Basant Agrawal obtained his B.E. and M.Tech. from MANIT Bhopal. He is awarded a gold medal in M.Tech. by Rajiv Gandhi Technical University, Bhopal. He is working as Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at SGSITS Indore and is presently pursuing a Ph.D. degree from IIT Delhi. He has more than ten years’ teaching experience. His broad area of interest includes thermodynamics and heat engines, heat transfer, hybrid PV thermal (HPVT) systems and passive building design. He has authored two books with well-known publishers and has published 30 research papers in various international and national journals and conferences. He is a life member of the Indian Society for Technical Education and the Institute of Engineers (India).
Professor Gopal Nath Tiwari had received postgraduate and doctoral degrees from Banaras Hindu University (BHU). Since 1977 he has been actively involved in teaching and research at the Centre for Energy Studies, IIT Delhi. His area of research includes solar distillation, water/air heating system, greenhouse technology, earth–air heat exchangers, passive building design and hybrid PV thermal (HPVT) systems. He has guided about 50 Ph.D. students and published over 400 research papers in well-known journals. He has written 11 books in association with respected publishers. He was a co-recipient of the Hariom Ashram Prerit S.S. Bhatnagar Award in 1982. Dr Tiwari worked at the University of Papua New Guinea between 1987 and 1989 as Energy and Environment Expert and he became a European Fellow at the University of Ulster, Belfast, Northern Ireland (UK) in 1993. He is responsible for developing the Solar Energy Park at IIT Delhi and the Energy Laboratory at the University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby. He has been invited to speak in many countries including Italy, Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, Greece, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan etc. He has chaired international conferences as an expert in renewable energy, presenting research papers, etc. He was offered the post of associate editor for Solar Energy Journal (SEJ) in respect of solar distillation. He was editor of the International Journal of Agricultural Engineering for three years (2006–08). On 26 March 2008 the government of Uttar Pradesh, India awarded him the
Vigyan Ratna.
This report is dedicated to our respected teacher, Padamashree Professor Mahendra Singh Sodha, FNA, on his seventy-seventh birthday on 8 February 2009.
