Priyadarshini Karve

Priyadarshini Karve (born 1971) is an Indian physicist and inventor. She is currently the Managing Director at Samuchit EnviroTech Pvt Ltd (SET) (2005 onwards), Pune, and also Chairman of the Board of Directors, Nexus Carbon for Development Singapore, a not-for-profit international alliance of NGOs and social enterprises (2011 onwards).
She is also a visiting faculty at the Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts (Symbiosis International University) and her courses are mainly related to Sustainable Development, Climate Change, Impact of Science and Technology on History, renewable energy, sustainable development, and other social and educational issues (207 onwards).
She is a Co-Editor, Shaikshanik Sandarbh Bimonthly, a periodical on Science and Education.
She is an honorary faculty for a number of local, national and international workshops and short term courses related to science education, sustainable development, renewable energy technology, energy policy, energy and gender, climate change, etc. (2000 onwards).
Education and Career
Karve did her M.sc. (Physics with Specialisation: Energy Studies, LASER), University of Pune, 1993, and later pursued her Ph.D. (Physics) from the University of Pune in 1998. As a student, she worked on a three-month project to create compact fuel for stoves used in rural areas using sawdust and sand. Her experience with the sooty, inefficient stoves that rural women dealt with on a daily basis spurred her to join the Appropriate Rural Technology Institute, an NGO based in Maharashtra, where she experiments with cook stove designs and biomass fuels. She also endeavoured to develop a sustainable channel for people in rural areas to access biomass energy technologies. She was part of the team that developed the biowaste-to-charcoal technology, which won the Ashden Award for Renewable Energy in 2002.
Honors and Awards
* Ashden Award for Renewable Energy - 2002
* Prof. Yashwantrao Kelkar Youth Award - 2002
* Adishakti Award 2007 in the category of ‘Research’ presented by Bansilal Ramnath Agrawal Charitable Trust, Pune (2007).
* Nominated for Pulotsav Youth Award 2008 in the category of ‘Literature’ presented by P.L. Deshpande Memorial Foundation (2008).
* Award for Best Paper in ‘Energy and Gender Equitable Development’ Section in the Tenth World Renewable Energy Congress, held at Glasgow, UK (2008).
* Invited to contribute an autobiographical sketch to ‘Leelawati’s Daughters’, published by Indian National Science Academy (2008). The book is a compilation of biographical sketches of 100 leading women researchers in India.
* Avani Mitra Award 2010-11, presented by B.K. Talwlkar Memorial Trust, Pune (2011).
* Member of Technical Committee for ‘Energy and Gender Equitable Development’ Section and Workshop for the World Renewable Energy Congress in 2008, 2010, and ‘Energy and Gender’ Section and Workshop for World Renewable Energy Forum in 2012.
* Kirtan Sanjeevani Pushpalata Ranade National Woman Award 2011 for ‘Socially Relevant Research’, presented by Kirtankar Pushpalata Ranade Memorial Trust, Pune (2011).
* Sahyadri Hirkani Award 2011 for ‘Research’, presented by Mumbai Doordarshan (2012).
* Pune’s Pride Award 2013 in ‘Innovation’ category, presented by Residency Club, Pune (2013).
* Vasundhara Sanman 2014, honour for work on environmental issues, presented by Kirloskar Vasundhara International Film Festival (2014).
Publications
* Research publications: 35
* Books: 1 (autobiographical book in Marathi ‘Urjechya Shodhat’ - meaning ‘In Search of Energy’ - published by Rajhans Prakashan, India, 2007)
* More than 100 national and international workshops/seminars/conferences attended
* Edited Proceedings of International Conference on Biomass-based Fuels and Cooking Systems (BFCS-2000), publisher: Appropriate Rural Technology Institute, Pune, India (2001).
* Guest Editor for June 2002 issue of Energy for Sustainable Development, an international refereed journal, publisher: International Energy Initiative (IEI), Bangalore, India.
* More than 150 articles in regional newspapers, magazines, etc., on renewable energy, sustainable development, and other social and educational issues.

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