Sita Ram Singh earned BSc (Agricultural Engineering) (1962) from Allahabad University and MTech (Soil & Water Conservation Engineering) (1965) from IIT Kharagpur. He studied at The Ohio State University, USA and Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana and obtained PhD (1974) from PAU. After serving for a brief period as Assistant Professor at UP Agricultural University (now GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology), Pantnagar, he joined Faculty at PAU (1966) and worked there in different capacities till 1989. He worked as Visiting Fellow at the Hydrology Research Division, Environment Canada, Ottawa (1977-78). He served as first Director of Water Technology Centre for Eastern Region, Bhubaneswar (1989-97); Project Director, Directorate of Water Management Research, Patna (1997-2001); first Director of the ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna (2001-02); Vice-Chancellor, Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar (2002-05); and continuing as INSA Senior Scientist at CSSRI Regional Research Station, Lucknow.

Academic and Research Achievements: Singh contributed significantly to agricultural engineering, soil conservation engineering, watershed hydrology, irrigation and drainage engineering, flow through porous media, ground water engineering, and finite element method in hydrology. He developed methods for determining thermal diffusivity and conductivity of soils; and aquifer diffusivity, hydraulic conductivity, specific yield, and storativity of unconfined and confined aquifers as well as waterlogged soils under different hydrologic situations. He formulated analytical and numeric models to analyze soil-water dynamics in cropped fields, one- and two- dimensional water and solute transport in soil-aquifer system, and rain infiltration, run-off and soil erosion from agricultural lands. In addition, he designed low energy water application equipment for irrigating close growing crops. He also guided seven MTech and seven PhD students.

Awards and Honours: Professor Singh was recipient of the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award of ICAR and Commendation Medal, Fellowship and Gold Medal of the Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers. He was elected Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi, and Indian National Academy of Engineering.