OPEN 2011/Profile of the Chairpersons

1. Dr. Sanjeev Singh

Dr. Sanjeev Singh received his Doctoral degree in Electronics (Optical Communication) from University of Delhi. He has been instrumental in setting up Institute of Informatics & Communication, University of Delhi South Campus in 1998. He has worked in the area of integrated optics for six years. For the last twelve years, apart from teaching postgraduate courses in Informatics, he is working in the area of applied computer networks and learning technologies. Dr. Singh is also on the advisory board of various institutions such as Phoenix Business School, Udaipur, EMPI, New Delhi. He is also a panel member of open source community 'Linux Asia'.

2. Dr. Andrew Lynn

Dr. Andrew Lynn is working as Associate Professor at School of Computational and Integrative sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His areas of work are Computational Biology and High Performance Computing. Currently he is working on a project on HMM-ModE code and GI numbers of the Protein Kinases entitled "HMM-ModE- Improved classification using profile Hidden Markov Model by optimizing the discrimination threshold and modifying emission probabilities with negative training sequences". Dr. Lynn is a very active crusader of open source and is an integral part of the Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) project initiated by CSIR. The emphasis of his work is on the study of how the increased availability of information in all spheres of enquiry, be it biological, physical, geological, economics, etc. can be most effectively utilized in an academic context.

3. Dr. Gora Mohanty

Dr. Gora Mohanty, a Gamma-ray Astronomer by Profession graduated from IIT Mumbai and did his Ph. D. from Iowa State University, USA. After seeing the light, he moved to working on Free/Open Source software, and now runs his own company specializing in such technologies. He is the Director of Mimir Technologies and works on free software, and, in particular Indian-language computing related issues. He was involved in the Rebati project which is an initiative for FOSS computing in Oriya, while IndLinux is an umbrella organization for different language teams across the Indian subcontinent. He is also an active participant in the Indian Linux User's Group, Delhi (ILUG-D) and Freed.in. Besides technical work on font rendering, spellchecker, font converters, locales and sorting orders, OCR, etc., Dr. Mohanty is also involved in various ILUG-D initiatives including ones for student mentorship, and for providing support to non-profit organization seeking to migrate to FOSS solutions. His Interests include cutting-edge technologies like search engines and related technologies, scalable site architectures, mobile computing, GIS, Indian-language computing, and GIS.

4. Dr. Anubha Das

Dr. Anubha Das is an Assistant Professor of Zoology in Zakir Husain College, University of Delhi. She is currently fellow at Institute Life Long Learning, University of Delhi and is actively involved in e-content creation. She is a trained entomologist who did her did her research work in the Insect Behaviour Unit of Department of Zoology, University of Delhi. Her M. Phil. Work was on Rearing of Lepidopteran Larvae on different diets: natural food and semisynthetic one and doctorate was on Effect of crude extract of neem seed (Azadirachta indica A. Juss.) on the behavior and physiology of Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). She is a nature lover and participates in various campaigns of WWF. She is a member of Journal of Eco-Friendly Agriculture, published by Doctor's Agricultural and Horticultural Development Society, India and of Society for Promotion and Innovation of Bio-pesticides. Dr. Anubha became a part of WikiEducator family as a Wikineighbour in March 2009 after discovering the country page for India on WikiEducator. She then participated in EL4C21 online workshop and became one of the most active WikiAmbassadors. In just four months in the month of July, 2009, her user page was selected for UPE award. She is working on several OER and other projects including that on transgenic mouse, Alzheimer disease and especially on endangered animals, e.g. Olive Ridley Turtles.