Education

· Ph D (1998) Marine Geology, Mangalore University, India.

· PG Diploma (2004) Industrial water and waste water treatment, Alagappa University, India

· PG Diploma (1993) Remote Sensing applications in Earth Sciences Bharathidasan University, India

· M.Sc (1992) Geology, Karnatak University, India

Positions held

· Young scientist (January 2003 to present) National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India

· Post Doctoral Fellow (February 2001 to June 2002) University of Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France.

· Visiting Scientist (October 2000 to January 2001) Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany.

· Post Doctoral Fellow (September 1998 to August 2000 Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India.

Research Interests

Biogeochemistry of rivers, estuaries and coastal ocean
Trace metal geochemistry of waters
Water quality studies of tropical rivers

My Work at NITK

I do research on various aspects of riverine and estuarine chemistry, to understand the processes (natural and anthropogenic) controlling the chemistry of these environments. Presently, I have continued the trace metal and organic carbon chemistry work on the river Godavari that I did at laboratories in India and Europe. This study is an attempt to understand the nature of geochemical processes that are controlling the concentration of trace metals at Godavari river at Rajahmundry in different periods of an year. This study expects to bring up a baseline data on the water quality of Godavari which is used as a source of drinking water for over half a million population of Rajahmundry town. The first results of this study are being published, in the December 2004 issue of NITK Research Bulletin and under review in a national and international journal. This work is funded under the DST’s young scientist programme, costing Rs11.4 lakhs.

I take a few lectures to the students of MTech on wastewater characteristics and air pollution sampling and analysis and discuss with them the research I do on waters.

I handle instruments like AAS, TOC analyzer, Flame photometer etc available at our department. I interact with scientists, students and industry in designing analytical protocol for their water / effluent samples.

Scientific collaborations have been initiated with the University of Southern Mississippi, USA, University of Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France, and University of Macquarie, Sydney, Australia. Published over 20 research articles in national and international journals, and in conference proceedings. Several popular science articles in Kannada have appeared in the local Kannada daily Udayavani.

Foreign visits, Memberships of societies and Awards

· 2003 – Visited Reno, USA to present an oral paper at the XVI INQUA Congress Awarded full financial support by International Commission on Carbon and International Geological Correlation programme

· 2003 – Visited Heron Island, Australia to present an oral paper at the 5^th international conference on Applied Isotope Geochemistry. Awarded partial financial supports by Department of Science and Technology (DST), India, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India, and International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry.

· 1999 – Visited Honolulu, USA to present an oral paper in the international conference on Coastal Environmental Change. Awarded partial financial supports by the COSTED (Indian National Science Academy) and the organising committee of the conference.

· 2004 – Member of the Indian Geotechnical Society

· 2002 – Awarded DST young scientist research grants of Rupees 11.4 lakhs for pursuing research at NITK, Surathkal

· 2001– Awarded French Government Post-Doctoral Fellowship to pursue research at the University of Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France

· 2001 – Awarded DST young scientist research grants of about Rupees 9.2 lakhs for pursuing research (not taken up as I was a post doctoral fellow at the University of Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France)

· 2000 – Awarded Max Planck Institute fellowship for visiting and executing a research project at Max Planck Institute for Chemistry at Mainz, Germany

· 2000 – Awarded CSIR Research Associateship (not taken up as I was a visiting scientist at Max Planck Institute, Germany)

· 1998 – Awarded Institute Post-Doctoral Fellowship of Physical Research Laboratory (constituent lab of ISRO), Ahmedabad

· 1997 – Fellowship of the Geological Society of India

· 1994 – Lectureship eligibility test qualified

· 1993 – Awarded Junior Research Fellowship from the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India for pursuing Ph D at Mangalore University

· 1992 – Awarded M S Sadasivaiah Gold Medal by Karnatak University for topping M. Sc. Geology course

· 1988 – Awarded ‘C’ Certificate by National Cadet Corps (student wing of Indian Army)

· Excelled in college level debating, quiz, essay writing competitions and won prizes; participated in group discussions, quiz programmes hosted in radio and television.

List of Publications

A. Refereed Journals

i) Balakrishna, K. and Probst, J.L. (2004). Organic carbon transport and C/N ratio variations in a large tropical river: Godavari as a case study, India. Biogeochemistry (in press).

ii) Deepa, V.J., Balakrishna, K., Gopal Mugeraya, Srinikethan, G. and Krishnakumar, P.K. (2004) Preliminary findings of the water quality and trace metal variations in the river Godavari at Rajahmundry. NITK Research Bulletin (in press)

iii) Sarin, M M., Sudheer, A.K and Balakrishna, K. (2002). Significance of riverine carbon transport: A case study of a large tropical river, Godavari (India). Science in China, Series C, v.45, pp.97-108.

iv) Balakrishna, K., Shankar, R., Sarin, M.M. and Manjunatha, B.R. (2001). Distribution of U-Th nuclides in soils and riverine and coastal environments of the tropical southwest coast of India. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, v. 57, pp. 21-33.

v) Manjunatha, B R., Balakrishna, K., Shankar, R. and Mahalingam, T.R. (2001). Geochemistry and assessment of metal pollution in soils and river components of a monsoon-dominated environment near Karwar, south west coast of India. Environmental Geology, v. 40, pp. 1462-1470.

vi) Manjunatha, B.R. and Balakrishna, K. (1999). The depositional history of late Quaternary sediments around Mangalore, west coast of India. Indian Journal of Marine Sciences, v. 28, pp. 449-454.

vii) Balakrishna, K., Manjunatha, B.R. and Shankar, R (1997). A laboratory study of the flocculation of dissolved heavy metals in Kali river during estuarine mixing, West coast of India. Journal of the Geological Society of India, v. 50, pp. 753-758.

viii) Manjunatha, B.R., Balakrishna, K., Shankar, R., Thiruvengadasami, A., Krishna Prabhu, R., Mahalingam, T.R. and Iyengar, M.A.R. (1996). The transport of elements from soils around Kaiga to Kali river, South west coast of India. The Science of the Total Environment, v. 191, pp. 109-118.

B. Papers submitted to refereed journals and papers under preparation

i) Lambs, L., Balakrishna, K., Brunet, F. and Probst, J.L (2004) Oxygen and hydrogen isotopic composition of major Indian rivers: assessments of water supply origin and evaporate processes. Hydrological Processes (revised version submitted)

ii) Balakrishna, K., Deepa, V.J., Gopal Mugeraya, Srinikethan, G. and Krishnakumar, P.K. (2004). Discharge controlled variations of dissolved trace metals in a large tropical river: A case study from Godavari river at Rajahmundry. Water Research (submitted)

iii) Deepa, V.J., Balakrishna, K., Gopal Mugeraya, Srinikethan, G. and Krishnakumar, P.K. (2004). Spatial and Temporal variations of water quality, major ion and trace metal variations in river Godavari at Rajahmundry. Journal of Environmental Science & Engineering (submitted)

iv) Sharma, M., Balakrishna, K., Hofmann, A.W. and Shankar, R. (2004). Contrasting behaviour of osmium in the Godavari river estuary, India. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta (in prep.)

C. Papers in Proceedings of Seminar / Conferences

i) Deepa, V.J., Balakrishna, K., Gopal Mugeraya and Srinikethan, G. (2004) Variations in water quality in the river Godavari at Rajahmundry. Abstract volume of the National Seminar on Coastal Environments and Management, April 24-25, 2004, Annamalai University, Chidambaram, p.59.

ii) Balakrishna, K. and Probst, J.L. (2003) Organic carbon transport in a large tropical river, the Godavari (India): Labile versus refractory fractions and implication of carbon inputs to the Bay of Bengal. Abstract volume of XVI INQUA Congress, Reno, Nevada, USA, July 23-30, 2003, p.131.

iii) Balakrishna, K., Brunet, F., Probst, J.L. and Gauthier-Lafaye, F. (2003) Tracing the sources of dissolved inorganic carbon in rivers using carbon isotopes: A preliminary study from Indian rivers. Abstract volume of the International conference on 5^th Applied isotope geochemistry, Heron Island, Queensland, Australia, May 26-31, 2003, p.125.

iv) Lambs, L., Balakrishna, K., Brunet, F. and Probst, J.L (2003) Oxygen and hydrogen isotopic composition of major Indian rivers: assessments of water supply origin and evaporate processes. Presented at the International Symposium on isotope hydrology and integrated water resources management, Vienna, Austria, May 19-23, 2003.

v) Brunet, F., Balakrishna K. and Probst J.L (2002) Dissolved inorganic carbon isotopic signatures in global rivers and its implications on the global carbon cycle. Poster presented in the Second French Meeting on Stable isotopes, Societe Francaise des isotopes stables Univ. de Nantes, Nantes, France, July 7-9, 2002.

vi) Sharma, M., Balakrishna, K., Hofmann, A.W. and Shankar, R. (2001). Contrasting behaviour of osmium in the Godavari river estuary, India. Eos. Trans. AGU, 82 (20), Spring Meeting, Boston, USA, S428.

vii) Balakrishna, K., Manjunatha, B.R., Shankar, R. and Mahalingam, T. R.(1999) Heavy metal enrichments in an 'endangered' coast, south west coast of India: A baseline study. Proc. of conference on "Coastal Environmental Change during Sea Level Highstands" (Eds. Fletcher, C. H. and Mathews, J.V), Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA, Nov. 9-12, 1999, p.47.

viii) Sarin, M.M. and Balakrishna K. (1999) Particulate and dissolved carbon transport to the coastal zone: A case study of Godavari River (India). (Regional workshop on estuarine modelling and coastal zone management, START/LOICZ/IGBP-SL Workshop, Colombo (1999).

ix) Balakrishna, K., Manjunatha, B.R. and Shankar, R. (1994). Heavy metals and U-Th nuclides around Kaiga, in Kali river and the adjacent segment of the Arabian Sea. Proc. of 3rd National Symp. on Environment, Trivandrum, BRNS-DAE, pp. 82.