Sivasankaran Bijoy Nandan

Sivasankaran Bijoy Nandan is a professor at the Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology & Biochemistry, School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science & Technology (CUSAT). He currently appointed as Vice Chacellor of Kannur University and holds the office of the Dean, Faculty of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology. He is also syndicate and senate member of CUSAT. He was served as Head of the department, Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology and Biochemistry, CUSAT during 2019 - 2021 period. He has expertise in teaching, research, and development activities in the broad area of Aquatic Ecosystem Characterisation, Conservation, Restoration and Management, Carbon Dynamics & Community Ecology, Communities Ecology & Biology, Eco-toxicology and Biology of Polar Communities. Recently a new species of deep sea wood boring mollusc collected from eastern Arabian Sea named after Prof. Bijoy Nandan as Xylophaga nandani by team of Researchers from Brazil and India namely, Marcel Velásquez, P.R. Jayachandran & M. Jima. Recently, a crab species discovered along the Kerala coast was named Aniptumnus bijoyi in honor of Bijoy, as recognized by Hari, Hershey, and Mendoza in 2022.

The R&D achievements emanated through the financial support garnered from various research and consultancy based projects funded by the national and international agencies. He has been liaising several international collaborations and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with reputed national and international institutions for academic advancement in ocean science. In this context, he was also instrumental in organising the Erudite – Scholar in Residence program, Chancellor chair and Fulbright visiting scientist programs.

He authored or co-authored more than 220 journal articles, books, and proceedings and has edited ten books in special volumes. He received Jawaharlal Nehru Award in 1993, instituted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the UNESCO Fellowship, 2008. He is also a U.S. Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Technical Member, Kerala State Pollution Control Board, Fellow of National Institute of Ecology, India and Coordinator of the UGC-SAP programme of the Dept. of Marine Biology. He supervised several students for Doctoral program in CUSAT, Mahatma Gandhi University and MS University. Several new species of marine organisms were described by his team (Leptestheria dumonti, Eulimnadia azisi, Pseudosesarma glabrum, Victoriopisa cusatensis, Horaglanis krishnai,Tortanus minicoyensis, Indosphenia kayalum.