Vikram Vishal, assistant
professor in the department of Earth Sciences at the Indian Institute of
Technology Bombay won the prestigious Indian National Science Academy (INSA)
medal for Young Scientist (2017). The award is considered to be the highest
recognition of promise, creativity and excellence in young scientists, and
awarded annually by INSA for research conducted by scientists in India. Till
2015, 737 young scientists have been recognisedby INSA. Excerpts from
theinterview: Tell us about your research.
I work on something
called as Geologic Carbon sequestration. This is related to increase of
anthropogenic CO2 composition in the atmosphere primarily due to industrial
release. Instead of allowing the CO2 to be released in the atmosphere, we
capture the carbon dioxide by injecting it deep underground to what we call
reservoirs. This lets the CO2 be stored underground rather than releasing it in
the atmosphere since that leads to global warming. This is one of the methods
to prevent climate change.
How did INSA happen? Is it a self-application process, or do they pick
directly? It is a combination by fellows of the academy. It is a very
prestigious academy so they do not allow self-application and it's done by
nomination. I was nominated by the then Dean. They cannot enroll more than 30
applicants. In context to Mumbai and Maharashtra, is there any input you have
given to any organisation or the government? This technology can be implemented
because wherever we have coal fields in the North-East of the Maharashtra, in
the southern part of the Maharashtra, and part of Chattisgarh, MP, Jharkhand,
West Bengal. You can inject that CO2 for methane recovery, in Chattisgarh
fields, West Bengal fields or somewhere just for storage purpose.
What would you suggest forstudents who are looking
forinnovation? We need to identify area of big challenges in the present
century in context to the country, and the impact of those problems in the next
20-50 years.We need to work on making changes with our knowledge of Science,
and ways to innovate. We are facing new challenges in terms of clean water,
heating pact, weather patterns and many more where we can use upcoming
technologies. We can make it more inter-disciplinary. I interact with
chemistry, physics, mechanical, civil and earth sciences.
Source: DNA- 9th May,2017
