Dr. Chingka Kalai
Room No.145, NAC2 block (1st Floor), HWRE, Building
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Chennai 600036. Tamil Nadu, INDIA
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Chennai 600036. Tamil Nadu, INDIA
Email ID :ckalai@iitm.ac.in
044 - 2257 4262
Dr. Chingka Kalai is a faculty member in the Hydraulics and Water Resources Engineering division within the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras. He has expertise in Water Resources Engineering. His research mostly deals with stochastic hydrology and the application of machine learning in Water Resources Engineering. A majority of his work is inclined towards estimation, prediction, and attribution of extreme hydroclimatological events that would help in prevention and protection against the disasters caused by such events. Additionally, his research work is also directed towards providing probabilistic estimation of extreme events at ungauged locations. During his time as a Ph.D. student, he has worked with scientists from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology with the goal of estimating the floods at ungauged locations. Before joining IIT Madras (after his Ph.D.), he had also worked as a postdoctoral scholar at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA and the International Centre of Excellence for Dams, IIT Roorkee, India, on several aspects related to the behaviour of extreme hydroclimatological variables in the light of climate change.
Earned Degrees
Ph.D.,
IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai,
Awards and Honours
Research Areas
| Estimation, prediction, and attribution of extreme hydroclimatological events |
| Regional Frequency Analysis and Prediction in ungauged basins |
| Application of statistical and machine learning approaches in hydrology and water resources engineering. |
| Downscaling of variables from Global Climate Models (GCMs). |
| Analysis of climatology, hydrology, and hydraulics in the presence of climate change |
| Economic evaluation of the water resources. |
| Study the effect of teleconnection on several environmental, hydrological, and meteorological variables. |
Professional Experiences
| August 2025 – Present | : | Assistant Professor, IIT Madras, |
| November 2024 – August 2025 | : | Postdoctoral Fellow, International Centre of Excellence for Dams, IIT Roorkee., |
| August 2024 – November 2024 | : | Project Fellow, International Centre of Excellence for Dams, IIT Roorkee., |
| September 2022 – September 2023 | : | Postdoctoral Researcher, North Carolina State University, Raleigh USA., |
| August 2015 – December 2015 | : | Assistant Professor (Adhoc):, National Institute of Technology, Warangal, |