019, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Professor Yadvendradev Jhala is the Dean of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), an Autonomous Institute of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India. He obtained his PhD in Wildlife Science from Virginia Tech, USA, in 1991 and Post Doctorate from the Smithsonian Institution in 1992. He is a member of the IUCN Specialist groups for canids, cats, bustards, and hyenas and is a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy. Professor Jhala is a pioneer in quantitative, technology-based research on tigers, Asiatic lions, wolves, striped hyenas, snow leopards, dhole, and other wildlife with significant initiatives such as the Species Recovery Program for the Great Indian Bustard and their conservation breeding program. In 2018, he was awarded the Guinness World Record for the most prominent wildlife survey in close collaboration with the National Tiger Conservation Authority; MoEFCC designed and implemented the estimation of tigers, co-predators, prey, and their habitat in India.
Professor Neel Kamal Chapagain obtained his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (USA). He also has a Doctorate in Architecture and a Graduate Certificate in Historic Preservation from the University of Hawaii at Manoa (USA). He has also completed a professional conservation course at ICCROM in Italy and a Bachelor of Architecture from the Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal.
