Dr.M.A.Atmanand has 37 years of experience in field of ocean technology and retired as the Director of National Institute of Ocean Technology Chennai. He is currently working as a Visiting Professor in Indian Institute of Technology, Madras - Chennai. He is nominated as Chair Marine Systems Panel, Naval Research Board, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Govt. of India. He is the Governor's nominee to the Planning board of Bharathidasan University. He is elected as member of Society for Underwater Technology (SUT) Council. He is a former member of the Executive Planning Group and a former member of the Interim Decade Advisory Board for preparation of UN Decade of Ocean Science for sustainable development [2012-2030] of Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO. He was elected as Chair of Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Regional Committee for the Central Indian Ocean (IOCINDIO) of IOC, UNESCO [2016-2021].


An Instrumentation and Control Engineer by profession, he took his undergraduate degree from University of Calicut, Master’s and doctorate degrees from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. He has presently coined specific courses based on his vast experience in Ocean technology and is sharing the same with the students. Previously, he has done pioneering work in the area of deep-sea technologies in India. He led a team of Engineers for the design and development of underwater crawler for deep sea operation. He and his team developed the in-situ soil tester which was tested at a depth of 5200 m in the Central Indian Ocean Basin. Dr. Atmanand has taken this challenge further to design and implement a work class Remotely Operable Vehicle (ROV) that can be used for assisting the mining operations, gas hydrates site for validation of presence of methane, pipeline inspection etc. This was later tested at a depth of 5289 m water depth. It was under his supervision that India's first Polar under water mooring observatory and Polar Remotely Operable Vehicle (PROV) was developed and tested. The mooring was established at Kongsfjorden in Arctic region. The Polar ROV was tested successfully at the Priyadarshini lake at Antarctica. He has also guided various indigenization programmes for Ocean observation and under water systems. His areas of interest include


  • Teaching graduate and undergraduate students deep sea technology, ocean instrumentation, deep sea mining etc. based on his long practical experience in this field.

  • Development of underwater systems

  • Development of newer Ocean Observation systems

  • Development of components for deep sea applications

  • Blue Economy

  • Project Management


Some of the awards which Dr. Atmanand received are, the prestigious MoES National Award of Excellence in Ocean Technology, in view of pioneering work done in the area of deep-sea technologies in 2020, Life time achievement award from IEEE Madras for 2021, the Dr. D. Srinivasan Endowment Award for the year 2021, instituted by the Ocean Society of India (OSI), for outstanding contributions in the areas of Ocean Engineering and Technology, the International Society for Ocean and Polar Engineers award in 2020. the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Oceanic Engineering Society, Presidential Award in 2016 etc.


Some of the areas he contributed are :


  • Technologies for the extraction of Poly Metallic Nodules from deep sea.

  • Development of Power and Control Systems for deep water Submersibles for depths up to 6000 meters.

  • Development of allied technologies for Underwater vehicles, which have become mainstay all such projects in India

  • Power Generation modules for wave Energy and Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)

  • Development of underwater Systems and components like motor, fibre optic connectors etc.

  • Establishment of electronic support facilities and tsunami early warning systems


Dr.M.A.Atmanand has published more than 160 papers including International Journals, International conferences, Book chapter, National Conference and others.He has delivered more than 300 invited lectures in conferences. He is Chair of IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society Technology committee on Cables and Connectors. He is the founder Chair of IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society in India. He has also served IEEE Madras Section in various capacities.


Experience


  • 37 years of experience in the field of Ocean Science and Technology

  • October 2020 till date - Visiting professor at IIT, Madras

  • March 1997 to September 2020 in National Institute of Ocean Technology Chennai India, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India

  • February 1985 to March 1997 at Fluid Control Research Institute,Palghat, Kerala, India, Ministry of Heavy Industries, Govt. of India