Prof. Arun Kansal is the Dean (Research and relationships) and Head of Department of Regional Water Studies at TERI University, India. He received his PhD in Environmental Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi after completing his M.Tech and B.Tech degree in Civil Engineering. He has over 20 years of research/consultancy/teaching experience in the areas of water resource management, waste management with a focus on resource recovery and recycling, urban environment, and energy- environment – climate linkages. He is a recipient of Best Teacher Award from GGS Indraprastha University, India; Best Research Paper Award from Indian Water Works Association, and has received the Roll of Honor by TERI. In his academic career, Prof Kansal has been a visiting Professor (as ICCR Chair Professor from Government of India) to Freie University, Berlin, Germany during 2010-11, an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, UK (2011-14), Visiting Professor at the University of Derby in Natural Sciences (2015-2018) and Key Technology Partner Visiting Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. He also served as a Lead Author for IPCC 5th Assessment Report WGIII.
Prof Kansal has also coordinated an e-learning programme at TERI University on Sustainable Development Practices in Public Policy for mid-career professionals. The programme was under the aegis of UNU-IAS, Japan and was in collaboration with Tongji University, China; Universiti Sains Malaysia; University of South Pacific, Fiji; and AIT, Thailand. He also served as a core team member of the project for development of Alternative University Appraisal for Education on Sustainable Development led by Hokkaido University, Japan along with Yonsei University, Republic of Korea; AIT, Thailand; and Universiti Sains Malaysia. Prof Kansal also developed two full courses (e-content generation) for Post Graduate students in Environmental Science, which was funded by MHRD, Government of India. He has served as a member of expert committee constituted by MoEF, GoI for review of ‘common effluent treatment scheme’. He has also served as a member of project review committee constituted by MoEF for the project entitled ‘environmental friendly technology in the highly polluting small-scale glass industry at Firozabad’ and has been the expert member for evaluating Ford Foundation fellowship applications.
Prof Kansal’s Research and consultancy experience is evident from the list of peer reviewed publications and success in winning grants from Government of India, multilateral and bilateral organizations and industrially funded research and consultancy. Recently, he has successfully completed three research projects as Principal Investigator in the area of Metabolism approach for water planning of megacities, funded by Enel Foundation; Understanding and quantifying water-energy nexus for low carbon development in Asian cities, funded by Asia Pacific Network in collaboration with Hiroshima University, Japan and AIT, Thailand; and Strengthening water and sanitation in urban settings, funded by USAID.
