Meet The Team | Our Patron: Prof. Rajkumar S. Pant

We would like to introduce the organizing team of DELTAs-2022 via a series of posts, we are calling 'MEET THE TEAM'. Let us begin by introducing our patron, guide and support, Prof. Rajkumar S. Pant.

Prof. Rajkumar S. Pant has Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering. His areas of specialization include Aircraft Conceptual Design, Air Transportation, and Optimization. He has been a member of faculty of Aerospace Engineering Department at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay since December 1989.

Prof. Pant is an alumnus of College of Aeronautics, Cranfield University, UK, where he earned his Ph.D. under Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme, and IIT Madras, where he did his Masters in Aeronautical Engineering. He has also worked for five years in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in the Design & Engineering Department at Kanpur (3.5 years) and Nasik (1.5 years) Divisions.

In 2002, he set up a Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) systems laboratory at IIT Bombay, which has undertaken several R&D and Consultancy projects related to design, development and demonstration of LTA systems. Since 2007, he has been an international member of AIAA’s Lighter-Than-Air Technical Committee, and was the Chairperson for 2014-16. He has published and presented > 265 scientific papers, of which > 190 are in international journals and conferences. He has also visited several top-ranking institutes and universities all over the world.

Prof. Pant was a visiting faculty at Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Nanyang Technological University in 2016, and Department of Aerospace & Ocean Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2010-11. He was a visiting researcher at Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, Brazil in 2012, Texas A&M University in 2011, Cambridge University in 2008, and Imperial College London in 2006. In 2102, he was appointed as a Special Visiting Researcher under the Science Without Borders program of the Brazilian Government for a three-year project related to design and development of Hybrid Lighter-Than-Air systems.

Prof. Pant was honored with the D P Joshi Excellent Teacher Award in 2014, in recognition of his merit, achievements and enthusiasm for teaching and making a lasting impression on students. In 2019, he was felicitated by Institution of Engineers (India) as an Eminent Engineering personality in Aerospace Engineering. Recently, he received Special Recognition in Academic Excellence (Faculty-National category) award by Institution of Engineers (India), as part of 4th Biennial International Conference on Nascent Technologies in Engineering held in January 2021. He is a life-member and Fellow of the Aeronautical Society of India.