Prof. Balaji Ramakrishnan has assumed the role of Director of NIOT, with effect from September 6, 2024.  

Dr. Balaji is Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay, since 2011, was working as Senior Coastal/Port Engineer at Sogreah Consultants, in Dubai, UAE. Apart from teaching and research, he has been involving in several major waterfront development projects in the middle-east countries, India and other Asian countries. His primary area of expertise include port, harbor, marina, coastal infrastructural design and developments, in general.

He has obtained his Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering from Madurai Kamarajar University, obtained his Masters and Ph.D degrees in Ocean Engineering field of research from IIT Madras. Dr.Balaji has published his research works through 3 monographs, 75 Peer-Reviewed Journals, 82 Conference papers.

Dr.Balaji has earned many honours, to mention a few; “Professor S.P. Sukhatme Excellence in Teaching Award” in 2024; “Distinguished Alumni Award” under Academic and Research category in 2022; Institution of Engineers India (IEI) awarded him “Marine Engineering Prize” in 2018 & 2022 and “Institution Prize” in 2015. Indian Society for Hydraulics honored him with “R J Garde Research Award”, in the year 2012, under the category of young scientist for outstanding contribution in the field of hydraulics and coastal engineering. He had received “Maritime award”, in the year 2006, from Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, for part of his Ph.D thesis research work. He won the “Best Graduate Student Paper award”, in the year 2002, from American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering Division, for part of his Master’s thesis research work.

Some of the other research recognitions for the team members, include; fellowships from UNESCO-IHE; POGO-SCOR; DST; CSIR; UKIERI; IGARSS; DAAD; AGU; PIANC-COPEDEC; OMAE-ASME and COPRI-ASCE.   

Dr. Balaji has presented several invited talks and research topics in many national and international forums. He has been supervising number of Masters and PhD thesis research works in the field of Ocean Engineering. 

Dr. Balaji has been actively involved in several Government/Ministry sponsored research projects, from Ministry of Shipping, Ministry of Earth Sciences and DST. He has also been an active consultant for major ports, Maritime Boards, State Govt. agencies and private companies. He had successfully completed several consulting projects pertaining to coastal & marine infrastructures, in India, Asia and middle-eastern countries.  

Project Management:  Worked at various capacities; part of a team, team lead and project lead in variety of R&D and industry projects, in India and Overseas; overall outlay exceeding 23crores and multi-billion USD, respectively.  

Development: Research facilities, technology demonstration, development efforts, Patents; methods, models and tools; sustained efforts towards better understanding of complex ocean dynamics, in long-term.

Collaborations & Networking: Spearheaded a unique, one-of-its kind, 5-institutes (IITB, NIOT, NCCR, NIO and NCU) joint field measurement campaign to demonstrate the collaborative capability. Headed & facilitated several students/scientists/faculty exchange visits from India to overseas universities/institutions and vice-versa, for training purposes.

Outreach: Created opportunities for scholarships through R&D projects for several PhD and Masters students. Several National level technical workshops, seminars, hands-on training. Offered full-financial support to bring young research scholars/scientists/faculty from all 9 maritime states across India to attend National Workshops (in 2019 & 2022), speaking of his strong commitment towards knowledge dissemination.