Ramesh Kannan Kandasami is an Assistant Professor in the Geotechnical Engineering division of the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Madras. His work focuses on fundamental understanding on the mechanics of frictional and transitional geomaterials from particle to continuum level. Prior to joining IITM, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher with the Geotechnical Research Group at the Schofield centre, University of Cambridge (UoC), where he researched on the fundamental understanding on the mechanics of hydraulic fracturing in soft rocks and wellbore strengthening. His research group focusses on the mechanics of gas hydrate sediments, instabilities in fluid-solid (granular materials) interaction, hydraulic fracturing and constitutive behaviour of transitional geo-materials.

Jitendra Sangwai is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Madras. His research interest lies mainly in the field of gas hydrates and their applications for gas storage, transportation, flow assurance, and CO2 sequestration; enhanced oil recovery; rheology of complex fluids; and nanotechnology for oil and gas engineering. He worked with Schlumberger for a brief period before joining IITM, and dealt with flow assurances issues and on several commercial projects. He is a recipient of the Young Faculty Recognition Award (YFRA) for excellence in teaching and research from IIT Madras-2014, six invention awards from Intellectual Ventures and SPE Regional Service Award-2015. He has filed/holds 15 patents in the field of gas hydrate, enhanced oil recovery, and flow assurance.

T Thyagaraj is a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Madras. His research interests include Unsaturated soil behaviour, Ground improvement, Geoenvironmental Engineering, waste materials for pavement and building materials. He has more than 15 years of experience in teaching and research. Before joining IIT Madras, he worked as faculty in NIT Warangal and King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. He is an executive committee member of the Indian Geotechnical society and. also served as an editorial board member in the International Journal of Geotechnical Engineering.

Retnamony G Robinson is a Professor in the Geotechnical Division of the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Madras. His research interest areas are soft clay engineering, expansive soils, physical modeling, and ground improvement. Prior to joining IIT Madras, he was a postdoctoral and research fellow at NUS, Singapore. Dr. Robinson is a recipient of numerous awards. He was awarded “EBM of the year 2017” for his contribution to the Indian Geotechnical Journal. He is an active member in various technical societies such as the Indian Geotechnical Society.