Dr. Sushmitha Baskar is an Associate Professor 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, 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, Haryana. She is awarded various national fellowships: CSIR (SRF), CSIR (RA), CSIR- Pool Scientist (SRA), UGC Dr. DS Kothari post-doctoral fellowship. She is awarded international fellowships: Swiss Fellowship (2002-04) to work at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland, Indo-Norwegian Grant (2008-09) to work at University of Bergen, Norway, and Swedish Government Grant (2009) to work at Stockholm University, Sweden where she carried out research in the field of Cave geomicrobiology. She has visited Technical University, Munich, Germany, Czech Republic, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia for her research and as an invited speaker in conferences. She was awarded university Silver medal for “Best research Paper 2019 IGNOU” by the Vice President of India, Sh. Venkaiah Naidu. She was felicitated and featured in the top alumni of Swiss Embassy, New Delhi 2021. She is also featured in the book ‘Leading Ladies in Earth Sciences in India’, 2023 for her achievements in geomicrobiology. Her interests include Environmental Microbiology and Geomicrobiology. She has over 130 publications to her credit.

 

At IGNOU she is the Programme Coordinator for PG Diploma in Environmental & Occupational Health; PG Diploma in Environmental Management & Law; M.A. Environmental & Occupational Health, MOOC courses: Environmental & Occupational Hazards & Environmental Impact Assessment for Environmental Health.