News - Finland
Community Spotlight - Dr. Desh Bandhu
Dr. Desh Bandhu, President of the India Environmental Society and Region Coordinator of the GLOBE Regional Office for Asia and Pacific, will be your principal host at the 2014 GLOBE Learning Expedition (GLE) and Annual Partner Meeting in New Delhi from 3-8 August. Dr. Bandhu has been involved in GLOBE for more than a decade, and was instrumental in bringing India in as a participating country in 2002. He is passionately involved in promoting GLOBE in India and in the Asia and Pacific region. Dr. Bandhu has conducted more than 60 GLOBE Teacher Training Workshops and five GLOBE train-the-trainer workshops in India and abroad. "GLOBE is both a theory and hands-on enquiry based program. 'Don't just read about science; Do science!' is wonderful concept. This program brings students, teachers and scientists together. It's what makes GLOBE unique," said Dr. Bandhu.
Dr. Bandhu's interest in the environment began in the early 1970s when he became one of India's student representatives at the International Conference on Human Environment, a United Nations Youth Conference held in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. This experience sparked an interest in the environment and Earth Science and led him to pursue a Masters Degree in Botany with specialization in Soil Science and Root Ecology and later, a Post Graduate Diploma in Resources Ecology and PhD in Forest Ecology at Banaras Hindu University in India.
Dr. Desh Bandhu is a pioneer of the environmental conservation movement in India; his involvment began in 1971. Since 1977, as the president of the Indian Environmental Society, Dr. Bandhu began activities on environmental education, awareness, training and research in India and organized Global Conferences on Environmental Education, beginning in 1981 in New Delhi, and continuing at an interval of every 4 years. He has implemented many research and action oriented projects in India and other parts of Asia.
As Asia and Pacific Region Coordinator, Dr. Bandhu has helped to develop GLOBE Exchange Programs with GLOBE Thailand and GLOBE Nepal. His office is currently working on a similar exchange program with the GLOBE Taiwan Partnership. Over the past several years, Dr. Bandhu and his colleagues have created dynamic learning experiences for students and teachers in the region including the Biodiversity Learning Expedition adn the Ecology Learning Expeditions in Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and Nepal and different parts of India. The 2012 GLOBE Science Festival in Delhi and was visited by more than 5,000 participants including students, teachers and scientists, and included participants from the USA, Thailand and Nepal. Dr. Desh Bandhu has more than 40 years of teaching experience and has retired as professor in the Department of Environmental Planning at School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.
In 1972, Dr. Bandhu visited the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the State Capitol in Nashville where he was awarded Honorary Citizen of Tennessee by the Governor of Tennessee. Dr. Bandhu visited Ohio State University as a visiting professor in 1994 and 1998. He has visited more than 50 countries in the world and attended UN conferences as a participant.
If you will be attending the 2014 GLE this August, you are sure to meet Dr. Bandhu's wife Shashi as well as his daughters Shephali and Sonal who share the family's innate sense of hospitality and will help make your trip to Delhi a memorable experience. Dr. Desh Bandhu, your chief GLE organizer and host, has spent the past many months working to ensure that you will be safe, comfortable and well taken care.
type: globe-news
News origin: GLOBE Implementation Office