Dr Chirag Dhara is a quantum physicist turned climate scientist holding two doctorates: one in Earth System Science (2017) from the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry and University of Hamburg, Germany and the other in Photonics (2013) from the Institute of Photonic Sciences and Universitat Polytecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.

Prior to joining Krea University, he spent two years as a Research Associate at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM). He co-authored India’s first comprehensive climate change assessment report released by IITM in June, 2020 (as an official report of the Ministry of Earth Science, India). He is also a contributing author to the IPCC AR6 report (2021).

Chirag regularly contributes analytical pieces in the national and international media on science and policy.

Research

The escalating climate and ecological crises are increasingly posing an existential threat to life on Earth. The roots of these problems are profligate resource exploitation and pollution that are inherent to the prevailing economic system that prioritises growth at all costs.

Chirag’s work spans sustainability science and policy. Topics of ongoing work include near-term regional and global monsoon projections, regional climate change, climate performance assessments, climate responsibility and finance, human development and inequality, physical limits to growth, and sustainable transitions.

Publications

Please refer Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=6qx4rgEAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate

Teaching Modules

Chirag teaches the following courses:

Climate change: Science, economics, and policy

Design Thinking (focus on social-ecological systems)

Alternative energy on a finite planet

Advanced topics in sustainability: planetary and societal boundaries

Sustainability transitions: context and scalability

Environmental consequences of war

Theatre of the climate: performing a just future (interdisciplinary science-arts collaboration)