Jayaraman Srinivasan received BTech (Mechanical Engineering) (1969) from IIT Madras, Masters (1971) from State University of New York and PhD (1975) from Stanford. After working in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Kanpur (1975-82), he joined the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore (1982) where he worked in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Department and also the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. He was Chairman, Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (1997-2005), as well as Mechanical Sciences Division (2005-09). He was also Senior Resident Research Associate at NASA, Langley (1993-95).

Academic and Research Achievements: Srinivasan had keen interest in thermal sciences. He built a 240 m2 solar pond in 1983 at IISc and demonstrated the technical and economic viability of solar ponds in the tropics. His interest subsequently shifted to monsoon modeling. He developed simple models to unravel the mechanisms governing the poleward migration of cloud bands in the tropics. He used simple models to identify the role of net radiation and vertical stability in the controlling the seasonal variation of rainfall in the tropics. He highlighted the unique features of the clouds in the Bay of Bengal and their impact on the net radiation budget. He used complex climate models to explore the role of Tibetan plateau on the Indian monsoon. He highlighted the impact of both natural and anthropogenic aerosols on the climate of the Indian region. He was involved in the resolution of the mystery of the lifted minimum temperature that occurs on calm clear nights.

Other Contributions: Srinivasan was a lead author of the second IPCC report on climate change in 1995 and the fourth IPCC report on climate change in 2007. He also served as Review Editor of the third IPCC report in 2001.

Awards and Honours: Professor Srinivasan won the Hari Om Ashram Prerit SS Bhatnagar Award for research in Solar Energy (1994) and JC Bose Fellowship by DST (2007). He was elected Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore and Indian Academy of Engineering.