Ashok Kumar Singhvi

Ashok Kumar Singhvi

Ashok Kumar Singhvi (born 2^nd November 1950) is Outstanding Scientist and former Dean of Physical Research Laboratory, India. His field of specialization is Geophysics, Quaternary Sciences and Quantitative Geomorphology. He helped develop the technique of thermoluminescence, currently a major method to measure processes on geological timescales .

For his fundamental and outstanding contributions to quaternary geosciences, Singhvi has been the recipient of several national and international awards including the Farouk El-Baz Award (Geological Society of America), the National Mineral Award (Ministry of Mines, Government of India), the Decennial Award (Indian Geophysical Union), and the K. Naha Medal (Indian National Science Academy).

Singhvi currently serves as the Vice-President of the Indian National Science Academy (2018-) . He previously served as the President of the Luminescence Society of India (1990-92), and the Gujarat Science Academy (2010-2018) . He played a key role for India becoming a member of the International Quaternary Union (INQUA) and was the leader of Indian delegation to IUGS in 2004 and 2008.

Education

Singhvi graduated with an MSc from Jodhpur University, Rajasthan. He was awarded a PhD (Nuclear Physics) (1976) from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur for studies on hyperfine interaction, Mossbauer spectroscopy and nuclear reactions. He then joined the Geosciences Group at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, India in 1976 as a postdoctoral Fellow. Here, he began application of his knowledge of spectroscopy to minerals for understanding paleoclimates.

From 1977-78, he worked with Dr. Martin Aitkin at Keble College, University of Oxford, UK as a Ford Foundation Fellow. Here, Singhvi and Aitken collaborated to develop pioneering techniques in the field of thermoluminescence dating.

Research

Singhvi returned to India joined PRL as an Assistant Professor in 1978. Using methods and instrumentation that he designed and developed, he pioneered the application of themoluminescence to drylands to understand paleoclimate at geomorphic timescales². His work brought out new concepts on “response time” of landforms and the “windows of opportunity” for creating a sedimentary record. This has major implications for the climate–landform relationship³, and modeling climate activity.

His luminescence dating laboratory at PRL was internationally acclaimed and pioneered this approach in India . Using luminescence spectroscopy of natural minerals such as quartz and feldspars in sand sediments from the Thar desert, his group has since dated many minerals and sources gypsum, soil carbonates, carbonates, archeological sediments, glacial ice, geological faults and earthquakes, and meteorites. Thus, Singhvi successfully applied this technology to work on and document landscape system responses across every single hot and cold desert on the planet. Singhvi’s work has provided fundamental insights and rethinking of monsoon trajectories, the birth of deserts, wind patterns and tsunamis across multiple regions of the earth including Antartica, United States, Saharan Desert in Africa, Thar Desert in India and the Gobi Desert in China .

Dr Singhvi has helped establish nine luminescence dating laboratories in India and four overseas. He has trained 14 PhD students and 12 postdoctoral scientists. He has authored over 195 articles in peer reviewed journals (3500+ citations), edited/authored about 12 conference proceedings/books including two INSA reports to the International Union of Geological Sciences .

Singhvi led multiple major national programs. These include a National program on the Evolution of Thar Desert ( Department of Science and Technology, India); on the Geological History of Tsunamis along the Indian coasts (Ministry of Earth Sciences, India) and on the Palaeoclimatic record of the Indian Sub continent.

He played a key role for India becoming a member of the International Quaternary Union (INQUA) and was the leader of Indian delegation to IUGS in 2004 and 2008. He led two International Geological Correlation Programmes (IGCP 349 and 413) for UNESCO, dealing with deserts, paleo-monsoons and evolution.

For his seminal contributions, Singhvi was awarded the Krishnan Medal (1988), National Mineral Award (2004), Farouk El-Baz Award by the Geological Society of America (2003) among others.

He is on the Editorial boards of six international journals. He is also serving as INSA Council Member (2006- ). He has been Member of the Science Programme Committee of UN sponsored International Year of Planet Earth and of the Executive Board of the Scientific Steering Committee of IGBP- PAGES core project, and Program Advisory committee for Ministry of Earth sciences (GeoSciences segment).

He has served as the Chair of the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, Member of the RAC of the Birbal Sahni Institute, Lucknow and on on the advisory committee for the Geological Survey of India and the Archaeological Survey of India.

Singhvi has been a Ford Foundation Fellow (University of Oxford and University of Missouri-St. Louis); A.v. Humboldt Fellow (University of Heidelberg), Lever Hulme Fellow (University of Sheffield), DFG Professor (University of Freiberg), Academy Professor (Sao Paulo) and Visiting Professor (USGS Denver). He retired from PRL as Outstanding Scientist and Dean in 2017.

Awards and Honors

• Krishnan Medal (1988),
• National Mineral Award (2004),
• Farouk El-Baz Award by the Geological Society of America (2003),
• Decennial Medal by the Indian Geophysical Union (2006)
• K Naha Medal (2007).
• Vice President, Indian National Science Academy
• President, Gujarat Science Academy
• President, Luminescence Society of India
• Fellow, Academy of Sciences for the Developing World
• Fellow, Geological Society of India
• Fellow, Indian Geophysical Union
• Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences
• Fellow, Bangalore, National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad