Professor R. K. Mall is Dean and Head of the Institute of Environment & Sustainable Development, Banaras Hindu University. Prof Mall received his Ph.D. in Geophysics from Banaras Hindu University. With about thirty years of professional experience, he has gained extensive knowledge in the field of research and academia, administration, and managerial capacity in the fields of simulation modelling, climate change / disaster risk management and related issues, sustainable development and poverty alleviation, agro-advisory services for farmers. Prof.
Mall has been the principal investigator of various projects with a combined total grant exceeding £150 million. As a major milestone Prof. Mall has established the "DST-Mahamana Centre of Excellence in Climate Change Research" at BHU under Prime Minister's National Action Plan on Climate Change in 2017. As of now, Prof. Mall has visited more than 25 countries for various international conferences, seminars, training and international collaborations and received several awards and recognitions worldwide. He has conferred several awards such as Senior & Regular Associateship of ICTP-Italy, TWAS-CAS fellow (2006), Visiting Scientist/Professor at ANU-Australia, GMU-USA, Purdue-USA & ICTP-Italy etc. Prof. Mall has published over 100 research papers, 17 books, and various book chapters, and supervised over 8 Ph.
D. students. He has developed robust models based on social, economic, and environmental vulnerability of India and the South Asia region, found to be immensely applicable for regional and sub regional planning (UNDRR, SAARC-Disaster Management Centre, UNDP, World Bank, IMD, CGWB etc.). He also serves as consultant and policy adviser for various State Government, Central Government Departments as well as UN and other international agencies. He has also represented several Government of India delegations in the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) and Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) in Indonesia, Switzerland, Thailand, Japan, and India.