Course Instructors
Prof. Sandeep Kumar
University of Buckingham, UK
Prof. Sandeep Kumar is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT (BHU) Varanasi. He received Bachelor degree from MNREC Allahabad, Masters from IT BHU and Ph.D. from IIT Delhi. His field of interest is computational mechanics particularly finite element method and wavelets. At present, he is working on wave propagation. He has published papers in international journal in the areas of Composite Plates and Shells, Non-linear Dynamics and Chaos, Element free Galerkin Method, Advection Dispersion Equations, etc. His is working and has already completed various government funded projects.
Varun Agarwal
Alumnus IIT Kanpur
Director, Bhaktivedanta Institute,
Kolkata, India
Varun Agarwal (also known as His Holiness Bhaktisvarupa Vrajendra Kumar Swami) is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur (Aerospace Engg – 1999) and is currently the Director of the Bhaktivedanta Institute, Kolkata. His research interests include the foundations of science and its possible connectionswith spirituality. His search for a deeper meaning of life culminated in meeting and taking personal guidance from Dr. T. D. Singh, which completely changed his life, after which he dedicated himself to the cause of selflessly helping humanity.
He is the Editor of many publications on science and spirituality, including Bhaktivedanta Institute’s reputed science-spirituality journal, Savijnanam – Scientific Exploration for a Spiritual Paradigm. His deep interest in the foundations of mathematics and the nature of consciousness and its relation to the nature of reality as well as ancient Indian texts has led him to interact and meet with renowned scholars at Harvard, Princeton, ETH, Stanford and MIT. He has delivered numerous talks worldwide on the foundations of science, as well as the foundations of life, mathematics and spirituality.
Dr. Debasish Khan
IIT (BHU) Varanasi, India
Dr. Debashis Khan received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 2007. Then he joined as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi and presently he is serving there as an Associate Professor. His research interests include analytical and computational methods in engineering and science, Solid Mechanics, Fracture Mechanics, Continuum Mechanics and Finite Deformation Plasticity. He was a visiting research scientist at University of North Texas, USA in the year 2013.
Also, in the year 2016, he was a visiting researcher at the Zernike Institute of Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He has published 22 peer-reviewed papers in international journals of repute and many conference papers. He has guided 3 Ph. D. students and presently guiding 04 Ph. D. students He has recently co-authored a popular book entitled “Mathematical Theory of Subdivision: Finite Elements and Wavelet Methods”. He is a member of ‘American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ and ‘Indian Society for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics’. He is a fellow of ‘The Institution of engineers (India)’. His interests also expand over mathematical formulation of evolutionary systems and their exploration in the origin of life which led him to work at the interface of science and spirituality in collaboration with Bhaktivedanta institute.
Sushant Sharma
Bhaktivedanta Institute, Kolkata, India
Sushant Sharma is a B. Tech. graduate (2000) from IIT Guwahati. He has contributed enormously towards various activities of the Bhaktivedanta Institute as an author and an editor. He was last associated with Tech Mahindra Limited as Tech Leader and has an IT experience of over 15 years. Later, Sushant Sharma decided to dedicate himself to the mission of Bhaktivedanta Institute and has been engaging himself to study the science of consciousness from a scientific as well as spiritual perspective.
Under the able guidance of science-spirituality synthesis visionary Dr. T. D. Singh, he has delivered a key note lecture at the International Conference on Life and its Origin at Rome in 2004. From 2007, Sushant has been a speaker in many science-spirituality conferences and workshops organized by the Bhaktivedanta Institute including the AISSQ conference series. His conference lecture themes include “Man and Machine”, “Computer and Intelligence” and “Inimitable Intelligence”.
Vasudeva Rao
Alumnus IIT Kanpur
President of the Bhaktivedanta Institute, Kolkata, India
Vasudeva Rao (also known as His Holiness Bhaktisvarupa Vrajapati Swami) is an alumnus of the prestigious IIT Kanpur (Computer Science, 1998), and is currently the President of the Bhaktivedanta Institute. He is one of the major contributors to Bhaktivedanta Institute’s publications, and also the Editor of Bhaktivedanta Institute’s reputed journal, Savijnanam – Scientific Exploration for a Spiritual Paradigm. He travels widely across India and abroad creating awareness regarding the interface of Science and Spirituality among academic and professional circles.
His deep interest in the foundations of mathematics, the fundamentals of computer science and logic, and its relation to the nature of consciousness, nature of reality as well as ancient Indian texts has led him to meet and interact with renowned scholars at Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and MIT. He has delivered numerous talks on computer science and spirituality. Under his able guidance and supervision, more than 10 national conferences, 2 International conferences, and over 100 seminars and workshops on science and spirituality have been organized by the Institute in the past decade, which includes contributions from more than 20 Nobel Laureates and world-renowned scholars; in addition, over 200 papers have been published by the Bhaktivedanta Institute. He was a former Global Council Trustee of the United Religions Initiative.