Prof. Gopal Pathak graduated in Civil Engineering from BIT Mesra in 1977. He completed his master’s in civil engineering and Ph.D. from the same institute. In 1980, he joined the Department of Civil Engineering at BIT Mesra as a faculty member and rose to the position of Professor in the year 2000. Apart from his experience in the academic field, he has also held many administrative positions, including HOD of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Dean of Student Welfare, Dean of Faculty Development, Dean of Administration and Campus Development, and others. He has also served as Acting Vice Chancellor of the institute. Prof. Pathak has published and presented many technical papers in various national and international journals and conference proceedings in places such as China, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Australia, Iran, South Africa, the USA, and others during his professional career. He has also been a visiting professor and scholar at many prestigious foreign universities. To name a few: University of Technology, Sydney, Australia (1997); University of Ningbo, China (2006); Princeton University, USA (2009); International Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering, Burkina Faso, Western Africa (2009); and Stanford University, California (2011). He served as Vice Chancellor of Jharkhand University of Technology, Ranchi, from June 15, 2017, to December 14, 2020, and as Vice Chancellor of Sarala Birla University from December 15, 2020, to July 31, 2024. He has been heading Sarala Birla University as Director General since August 1, 2024.

Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan Ph.D., Professor, Dept. of Geology and Mining, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh, is a former Pro-Vice Chancellor (2013-2017) with 41 years of teaching, research, and administrative activities in the University. Prof Chowdhury has affiliated with various national and international professional organizations, and active member and experts of the various National Committees of the Govt. of Bangladesh on water resource management and climate change, and contributed as chair/member of the National Committees of GoB for framing laws, rules, policies, strategies etc. related to water management and national adaptation plan. Have published nearly 80 (seventy) national and international research papers, and book chapters. Rotarian Professor Chowdhury is an active social worker, including with the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society.

Professor S.K. Tripathi from the Department of Forestry, Mizoram University, is a renowned ecologist with 30 years of teaching, research, and administrative experience. He mentored 50 master's, two M. Phils, and 17 Ph.D. students. He has edited four books, written over 200 research papers in reputable publications with over 4000 citations, and completed dozens of research projects. For scholarly purposes, he visited the USA (1995, 2005), UK (1994, 2016), Nepal (1997), Japan (2002, 2003, 2004), China (2008), Germany (2009), Italy (2017), and France (2019). He received the prestigious Forestry Research Excellence Award in 2020 from ICFRE, Dehradun.

Amit Ranjan is a Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Amit has authored Federalism and Inter-State River Water Disputes in India (Routledge, London and New Delhi, 2023) and Contested Waters: India’s Transboundary River Water Disputes in South Asia (Routledge, Oxon and New Delhi, 2021). His papers, review essays and book reviews have been widely published in journals, including Asian Survey, Asian Affairs, Asian Ethnicity, Asian Journal of Comparative Politics, Australian Journal of Ocean and Maritime Studies, Economic & Political Weekly, India Review, Indian Journal of Public Administration, India Quarterly, Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, Journal of Migration Affairs, Journal of the Indian Ocean Region, Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Social Change, Studies in Indian Politics, Society and Culture in South Asia, South Asia Research, Social Identities, Sikh Formations, South Asian Diaspora, The Roundtable: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, Water History and World Water Policy. Amit’s opinion pieces have been published in The Hindu, The Wire, Asia Times, The Indian Express, ThinkChina, The Interpreter, East Asia Forum, and others.