Dr. Hanwant B. Singh
Award Year: 2001 | Degree Year: 1968
Born during the turmoil of partition, Dr. Hanwant B Singh spent his early years in many cities with the longest stay in Dehradun, UP where his father was a government official. He joined IIT Delhi in 1963 and graduated in 1968 with a B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering with distinction. A generous fellowship from the University of Pittsburgh and a strong desire to see the world landed him in the United States within weeks of his graduation. He joined the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Pittsburgh in 1968 and graduated with a Master’s and a Ph.D. degree in 1972. A change in direction was to follow with a stint at the Deptt. of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey where he did a postdoctoral fellowship and also taught some courses,. In 1974, he was tapped by the Stanford Research Institute in California (at the time a part of Stanford University) and for a decade he was Director of the Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratory there. In the late 1980s, NASA was successful in convincing him to join the nearby Ames Research Laboratory and lead an effort in studying the changing global atmospheric system with resources that only NASA could provide.
Dr. Singh is an acknowledged leader in the area of atmospheric composition and chemistry and has contributed major theoretical and experimental ideas to advance the scientific understanding in this field.
His professional life has been highly rewarding and the opportunity to collaborate with some of the best minds from several different countries has been a great privilege. His efforts are chronicled in over 150 scientific publications. A textbook he edited is widely used in many universities. Many honors and awards have followed. He became the recipient of the Frank A Chambers Award for “outstanding achievements in the arts and sciences”, the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievements Medal, the H.J. Allen Prize (shared with Nobel Laureate P Crutzen) and was elected to be a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and certain United Nations Commissions. In 1993, he agreed to take over the Executive Editorship of the international journal of Atmospheric Environment published by Elsevier from the U.K. This role allows him a unique window into the world of international science. He has traveled extensively but his wanderlust is alive and well.
In honoring Dr. Hanwant B Singh, we recognize the outstanding contributions made by him as a Scientist and Technologist who has earned recognition in the international scientific and engineering community, and through his achievements brought glory to the name of this Institute.
