Prof Sachchida Nand Tripathi, who is a professor of Civil Engineering and a joint faculty in the department of Sustainable Energy Engineering (SEE) at IIT Kanpur, has won the prestigious Infosys Prize 2023 in Engineering and Computer Science, for creating solutions to one of the most pressing problems facing the country today—that of air pollution.
This prize has been awarded in recognition of Prof Tripathi’s establishment of a vast sensor-based air quality network, his mobile laboratory for hyperlocal pollution measurements, his data generation and analysis using AI+ML for efficient air quality management and raising public awareness, and his identification of novel pathways for aerosol growth and formation that offer a mechanistic understanding of winter haze formation.
Prof Tripathi demonstrated that the primary distinction between Delhi and other locations, such as Beijing, is the significantly higher particle growth rate in Delhi, which occurs even at night without photochemistry. This new discovery provides mechanistic understanding of the growth of nanoparticles preceding severe haze pollution in Delhi in winter, which is due to biomass burning emissions.
In India, one of the top concerns is air pollution, to mitigate which, a scientific understanding of the origins, causes, and sources of pollution is necessary. Prof Tripathi has contributed to the deployment of a large-scale sensor-based air quality network and a mobile laboratory for ultra-local pollution measurements. To gather and send data automatically for analysis, he set up a mobile laboratory and a sensor network at 1,400 sites. To satisfy the dual needs of resource conservation and citizen satisfaction, he used greedy and genetic algorithms to identify key areas for sensor installations. Using large-scale data sets, he applied established self-supervised Machine Learning (ML) approaches to create correction factors for both collocated and non-collocated sensors. To fill in the missing values, Graph Neural Networks (GNN) further rectify the field data.
A pilot scale plant built by Prof Tripathi is being used by Indian atomic energy agencies for safety evaluation of their nuclear plants. The plant can also be reconfigured to measure aerosol leakage from chemical industries.
His research on the discoloration of the Taj Mahal resulted in changes in Agra city’s policies.
Prof Tripathi was born in 1971 in Varanasi, the oldest living city in the world. His basic schooling took place in a school where his father was a teacher for the graduate students. He passed both high school and intermediate in first class with distinction in Mathematics and Physics, and received the National Merit scholarship. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology-Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, in 1992.
Talking about his family, he says, “My father was a teacher in a local Post Graduate College, and my mother was a housewife. I have two sisters. My father stays with us and has a profound influence on my life through his continuous discourse on Dharma,” adding, “My wife, who is also an alumnus of BHU, holds an MPhil in Economics from the UK. We have a son who is a medical doctor. I am indebted to my wife who has supported me during the last 25 years in my endeavours.”
He says that his four years spent at BHU were the most memorable of his life. “I was fortunate to have met some wonderful people—classmates and professors—who continue to support and encourage me even today.”
Reflecting upon his childhood, the scientist-professor gets poetic. “As a child, clouds, rains, rivers, trees and mountains always fascinated me. I vividly recall that my mother would always ensure there was enough grain for the sparrows on the terrace. As an adolescent, I wondered about atmospheric fogs that were a recurrent phenomenon in North India, causing loss of visibility, traffic delays and accidents. Atmospheric haze was also getting noticed but with little clue about its genesis. All this mystery prompted me to do MTech in Environmental Engineering, but the turning point came only during my PhD in the UK where I was happily surprised to witness azure sky with hardly any haze or fog. However, I also learnt that London had seen worse air quality in the 1950s which took lives of thousands of its inhabitants, but strict actions improved their air quality. This prompted me to investigate into the genesis of atmospheric haze and find mitigation solution as an Environmental Engineer.”
His inspiration also goes back to India’s ancient heritage. He shares, “While reading our old texts, I came across two interesting verses with a clear message to keep Mother Earth in good health, which is very relevant today.
महतादुलबं स्थाविरंतदासिद येनविष्टताः प्रविवेशितापः || – Rig 10.51.1
तस्योत जयमनस्य उल्बासिद हिरण्ययाः || – Atharva 4.2.8.
Rig Veda and Atharva Veda state the earth is surrounded by a membrane (scientific name = ozone layer). The function of this layer is to provide protection to the earth. Any damage to this layer shall be as harmful as disturbing the membrane protecting the embryo inside the uterus.”
Prof Tripathi is a strong believer in Karma and quotes a shloka from the Gita, which is a great source of inspiration for him.
तस्मादसक्त: सततं कार्यं कर्म समाचर |
असक्तो ह्याचरन्कर्म परमाप्नोति पूरुष: ||19||
Give up attachment, perform actions as a matter of duty because by working without being attached to the fruits, one attains the Supreme (Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 3, Verse 19).
Prof Tripathi won the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize of CSIR in 2014 in the category of Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean, and Planetary Sciences. He also holds the JC Bose Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. At IIT Kanpur, Prof Tripathi holds the Arjun Dev Joneja Chair. In 2018, he was given the UP Ratna Award by the Uttar Pradesh Government, and is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), and National Academy of Sciences of India (NASI). In 2015, he received BHU’s Distinguished Alumnus award. Besides, he was a Senior Fellow at NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre in 2009-10.
All Images Courtesy: Professor Sachchida Nand Tripathi
Apart from this, a pilot scale national facility built by Prof Tripathi is being used by Indian atomic energy agencies for safety evaluation of their nuclear plants. The plant can also be reconfigured to measure aerosol leakage from chemical industries for environmental safety analysis.
Prof Tripathi is also the Coordinator of the National Knowledge Network, formed under the National Clean Air Program and an expert member of Steering Committee and Monitoring Committee, National Clean Air Program. He is also spearheading a new initiative AI for Sustainable Cities Centre of Excellence at IIT Kanpur.
*The writer is a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Mathematics, IIT Kanpur, doing research in the field of Numerical Analysis. He holds a joint MSc-PhD in Mathematics from IIT Kharagpur.
