Chander Kumar Singh is a researcher and educator at TERI School of Advanced Studies. From a geochemistry background his interests have turned to interactions between environment and public health. In his research, he addresses critical issues and concerns of qualitative and quantitative assessment of groundwater in India. The ongoing theme of his work relates to spatial patterns of geogenic contaminants in India and South and Southeast Asia at large. He believes in widespread deployment of field kits to ascertain the quality of water and to understand the mechanisms that drive the complex distribution of geogenic contaminants in groundwater. He focuses on vulnerability of aquifers using deep drilling, carbon dating and more sophisticated techniques in Indus and Gangetic plains of India. Dr. Singh’s doctoral scholars work on a wide range of topics from Arsenic, fluoride and uranium contamination as well as to identify morphotectonic changes using hyperspectral imaging techniques.
Dr. Singh has received various international and national grants. He was awarded a very prestigious grant by National Science Foundation, USA and USAID. He works with a large pool of earth, public health and social scientists across the world on the issues of groundwater contamination. He collaborates with various institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University of New York, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, University of Milan, King Khalid University, IIT Kharagpur, Mahavir Cancer Institute etc around the world
Dr. Singh has more than 85 international research papers along with many book chapters to his credit. He has also edited a few books published by international publishing houses. He has established an Analytical and Geochemistry Laboratory at TERISAS.
He has been awarded as Young Scientist Award by International Union of Geological Sciences in Euro Conference 2009, Switzerland for his work on groundwater in Aravalli Quartzites. He is a member of the expert for Arsenic Task Force, Punjab. His recent findings on Arsenic contamination in Indus Basin has attracted national and international attention and has been rated as one of the 15 most popular achievements of Indian Scientists in 2018. He has been interviewed by various news channels and print media nationally and internationally. His interviews have appeared on several magazines such as Scientific American and Caravan.
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Publications:
- Khattak JA, Farooqi A, Hussain I, Kumar A, Singh CK, Mailloux BJ, Bostick B, Ellis T, van Geen A. 2022. Groundwater fluoride across the Punjab plains of Pakistan and India: Distribution and underlying mechanisms. Science of The Total Environment, 806, p.151353.
- Balha A, Vishwakarma BD, Pandey S, Singh CK. 2020. Predicting impact of urbanization on water resources in megacity Delhi. Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, 20, 100361.
- Kumar A, Singh CK, Bostick B, Nghiem A, Mailloux B, van Geen A. 2020. Regulation of groundwater arsenic concentrations in the Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej floodplains of Punjab, India. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, 276, 384-403.
- Kumar A, Singh CK. 2019. Arsenic enrichment in groundwater and associated health risk in Bari doab region of Indus basin, Punjab, India. 256, 113324. Environmental Pollution
- Bindal S, Singh CK. 2019. Predicting groundwater arsenic contamination: Regions at risk in highest populated state of India. Water Research, 159, 65-76
- van Geen A, Farooqi A, Kumar A, Khattak JA, Mushtaq N, Hussain I, Ellis T, Singh CK. 2018. Field testing of over 30,000 wells for arsenic across 400 villages of the Punjab plains of Pakistan and India: Implications for prioritizing mitigation. Science of The Total Environment, 654, 1358-1363
- Singh CK, Kumar A, Bindal S. 2018. Arsenic contamination in Rapti River Basin, Terai region of India. Journal of Geochemical Exploration, 192, 120-131.
- Barnwal P, van Geen A, von der Goltz J, Singh CK. 2017. Demand for environmental quality information and household response: Evidence from well-water arsenic testing. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 86, 160-192.
- Singh CK, Kumar A, Shashtri S, Kumar A, Kumar P, Mallick J. 2017. Multivariate statistical analysis and geochemical modeling for geochemical assessment of groundwater of Delhi, India. Journal of Geochemical Exploration 175, 59-71
- Kumari M, Singh CK, Basistha A, Dorjie S, Tamange TB. 2017. Non-stationary modelling framework for rainfall interpolation in complex terrain. International Journal of Climatology, 37 (11), 4171-4185
- Young Scientist Award by International Union of Geological Sciences
- PEER Science Award by National Science Foundation, USA
- Member, Arsenic Task Force, Punjab