Dr. B. Rushi Kumar is an eminent Professor of Mathematics. He is presently the Head of the Department of Mathematics, School of Advanced Sciences of VIT. His research interests include convection in porous media, magnetohydrodynamics, fluid dynamics, CFD, finite-difference methods. His research is funded by DST under a bilateral exchange programme and CSC follow-on grants by Royal Society, London. Dr. Kumar’s teaching covers subjects such as Advanced Mathematical Methods, Applied Numerical Methods, Applications of Differential and Difference Equations and Calculus for Engineers. Dr. Rushi's consulting activities primarily focus on the development of optimization-based analytic solutions in various industries, including defence, financial, electronic marketplace and information technology. Dr. Kumar is an eminent scholar in Applied Mathematics research and the recipient of many research and teaching awards. He is a Life Member of the Indian Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ISTAM) and Andhra Pradesh Society for Mathematical Sciences (APSMS). He presented papers at various national and international conferences and reviewed various research articles and thesis. He delivered several invited talks at national and international conferences/seminars/workshops and Faculty Development Programmes. He was also instrumental in organizing several workshops / FDP’s / seminars and national and international conferences in VIT. He guided eight Ph.D. students. He is acclaimed in the academic circles for his erudition in the field of Mathematics.Dr. R. Sivaraj is working as a Senior Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics, School of Advanced Sciences, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India. His area of research is in fluid dynamics, and he works on non-Newtonian fluids, MHD, heat transfer and porous media. He has published 32 research papers in highly reputed international journals. Under his guidance, two scholars received thePh.D. degree and presently four scholars are working. He received the VIT Research Award continuously for the years 2012-2018 and travel grant from the Royal Society of London and CSIR, India. He worked at Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China, under Faculty Exchange Programme. He visited the National Defence University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as a Visiting Scientist. He delivered a set of lectures on applications of fluid dynamics at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, West Indies. He delivered an invited lecture in international conferences and seminars organized by the University of Botswana, National University of Singapore and Universiti Putra Malaysia. He attended over 20 national and international conferences in India and abroad. He was invited to deliver lectures in several conferences, workshops, seminars and guest lectures, and he has organized several international conferences, seminars, workshops, etc., to promote the research activities. He served as a reviewer for 39 scientific journals. He served as one of the editors for the book Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computing published by Springer book series Trends in Mathematics and the proceedings Recent Trends in Pure and Applied Mathematics published by AIP Conference Proceedings. He is the Joint Secretary of Academia for Advanced Research in Mathematics Society.Dr. Jagdish Prakash is a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Prof. Prakash obtained his M.Sc. (Mathematics) from Agra University, India, in 1965 and M.Sc. (Statistics) from Meerut University, India, in 1971 both in the first division and his D.Phil. (Doctor of Philosophy) degree in Applied Mathematics (Fluid Mechanics) in June 1984 from Garhwal University, India. He has worked in several prestigious universities in India, Iraq, Zambia, New Zealand and Botswana. He has teaching and research experience of over 45 years and risen to the current position in 2020. He has taught several courses in Mathematics, Statistics and Engineering Mathematics at undergraduate and graduate levels in the universities he has served. He was awarded the professional honours as Fellow (FIMA) in 1989, status as a Chartered Mathematician (C. Math.) in 1993 and Chartered Scientist (C. Sci.) in 2005 by the Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications (UK). He is a recipient of a Prestigious Award of the C. V. Raman International Fellowship for African Researchers under Visiting Fellowship Programme from FICCI Science and Technology, International Cooperation Division, Government of India, New Delhi, India, in 2012 and also a prestigious Global Visionary Award in 2014 by Vision Foundation, Ahmedabad, India. Prof. Prakash has visited the Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, New Zealand as a Visiting Researcher in the past several times for short durations in the past years.His research interests are in the areas of bio-fluid dynamics, fluid mechanics, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), mathematical modelling and mathematical methods. As a published researcher, he has authored over 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals and at international conferences. He has presented research papers in over 60 international conferences in India and abroad, and he has organized several international conferences. Prof. Prakash’s unique contribution to the Department of Mathematics, University of Botswana, is that the European Mathematical Society labelled the Department of Mathematics as an Emerging Centre of Excellence for 4 years (2016-2020) during his time; he was Head of Mathematics Department. He also compiled a custom edition book on Introductory Mathematics for First Year Courses MAT111 and MAT122 published by CENGAGE publishers in 2014. He received Long Service Award (29 years) on 14th June 2019 from the Vice Chancellor in an event organized by the University of Botswana.
