U.

Aswathanarayana
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fair. He did doctoral research in radioactivity studies using the equipment that he built himself with the help of
the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. It
was the rst doctoral thesis on nuclear geology in India,
and was examined by Arthur Holmes, F.R.S. of UK, J.
Tuzo Wilson, F.R.S., of Canada, and Louis Ahrens then
at Oxford. Later he did post-doctoral work on lead isoUppugunduri Aswathanarayana (born 1928) is the topes with Clair Patterson in Caltech in 1957, and Rb Sr
Honorary Director of the Mahadevan International Cen- and K Ar dating with S. Moorbath in Oxford, England,
tre for Water Resources Management, India. He is in 1963.
counted among the doyens of geology in independent India and is revered as a leading scientist from
Andhra Pradesh. He studied / taught geology in Andhra 2 Career
University, India; California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, California; Oxford University, United King- In the course of a career of teaching, research and instidom, University of Western Ontario, Canada; University tutional capacity building spanning more than half a cenof Sagar, India; University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania tury, Aswathanarayana has been associated with Andhra
and Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique. He University, Visakhapatnam, India, which was his alma
has served as the Dean and Director of Centre of Ad- mater; California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calvanced Study in Geology, University of Sagar, India; ifornia, USA; Oxford University, Oxford, England; UniHead of Department of Geology, University of Dar es versity of Western Ontario, London, Canada; University
Salaam, Tanzania; Director, State Mining Corporation, of Saugar, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, India; University of
Tanzania and Adviser on Environment and Technology, Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and UniversiMozambique. He also served as Consultant to UNDP, dade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique. He has
World Bank, Louis Berger Inc., and SIDA, while in served as the Dean and Director of Centre of Advanced
Mozambique.
Study in Geology, University of Sagar; Head of Depart-

ment of Geology, University of Dar es Salaam; Director,

State Mining Corporation, Tanzania and Adviser on Environment and Technology, Mozambique. He also served
as Consultant to UNDP, World Bank, Louis Berger Inc.,
and SIDA, while in Mozambique. He was a UGC National Fellow, India (197679); UGC National Lecturer,
India and UNIDO Consultant on Non-Metallic Minerals,
Vienna (1988).

Education

Aswathanarayana had a dicult childhood because of

poverty. He was a student of the Municipal High School,
Ongole, Andhra Pradesh, India. He nearly missed the
mathematics examination in the Secondary School Leaving Certicate of the then Madras Presidency when he
reached the examination hall 30 minutes late, as he had
to walk barefoot in the hot sun to reach the examination
hall which was far away. He actually scored 100% marks
in mathematics and set up a record for aggregate marks
in the examination. Despite his meritorious performance
in the high school, he almost gave up the idea of going
to college because his parents could not aord it. Ultimately his mother had to sell whatever jewels she had to
send him to college and then to university after a gap of
time.[1]

3 Geoscience and social welfare

Aswathanarayanas exposure to the extremely serious human problems endemic in Africa, convinced him of the
need to switch to the application of geoscience to human
welfare. Using geochemical and isotopic tools, he and
his Tanzanian and Finnish associates could identify the
pathways of geoenvironment-induced endemicity of diseases, such as uorosis, stomach cancer and goitre.[2] His
most signicant contribution to the advancement of science lay in the original way he did high quality science
in the process of developing paradigms for improving the
quality of life of the ordinary people in Africa.[3] Thus,

It was the vision of his mentor, Prof. C. Mahadevan

of Andhra University, that launched him on his doctoral
studies in what later came to be known as nuclear geology.
Geology in those days was just hammer and hand lens af1

8 NOTES

his work entitled Innovative use of people-participatory

technologies for poverty alleviation and improvement of
the quality of life in Chamanculo, a slum area near
Maputo, Mozambique has been chosen by the Third
World Network of Scientic Organizations (now Consortium on Science, Technology and Innovation for the
South), Trieste, Italy and UNDP, New York, as an outstanding example of Innovation in Development in the
Third World.

Mahadevan International Centre for Water Resources Management

After returning to India, he got instituted the Mahadevan

International Centre for Water Resources Management
of which he has been the Founder and Honorary Director.
The Centre was formally instituted on 6 May 2001, with
the co-operation of Prof. G.O.P. Obasi, the then Secretary General, WMO, Geneva. The purpose of the Centre
is to serve as a clearinghouse for water sciences and technologies in the developing countries. It is modelled after
the Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste, Italy, in its ethos, and
mode of functioning. Like ICTP, the Mahadevan Centre
oers a series of customised courses for the water scientists, technologists and managers from the developing
countries.

Honours and awards

Aswathanarayana is recipient of the Excellence in Geophysical Education Award (2005;[4] International Award
( 2007) of the American Geophysical Union [5] Certicate of Recognition (2007) of the International Association of GeoChemistry; [6] and Eminent Citizen Award in
the area of Water Sciences of the Sivananda Trust, India
(2007). He is a recipient of the fellowships from UNIDO
(1989) and United Nations Oce for Outer Space Aairs
(1989).

Other mentions

7 Publications
Aswathanarayana is the author of over 100 original scientic papers and ten books.[7] His rst book, Principles of Nuclear Geology (A.A. Balkema, Netherlands,
1986), was followed by a quartet of books on the ecologically sustainable and employment-generating use of natural resources: Geoenvironment: An Introduction (A.A.
Balkema, Netherlands, 1995), Soil Resources and the Environment (Science Publishers, Eneld, USA, 1999), Water Resources Management and the Environment (A.A.
Balkema, 2001),[8] Mineral Resources Management and
the Environment (A.A. Balkema, 2003).[9]
The Geological Society of India, Bangalore, has brought
out his popular science booklet, Natural Resources and
Environment, (2003) which has been translated into Indian languages. Advances in Water Science Methodologies
(2005),[10] The Indian Ocean Tsunami (2006), Food and
Water Security (2008),[11] Energy Portfolios (2009)[12]
are some of his recent books. His most recent book,
Green Energy: Technology, Economics and Policy, is published by Taylor & Francis of the UK.[13]

8 Notes
[1] Karen S. Walch. Negotiation lessons from three generations in India. Thunderbird Global School of Management.
[2] Aswathanarayana, U. Geoenvironment-related disease
endemicity in Africa, with special reference to Tanzania.
Geomedicine (CRC Press): 235244.
[3] Aswathanarayana receives 2005 Excellence in Geophysical Education Award. Eos (AGU) (25). 21 June 2005.
[4] Aswathanarayana Receives 2005 Excellence in Geophysical Education Award. Eos.
[5] Uppugunduri Aswathanarayana Receives AGUs New
International Award. AGU.
[6] IAGC. News Letter May 2007 (PDF).
[7] U. Aswathanarayana-Bibliography. Amazon.
[8] Aswathanarayana, U (2001). Water resources management and the environment. A.A. Balkema, Netherlands.
ISBN 978-90-5809-322-6.
[9] Aswathanarayana, U (2003). Mineral resources manage-

ment and the environment. A.A. Balkema. ISBN 978-90Aswathanarayana served as general secretary, Geological
5809-545-9.
Society of India (19761979), Chairman, Working Group on Isotope Geochemistry of IAGC(1979 [10] Aswathanarayana, U (2005). Advances in Water Science
1983),[6] Leader, IAVCEI W.G. on Deccan Volcanism
Methodologies. Taylor & Francis, UK. ISBN 978-0-415(197983) and Chairman of the Working Group on
37533-7.
Geochemical Training in Developing Countries of the
International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmo- [11] Aswathanarayana, U (2008). Food and Water Security.
Taylor & Francis, UK. ISBN 978-0-415-44018-9.
chemistry (19962008). He was UNESCO Expert aliated to the Institute for Trace Element Research, Lyon, [12] Aswathnarayana, U and Divi, R.S. (Eds) (2009). Energy
France (1991).
Portfolios. Taylor & Francis, UK.

[13] Aswathanarayana, U., Harikrishnan, T. and Thayyib

Shani, K.M. (Eds) (2010). 978-0-415-87628-5 Green
Energy: Technology, Economics and Policy Check |url=
value (help). Taylor & Francis, UK.

External links
Amazon author page of U. Aswathanarayana

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