PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Prof. Abhishek Chaudhary
Dr. Chaudhary is a Sustainability Scientist working as an Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering and Management at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur. His areas of research include Environmental Management, Biodiversity Conservation, One Health and Sustainability Data Analytics. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed scientific articles in international journals (including Nature and The Lancet) fetching over 13,000 citations so far and has presented research in more than 50 international conferences and media outlets around the globe. He has won several prestigious research awards from organizations such as Swiss National Science Foundation, European Commission, US EPA, IIASA etc. His work focuses on leveraging tools such as environmental impact assessment (EIA), life cycle assessment (LCA), geographic information systems (GIS) along with statistical data analysis and mathematical models to develop quantitative methods that enable measuring the impact and sustainability of everyday products and human activities through multiple indicators such as greenhouse gas emissions, species extinction, environmental pollution, and loss of ecosystem services. These indicators are then linked with inventory and socio-economic data to measure the production, consumption, and trade footprints of countries and ESG performance of businesses in different economic sectors such as agriculture, forestry and infrastructure. Results from such analysis can inform policy makers and stakeholders in designing interventions to make progress towards multiple SDGs. Prior to joining IITK, he held Postdoctoral Researcher and later a Senior Scientist position at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. He earned his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering with a focus on Life Cycle Assessment and Biodiversity conservation from ETH Zurich. In the past, Dr. Chaudhary worked at United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as Environmental Engineer. He obtained his Master of Science (M.S.) from University of Cincinnati in Ohio, USA and B.Tech. from IIT Roorkee, India. Currently, Dr. Chaudhary is a member of the IUCN SSC Phylogenetic Diversity Task Force (PDTF) and is one of the 26 global scientists and the only one representing India on the One Health High Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) jointly led by four international organizations - World Health Organization (WHO), World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP). He serves the editorial board of four different international journals including prestigious ES&T journal and Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. In the past, he has contributed to EAT-Lancet commission's report on healthy diets as well as to The Nature Conservancy's report on benefits of source water protection. His work on biodiversity within LCA has been recognized by UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative as best practice. He has previously served as member of technical advisory group to the LEAP initiative of United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and was part of the international research group led by the FAO that provided the best-practice guidance on how to conduct nutritional combined environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) of food items. Recently he was recognized as '2022 Rising Stars in Environmental Research' by the American Chemical Society and received an honorable mention at their 2023 James J. Morgan Early Career Award. |
doctoral students
Canxi Chen
Canxi finished her Ph.D. in September 2021 from ETH Zurich and was co-supervised by Prof. Chaudhary. Her dissertation was titled "Nutritional combined environmental impact assessment of global food systems".
Canxi finished her Ph.D. in September 2021 from ETH Zurich and was co-supervised by Prof. Chaudhary. Her dissertation was titled "Nutritional combined environmental impact assessment of global food systems".
masters students
Amaan Akhtar
Amaan finished his MTech thesis on monetary evaluation of environmental impacts of infrastructure in India in 2023.
Amaan finished his MTech thesis on monetary evaluation of environmental impacts of infrastructure in India in 2023.
Piyush Patidar
Piyush finished his MTech thesis on land use change and ecosystem services loss in India in 2021.
Piyush finished his MTech thesis on land use change and ecosystem services loss in India in 2021.
Amita Singh
Amita finished her MTech thesis on the sustainability of livestock products in India in 2021.
Amita finished her MTech thesis on the sustainability of livestock products in India in 2021.
Samir Tangri
Samir finished his MTech thesis on the use of solar panels and biodigesters to save cost and carbon emissions in 2021. Nishant Sachan
Nishant finished his M.Tech. thesis on the assessing the threats to Indian biodiversity in different states in 2020. |
Nihal Navin
Nihal finished his M.Tech. thesis on the environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) of buildings in 2020.
Nihal finished his M.Tech. thesis on the environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) of buildings in 2020.