Dr. Sushmitha Baskar is presently working in the Discipline of Environmental Studies, School of Interdisciplinary and Trans-disciplinary Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi. She earned her M.Sc. (1995) (Gold medalist) and M.Phil. in Environmental Science (1997) from the Department of Environmental Sciences, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. She obtained her Ph.D. in Environmental Science (2002) from the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar, Haryana. She is awarded with various national fellowships: CSIR (SRF), CSIR (RA), CSIR- Pool Scientist (SRA), UGC Dr. DS Kothari post-doctoral fellowship. She is awarded with international fellowships: Swiss Fellowship (2002-04) to work at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland, Indo-Norwegian Grant (2008-09) to work at the Centre for Geobiology, University of Bergen, Norway, and Swedish Grant (2009) to work at Department of Earth Science, at Stockholm University, Sweden where she carried out research in the field of Cave geomicrobiology. She has also visited Technical University, Munich, Germany, Czech Republic, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia for part of her research training and as an invited speaker in trainings and conferences. She was awarded the university Silver medal for “Best researcher 2019 IGNOU” by the Vice President of India, Sh. Venkaiah Naidu. Her interests include Environmental Science, Environmental Microbiology and Geomicrobiology.
She has been an invited speaker at Mahidol University, Thailand (2015) and the Summer school on Speleology, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2018). She has made significant contributions in peer reviewed international journals with over 50 research publications and 3 books. She is a reviewer in International and National peer reviewed journals ‘Geochemistry’, ‘Scientific Reports nature’, ‘Astrobiology’ and ‘Current Science’. She was an invited Speaker at Indian Science Congress 2014, 2016, 2019. She has written more than 35 chapters (self-learning material) for various courses at IGNOU, several chapters for E-PG pathshala and contributed for courses and refresher courses (ARPIT) offered through SWAYAM, MOOC (IGNOU), MOOC (AMU, Aligarh), MOOC (GJUST, Hisar), MOOC (MLSU, Udaipur). She coordinated IESO International Earth Science Olympaid in Delhi-NCR region from 2012 – 2019. She regularly gives lectures on Gyanvani (FM105.6) and Gyandarshan Channel. She is also a science journalist for Current Science, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore. She is a life member of the Indian Science Congress Association, Kolkata, Save the Environment, Kolkata and Member, Geological Society of India – Regional Centre, Delhi.
At IGNOU she is the Programme Coordinator for Ph.D. Environmental Science, PG Diploma in Environmental and Occupational Health (ODL and Online programmes), M.A. in Environmental and Occupational Health, and the Course Coordinator for M.Sc. Environmental Science papers in Earth processes, Disaster management and Environment and Society. She is also the Programme Coordinator for two MOOC courses at IGNOU - Environmental and Occupational Hazards and Environmental Impact Assessment for Environmental Health.
