Stevens Professor Dibyendu "Dibs" Sarkar Receives Fulbright Specialist Award for Environmental Remediation Project in India
Dr. Sarkar will work with faculty and students at the Birla Institute of Technology to help address soil and water degradation in Jharkhand
Dibyendu “Dibs” Sarkar, professor of environmental engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, has been selected as a Fulbright Specialist, one of the U.S. Department of State’s most prestigious recognitions for academic leadership and international exchange.
This fall, Dr. Sarkar will travel to the Birla Institute of Technology (BIT) in Ranchi, India, where he will spend a month working with faculty and students in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering on a project titled “Sustainable Environmental Remediation and Technology.”
The project focuses on the severe degradation of soil and water resources in Jharkhand, a mineral-rich state in eastern India. According to the project proposal, nearly 70 percent of the state’s land is degraded, and groundwater in multiple districts is contaminated with arsenic, fluoride and other pollutants. Many of these environmental challenges are linked to decades of mining and industrial activity.
The assignment also brings Dr. Sarkar back to a region he knows well. He conducted his senior-year geologic fieldwork and master’s thesis research in the Singhbhum belt — the Precambrian rock formation that underlies much of Jharkhand — as a student at the University of Calcutta in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
“It feels more like a homecoming to me,” said Dr. Sarkar. “I am familiar with the geology and the environment of the region, and I agreed enthusiastically when BIT faculty reached out a couple of years ago asking for help. We hope to get the foundational work started on a sustainable environmental management plan, and I’m hopeful the visit will also catalyze a longer-term collaborative relationship between Stevens and BIT, with a focus on student-centered programming.”
Project activities will include field assessments of contaminated river stretches and groundwater sites, laboratory analysis of soil and water samples, and a stakeholder workshop bringing together students, faculty, NGOs and government officials to develop a sustainable remediation plan for the region. Dr. Sarkar will also lead a faculty session on curriculum development in sustainability and environmental governance.
“Dr. Sarkar’s Fulbright Specialist award is a testament to the depth of his expertise and to Stevens’ commitment to engineering in service of humanity,” said Jean Zu, Dean of the Charles V. Schaefer School of Engineering and Science. “The challenges facing Jharkhand are the kind of problems Stevens researchers are equipped to help solve. We’re proud that Dibs is bringing that expertise to bear while also creating new opportunities for collaboration between Stevens and BIT.”
Recipients of the Fulbright Specialist Program are selected based on professional achievement, demonstrated leadership and their potential to foster long-term cooperation between U.S. and international institutions. Through the program, U.S. experts complete short-term, project-based assignments that help build institutional partnerships and address shared global challenges.
Dr. Sarkar is among more than 400 U.S. citizens selected for the Fulbright Specialist Program each year.
Established in 1946, the Fulbright Program operates in more than 160 countries and has supported more than 400,000 students, scholars, artists and scientists worldwide. Its alumni include Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize recipients, heads of state, university presidents and other leaders across the public and private sectors.
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