Madras.
20. Sorption & biodegradation in porous media (Santosh G. Thampi, 2002) – Professor, NIT Calicut.
21. Hybrid FVM for reactive solute transport (S. Jyothish, 1999) – was Member Tech Staff, Verizon.
22. Parameter estimation of groundwater systems (M. K. Nagaraj, 1999) – was a Professor, NIT Surathkal.
23. Unsaturated flow modeling in soils (K. S. Hari Prasad, 1996) – Professor, IIT Roorkee.

M.Sc (Engg.) Theses Supervised

1. Numerical modelling of sediment transport using ANUGA Sed: Application to Mahanadi river basin, India. (Mr. Akshay Dahiwale, 2024) – Scientist, NIH.
2. Modeling salinity impact on turmeric crop (Ms. Teddy Kizza, 2013) – Scientist, National Agricultural Organisation, Uganda.
3. Lateral flow in hard rock aquifer (S. N. Rasmi, 2005).
4. Aerobic biodegradation modeling (Anjani Kumar, 2003) – was Research Engineer, GE.
5. GIS-coupled groundwater modeling (M. R. V. P. Narayana, 2003).
6. Solute transport via hybrid FCT (C. Srinivasan, 2000).

M.E. Theses Supervised

1. Soil moisture modelling using remote sensed data (Anjali P.S., ongoing).
2. Urban groundwater modelling using ML approaches (Pragya Singh, ongoing) - now Engineer NHPC, India.
3. Sediment transport modelling and measurements for a catchment near Ooty (Thiyageshwaran N., ongoing) - now Assistant Engineer, Water Resources Department, Tamilnadu State, India.
4. Sediment transport modeling (Arun V H, 2023)- now Assistant Engineer, Water Resources Department, Kerala State, India.
5. Machine learning for soil moisture (Satish Kumar Nukala, 2023)- now Assistant Engineer, Irrigation Department, Telengana state, India.
6. Urban groundwater modeling (Ankit Kumar, 2022) - now Engineer CWC, Delhi
7. Crop water budget & irrigation (Manish Kumar, 2020)
8. Soil moisture estimation via L-band SAR (Deepak Kumar, 2019)
9. Crop productivity in rainfed systems (Kayalvizhi S., 2018)- now PhD student Penn State University USA
10. ML for agriculture (Rukmangadan D., 2018)
11. TerraSAR-X vs Sentinel-1 imaging (Sandarbh A., 2017)
12. GPR for soil moisture (Prajakt R., 2015)
13. Recharge estimation in Berambadi (Satendra K. Dhiman, 2013) – now Scientist NIH Roorkee
14. Groundwater modeling with GRASS-GIS (Manish Gautam, 2013)
15. Lumped vs distributed modeling (Madhusudhan N, 2012)
16. Fracture characterization via fiber optics (Prateek Chandrayan, 2011) - now CEO, Converse.ai, Pune.
17. Urban-periurban groundwater with PORFLOW (Mayur M. Shindekar, 2011) - now Engineer, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, GoI, India.
18. Spatio-temporal groundwater levels (Jowon Siket, 2010) - now Engineer, Central Water Commission, GoI, India.
19. Soil moisture assimilation experiments (Sat Kumar, 2008) - now CEO, Satyukt Analytics pvt.ltd. Bangalore.
20. Watershed modeling with SWAT (M. V. Pradeep, 2003) - now Technical Director, JBA Risk Management, Singapore.
21. Phosphorus modeling in lakes (B. Raghuram Singh, 2003)
22. Dissolved oxygen estimation (G. Babu Rao, 2001)
23. Storm water modeling with SWMM & GIS (J. Srinivasulu, 2000)
24. VB software for petroleum risk (N. Stanley Joseph, 1999)
25. Non-uniform aquifer analysis (L. P. Murali Krishna, 1998)
26. Genetic algorithm for sampling design (C. V. Abdul Nazir, 1997)
27. Unsaturated flow numerical model (A. Hara Gopal, 1997)
28. Multilayered leaky aquifer analysis (V. Ramesh, 1996) - now Software Engineer, Wells Fargo, USA.
29. Contaminant transport modeling (P. Sreenivasa Rao, 1995)

Integrated Master Theses Supervised

1. N₂O emissions from maize cropland (Arjun C., June 2016) – now Pacific Northwest Labs USA

Project Staff

Current

1. Dr. Deepti Upadhyaya
2. Mr. K. Sanjeeva Murthy
3. Mr. M. Soundarrajan

Former

1. Mr. P. Giriraja
2. Mr. Satish Kumar Nukala – now Assistant Engineer, Irrigation Department, Telangana.
3. Ms. S. Kayalvizhi – now PhD student at Penn State, USA.
4. Dr. Amit K. Sharma – PhD Université Rennes 2; now Technical Staff, John Deere, Pune.
5. Mr. R. Avinash - now PhD student NIT Surathkal.
6. Ms. Chenzu Prince