Jayanta Bandyopadhyay

Jayanta Bandyopadhyay (Bengali: জয়ন্ত বন্দ‍্যোপাধ‍্যায়; born 31 December 1947, in Kolkata, India), is a researcher, analyst and author. He is now a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, Kolkata. He is a Former Professor of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. An internationally renowned professional on public interest research, mountain environment and water governance in south Asia, Bandyopadhyay has authored sixteen critically acclaimed books and monographs, in addition to 150 papers and articles. He has delivered invited lectures in many parts of the world.
Early life and education.
Bandyopadhyay had his schooling in Kolkata after which he studied engineering. He received a Master of Technology degree in 1969 and PhD in 1976 in Engineering Physics from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. After obtaining his doctorate, he turned his research interest to the interdisciplinary area of Science and the Natural Environment. He soon got deeply interested in research on the Himalaya. His professional life started to revolve around environment and economic growth in the world's mountains. In 1977 he joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA, as a visiting post-doctoral fellow in the area of science and public policy.
Career.
Bandyopadhyay has been closely associated with research on environment and economic growth in the Himalaya, especially on the rivers emerging from this mountain. He has been a member of the faculty at IIM Bangalore, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, and the International Academy of Environment (IAE), Geneva. In 1991 he was invited by the Earth Summit Secretariat in Geneva to single draft a chapter for Agenda-21 on the world's mountains. In 1997 he was invited by the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC) to establish the Centre for Development and Environment Policy. He retired from his position at IIMC in 2012 and spent a year at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi as a Visiting Professor. He has been an adviser to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) New Delhi, and the Water Diplomacy Program at Tufts University, Medford, USA. He recently acted as a review-editor for the forthcoming Report on Himalayan Monitoring and Assessment Programme (HIMAP) of ICIMOD, Kathmandu. The central contribution of Bandyopadhyay is an interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of mountain areas and governance of rivers emerging from the Himalaya.
Bandyopadhyay served as the President of Indian Society for Ecological Economics (2006–08); President of SaciWATERS (2000–09); Chair of Scientific Advisory Committee, GB Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development (2007–12); and as Board Member, International Society for Ecological Economics (2007–09). He was the Coordinating Lead Author for "Freshwater Ecosystem Services" in "Millennium Ecosystem Assessment".