Anil Kumar Gupta (scientist)

Dr. Anil Kumar Gupta (born 1960) is an Indian scientist and researcher. He retired as a professor from the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. From 2010 to 2017, he served as the director of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in Dehradun. His teaching interests include applied micropaleontology, paleoceanography, and marine geosciences.

This article is about the geologist. For the scholar of grassroot innovations, see Anil Kumar Gupta.

Anil Kumar Gupta
Anil Kumar Gupta, retired professor at IIT Kharagpur.
Born	1960 Budaun district, Uttar Pradesh, India
Education	B.Sc, M.Sc
Alma mater	Aligarh Muslim University, Banaras Hindu University
Scientific career
Fields	Geology and Geophysics

Early life and career

Gupta was born in the Budaun district of Uttar Pradesh in 1960. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science with Honours (B.Sc. Hons) from Aligarh Muslim University in 1980 and a Master of Science (M.Sc.) from Banaras Hindu University in 1982.^[1]

Gupta was a professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur from 2003–2025. Before that, he worked as a lecturer (1987–1990), Assistant Professor (1990–1999), and Associate Professor (1999–2003) at the same institution. He also served as the department's head from 2006–2009. From 2010-2017, he served as the Director of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun.

From 1982 to 1987, he was a research fellow at the Banaras Hindu University. In 1990, he visited Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge in the United States for a year for post-doctoral research. Gupta also worked as a senior NRC, USA Research Scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, USA, in 2001.^[1]

Awards

Anil Kumar Gupta receiving TWAS Prize 2010 from The World Academy of Sciences

Gupta has received awards for his work in Geology, including the TWAS Prize from the World Academy of Sciences, Trieste, in 2010. In 2012, he was granted the J.C. Bose National Fellowship by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi, India. In 1990, the Indian Science Congress Association honored him with the Young Scientist Award. In 2001, the National Research Council (NRC) awarded him a Senior Research Fellowship Award to work at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Lab in Boulder, Colorado. In 1999, Gupta received a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship to work at Shimane University, Matsue, Japan.^[2]

His honors and achievements include:

• Elected as a member to the council of The World Academy of Sciences(TWAS) representing Central and South Asia (2023-2026).
• Elected as a member to the council of the Indian National Science Academy (2024-2026).

• Received Prof. S. N. Bhalla Gold Medal, The Paleontological of India 2017.
• Elected as Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) - academy of sciences for the developing world, 2012.
• Elected as Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi (FNA), 2012.
• Awarded TWAS-2010 Prize of The World Academy of Sciences, Trieste, Italy, 2010^[3]
• Elected as Fellow of The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (FASc), India, 2008^[4]
• Elected as Fellow of The National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc), 2006^[1]
• Conferred with Dr. J. Coggin Brown Memorial (Gold) Medal for Geological Sciences by the MGMI for 2005–2006
• Conferred with Prof. T. M. Harris Medal by Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany, 2004.
• Conferred National Mineral Award by the Ministry of Coal and Mines, New Delhi, India, 2000

Research

Gupta on the 22nd annual meeting of The World Academy of Sciences in Trieste, Italy

With a focus on the Indian monsoon, Gupta has contributed to the fields of micropaleontology, paleoclimatology, and paleoceanography, with special reference to the Indian monsoon system. Gupta assisted in the publication of "Inventory of Glacial Lakes of Uttarakhand".^[5] Over 176 of his articles have been published in journals such as Nature, Science, Nature Geoscience, Scientific Reports, Geology, Geophysical Research Letters, and Palaeo3.

Gupta's work focuses on decadal to century and millennial scale changes in the South Asian/Indian monsoon system and their teleconnection with climatic shifts in the North Atlantic based on proxy records from the Arabian Sea, Indian Himalaya, and the Ganges basin. He and his team have gained insights into utilizing microfossil foraminifera from the Arabian Sea to identify short and long term shifts in the South Asian/Indian monsoon during the Quaternary.^[6][7][8] His established critical links Asian/Indian monsoon failures to societal collapses,^[9][10] human migrations, and changes in agricultural practices in South Asia during the Holocene. His recent studies from the Himalayan and Ganga Basin lakes indicate a long arid phase during 4,350-2,900 years BP that led to the displacement of Indus settlements and a major change in agricultural practices, including land use patterns.^[11] Furthermore, his studies foresee more extreme events in the Asian/Indian monsoon behavior in the future as the Earth warms due to both natural forcing and human intervention. These research findings provide means to better perform climate modeling efforts.

In order to understand the history of Indian monsoon variability, as well as oceanic changes in the Indian Ocean, Gupta has studied benthic and planktic foraminifera, as well as their stable isotopes from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) cores.^[1] At time scales ranging from decadal to millennial and orbital, he has contributed to the knowledge of the past behavior of the Indian monsoon system and ocean circulation. His research includes the first description of the Indian Ocean Dipole in a paleo record, and the documentation of Bond cycles^[12] in the paleo record of the Indian monsoon over the Holocene. To understand precipitation variations in the region, Gupta has initiated new research projects on lake deposits and cave carbonates (speleothems) from different parts of the Indian landmass. He has produced the longest speleothem record from India that documents important shifts in the intensity of the Indian monsoon for the first time.^[13] At the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, he has created laboratories that meet international standards with the equipment necessary to do high-resolution paleo-monsoonal research equipped to analyze marine sediments, lake deposits, and cave carbonates. Gupta has also mentored twenty doctoral students.

Books and publications

Gupta has authored multiple peer-reviewed research papers in journals on various subjects covering subjects including nature, science, nature geoscience, nature scientific reports, geology, and geophysical research letters.^[14] He has published a book entitled, "Neogene Deep Water Benthic Foraminifera from the Indian Ocean – A Monograph" on Nova publishers. Some of his notable publications are listed below:

• Anderson, D.M., Overpeck, J.T. and Gupta, A.K., 2002. Increase in the Asian southwest monsoon during the past four centuries. Science, 297(5581), pp. 596–599.^[7]
• Gupta, A.K., Anderson, D.M. and Overpeck, J.T., 2003. Abrupt changes in the Asian southwest monsoon during the Holocene and their links to the North Atlantic Ocean. Nature, 421(6921), pp. 354–357.^[6]
• Gupta, A.K., 2008. Monsoons, Quaternary. In: Vivian Gornitz (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp. 589 – 594.^[15]
• Raj, M.S., De, S., Mohan, K. and Gupta, A.K., 2009. Benthic foraminifera Uvigerina proboscidea as a proxy for winter monsoon (late Pliocene to Recent): DSDP Site 219, northwestern Indian Ocean. In: Geoenvironment, Challenges Ahead, Bhat, G.M., Pandita, S.K., Singh, Y. and Lone, B.A. (Eds), MacMillan, New Delhi, 311–318.^[16]
• Quadir, D.A., Gupta, A.K., Phadtare, N.R., Shrestha, A.B., Chauhan, O.S., Kolli, R.K., Sheikh, M.M., Manzoor, N., Adnan, M., Ashraf, J., Khan, A.M., Chauhan, M.S., Meloth, T., Yadav, R.R., Chakravorty, S., Roy, P.D., and Devkota, L.P., 2009. Instrumental, terrestrial and marine records of the climate of South Asia during the Holocene: Present status, unresolved problems and societal aspects. In: Monsoon Asia: Integrated Regional Studies (MAIRS) SCOPE/START Rapid Assessment, START, A.P. Mitra and C. Sharma (eds.), Chapter 3, p. 54-124.^[17]
• De, S., Sarkar, S. and Gupta, A.K., 2010. Orbital and suborbital variability in the equatorial Indian Ocean as recorded in sediments of the Maldives Ridge (ODP Hole 716A) during the past 444 ka. In: Clift, P.D., Tada, R. and Zheng, H. (Eds.), Monsoon Evolution and Tectonics – Climate Linage in Asia, Geological Society of London, Special Publications, v. 342, 17–27.^[18]
• Singh, V. S., Pandey, D.N., Gupta, A.K. and Ravindranath, N.H., 2010. Climate Change Impacts, Mitigation and Adaptation: Science for Generating Policy Options in Rajasthan, India. RSPCB Occasional Paper No. 2/2010, Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board, Jaipur, India, p. 1-150.
• Dobhal, D.P., Mehta, M., Kesarwani, K. and Gupta, A.K., 2014. Consequence of instability Processes triggered by heavy rainfall in Mandakini Valley, Central Himalaya, India. In: Rawat, U.S. and Semwal, V.P. (Eds.), Uttarakhand Disaster: Contemporary Issues of Climate Change and Development with Holistic Approach. Winsar Publishing Co., Dehradun, pp. 20–34.^[19]
• Bhambri, R., Mehta, M., Dobhal, D.P., and Gupta, A.K., 2015. Glacial Lake Inventory of Uttarakhand. Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, pp. 78.^[20]
• Mehta, M., Dobhal, D.P., Shukla, T. and Gupta, A.K., 2016. Instability Processes triggered by heavy rain in the Garhwal region, Uttarakhand, India. Climate Change, Glacier Response, and Vegetation Dynamics in the Himalaya, Chapter 12, p. 219-234.^[21]
• Jayankondam Perumal, R., Thakur, V.C., Joe Vivek, J., Rao, Priyanka Singh, Gupta, Anil Kumar, 2018. Active Tectonics of Kumaon and Garhwal Himalaya (Springer Natural Hazards). Springer; 1st ed. 2018 edition (April 16, 2018).^[22]
• Mehta, Manish, Bhambri, Rakesh, Perumal, J., Srivastava, Pradeep, and Gupta, Anil K., 2018. Uttarakhand Calamity: A Climate Revelation in the Bhagirathi River Valley Uttarakhand, India, Chapter, 10. In: I. Pal, R. Shaw (eds.), Disaster Risk Governance in India and Cross Cutting Issues, Disaster Risk Reduction.^[23]
• Dong, X., Kathayat, G., Rasmussen, S.O., Svensson, A., Severinghaus, J.P., Li, H., Sinha, A., Xu, Y., Zhang, H., Shi, Z. and Cai, Y., 2022. Coupled atmosphere-ice-ocean dynamics during Heinrich Stadial 2. Nature Communications, 13(1), pp. 1–14.^[24] Gupta, Anil K., 2022. Neogene Deep Water Benthic Foraminifera from the Indian Ocean – A Monograph.^[25]
• Kaushik, A., Gupta, A.K., Clemens, S.C., Kumar, P., Sanyal, P., Gupta, P., Jaiswal, M.K., Maurya, A.S., Sengupta, S., Sharma, R. and Pawar, R., 2023. Paleoclimatic reconstruction of northwest Himalaya since CE 475 using lake sediments from Tadag Taal, Kumaun, India. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 619, p.111544.^[26]
• Podder, R. S., Gupta, A. K., Clemens, S., Sanyal, P., and Panigrahi, M. K., 2024. Changes in the Indian Ocean surface hydrography driven by the seaway closure and monsoonal circulation since the late Oligocene. Global and Planetary Change, 232, 104335.^[27]
• Podder, R.S., Gupta, A.K., Sanyal, P. and Clemens, S., 2023. Changes in surface hydrography of the western equatorial Indian Ocean during the Pleistocene: Implications for East African climate variability. Global and Planetary Change, 231, p.104322.^[28]
• Mohanty, R. N., Clemens, S. C., & Gupta, A. K. (2024). Dynamic shifts in the southern Benguela upwelling system since the latest Miocene. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 637, 118729.^[29]