Advances in Solar Energy Research

Himanshu Tyagi is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the IIT Ropar. He has previously worked at Siemens (Germany and India) and Intel (USA). He received his PhD from Arizona State University, his Master’s from the University of Windsor, Canada, and his Bachelor’s from the IIT Delhi. His research interests include thermo-fluids, bio-heat transfer, nanofluids, nanoscale heat transfer, clean and sustainable energy, solar energy, energy storage, ignition properties of fuels containing nanoparticles, thermodynamics, thermal management and packaging of micro-electronic devices. At present he is working with a team to develop nanotechnology-based, clean and sustainable energy sources. He is a member of multiple professional bodies including the ASME, ISHMT and ISEES, and has published 6 book chapters, together with more than 50 research articles in reputed journal and international conferences.

Avinash K Agarwal is a Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. His areas of interest are IC engines, combustion, alternative fuels, conventional fuels, optical diagnostics, laser ignition, HCCI, emission and particulate control, and large bore engines. He has published 24 books and 230+ international journal and conference papers. Prof. Agarwal is a Fellow of the SAE (2012), ASME (2013), ISEES (2015) and INAE (2015). He has received several awards such as the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Engineering Sciences (2016), Rajib Goyal Prize (2015), and NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Award (2012).

Prodyut Ranjan Chakraborty is currently working as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the IIT Jodhpur. He has previously worked at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Cologne and the GE Global Research Center Bangalore (India). He received his PhD and Master’s from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IISc Bangalore, and his Bachelor’s from North Bengal University. His primary areas of research are numerical modeling of alloy solidification, latent-heat-based energy storage systems for high-temperature applications, thermal management and thermal comfort, and sorption cooling.

Satvasheel Powar is currently working as an Assistant Professor at the School of Engineering, IIT Mandi. He has previously worked at Greatcell Solar SA in Switzerland, and at G24i in the UK. He received his PhD in Chemistry/Materials Engineering from Monash University, Australia in 2013. Before joining the IIT Mandi, he worked at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore as a postdoctoral research fellow. His primary area of research is new-generation solar photovoltaic and solar thermal utilization.