Madan Kumar Jha, Professor

About

Professor Madan Kumar Jha obtained his B.Tech. (Agricultural Engineering) degree from Rajendra Agricultural University, Bihar, India in 1990 and is the recipient of 'University Gold Medal’ for outstanding academic performance. He obtained his M.Eng. from Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok, Thailand in 1992 availing full postgraduate scholarship. He worked as a Research Associate at AIT, Bangkok from September 1992 to August 1993. Subsequently, he obtained his Ph.D. in 1996 availing Monbusho Scholarship from United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Ehime University, Japan. He worked as 'Water Resources Engineer' at Panya Consultants Co. Ltd., Bangkok during December 1996-November 1997. He resigned this job when he was awarded prestigious ‘JSPS Research Fellowship’ for postdoctoral research from December 1997 to November 1999 at Kochi University, Japan. He was keen to return to India and start his professional career after about 10 years stay abroad. He was selected in absentia for the post of Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur in May 1999. After completing his postdoctoral research in Japan, he joined Agricultural & Food Engineering Department of IIT Kharagpur in December 1999. He was promoted to the position of Associate Professor in August 2004 and Professor in June 2010. He is acitvely involved in teaching and research, together with sponsored and conultancy projects. 

Prof. Jha has authored/co-authored 5 books (one textbook and four reference books) and has contributed 15 book chapters. To date, he has to his credit 79 publications in peer-reviewed international journals and 10 publications in peer-reviewed national journals, 9 technical reports/bulletins and more than 90 publications in international and national conference proceedings. In addition, he has filed one patent and developed eight indigenous, cost-effective and user-friendly professional software, namely ‘DSS-IWRM’, ‘GWARA’, ‘AquiferManager’, ‘GA-AquiAnalyzer’, ‘RainHarvester’, ‘DrainSolver’, ‘IrriScheduler’, and ‘SISCASDE’ which are copyrighted. He has served as Associate Editor and Assistant Managing Editor of some reputed international journals and is currently serving as Executive Editor-in-Chief of “International Agricultural Engineering Journal” since March 2012, Section Editorof “Journal of Groundwater Research” since May 2013, Associate Editor of “ Groundwater Resources and Management" (specialty section of "Frontiers in Environmental Science")  since September 2016, and Editorof “Journal of Water Resource and Protection” since September 2010. Professor Jha has been awarded several scholastic awards and prestigious international fellowships, which among others include international ‘AMA-Shin-Norinsha-AAAE Young Researcher Award’ in 2005, 'Distinguished Services Award' in 2000 , 'Shankar Memorial Award' in 2008, 'Commendation Medal' in 2013, ' Outstanding Book Awards' , 'Best Paper Awards' , ‘Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship’ during 2004-2005, ‘JSPS Research Fellowship’ during 1997-1999, and ‘JSPS Invitation Fellowship’ in 2009.

 

Prof. Jha is also a life member or regular member of several national and international professional bodies. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers India (IEI), Fellow of the Indian Association of Hydrologists (IAH), Fellow of the Indian Water Resources Society (IWRS), and Fellow of the Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers (ISAE) as well as a regular member of salient international associations, viz. IAH (U.K.), AGU (USA), EWRA (Greece) and IAHS (U.K.). Prof. Jha’s research interests include basin-wide simulation-optimization modeling and field investigation of groundwater systems; artificial recharge; rainwater harvesting; river-aquifer and tide-aquifer interactions; inverse modeling for determining hydraulic parameters of aquifer and well systems using conventional and non-conventional optimization techniques; flow and solute transport in the vadose zone; and application of RS, GIS and MCDA techniques in groundwater development and management.

Information

Industry experience

Education: PhD

Seniority: Manager, Director, Professor

Years of experience: 20 years or above

Taxonomy