Bio | CHAITANYA GIRI

Hello!

My name is Chaitanya Giri.

I am a strategy consultant, author, and space scientist roving between Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi, and Bengaluru.

In the above three capacities, I am professionally involved in the domains of space and S&T policies, space diplomacy, and strategizing at the crossroads of Industry 4.0 & Space 2.0.

I am a trained, hands-on, and bonafide space scientist - astrochemist and planetary chemist, to be precise. I am grateful that life offered me opportunities to work at some of the top-most space sci-tech laboratories in the world.

I have spent considerable time in Germany and France as a doctoral and postdoctoral scientist, and after that in Japan and United States as an early-career scientist.

I have transferred my skills from hands-on scientific research to consulting, authoring, and lecturing. I am fortunate to work closely with numerous scientific institutions, international multilateral organizations, private corporations, startups, venture capital firms, academia, and media.

PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Author of the book India in the Second Space Age of Interplanetary Connectivity published by Routledge India in 2021.

Award-winning early career scientist with rich 10-years experience in Field-Deployable Measurement and Signals Intelligence (MASINT) payload technologies.

Team Member on European Space Agency’s Rosetta Mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Scientific team member of the Philae Lander - the first space probe in human history to ever land on a comet surface

As co-investigator of COSAC MASINT payload of Philae, discovered novel organic molecules native to the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Awarded the 2014 Dieter Rampacher Prize by the Max Planck Society - ranked #4 globally for science - for outstanding doctoral research by the youngest scientist

Made the first-of-its-kind physical detection of extraterrestrial graphene in two distinct meteorites

1 of 10 promising scientists recruited by MEXT, Government of Japan under EON Fellowship

Led and co-led competitive basic science research grants worth more than US$ 0.1 million

Delivered consultations on space and emerging technology industry to wide range of stakeholders - government, industry, academia, and media

Briefed the top strategic leadership of India including the National Security Council Secretariat, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Defence, and Ministry of Earth Sciences

Nominated Member of Review Committee on International Science and Technology Cooperation (Oct 2021-July 2022) of Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences

Represented India on various Track 1.5 and Track 2 Diplomatic Engagements on science, space, climate and emerging technology matters

High-Table Speaking at various global summits including the NATO’s Halifax International Security Forum and Russia-India Strategic Dialogue

PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS & AFFILIATIONS

February 2022 - present

Contributor

Center for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, CANADA

December 2021 - present

Consultant

Research and Information System for Developing Countries, New Delhi, INDIA

October 2021 - present

Member, Advisory Board

Space Federation of India

March 2018 - November 2021

Space & Ocean Studies Fellow

Gateway House : Indian Council for Global Relations, Mumbai, INDIA

Feb. 2018 - present

ELSI Origins Network (EON) Affiliate Scientist

Earth-Life Science Institute - A World Premier International Research Center Initiative by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Japan at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, JAPAN

Feb. 2016 - Jan. 2018

ELSI Origins Network (EON) Research Fellow

Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, JAPAN

Jun. 2016 - Jun. 2017

Science Collaborator (EON Visiting Investigator)

Code 690, Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA

Jun. 2016 - Jun. 2017

EON Visiting Investigator

Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington DC, USA

Sep. 2014 - Nov. 2015

Postdoctoral Scientist

Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, GERMANY

Sep. 2011 - Sep. 2014

Doctoral Scientist

Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, GERMANY

Feb. 2012

Visiting Scientist at DESIRS beam line

CNRS-CEA SOLEIL Synchrotron, Paris, FRANCE

Oct. 2010

Visiting Scientist

Planetary Exploration Research Center, Chiba Institute of Technology, Chiba, JAPAN

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

Sep. 2014

Ph.D. (Chemistry)

Thesis: The organic composition of cometary nucleus, the COSAC experiment on Philae

Supervisors: Uwe Meierhenrich, École Doctorale Sciences Fondamentales et Appliquées (EDSFA), Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, FRANCE

Fred Goesmann, International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) in Solar System Science, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, GERMANY

Aug. 2011

M.Sc. (Biophysics) with First Class

University Department of Biophysics

University of Mumbai, INDIA

Jun. 2008

B.Sc. Hons. (Major: Chemistry; Minors: Life Science, Microbiology) with First Class

Ramnarain Ruia College, University of Mumbai, INDIA

ACADEMIC GENEOLOGY TRIVIA

I have a PhD in Chemistry in 2014, from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis (now Côte d'Azur University), France under the tutelage of Prof. Uwe Meierhenrich.

Prof. Meierhenrich is a global authority on biomolecular chirality and interstellar organic chemistry. His team has the distinction of synthesizing several amino acids and sugars under interstellar conditions simulated in the laboratory. He has also been an leading investigator and payload designer for European Space Agency's Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and ExoMars mission to the planet Mars.

Being his protégé, I am part of an academic genealogy that has some of the most prolific chemists of modern times (left-to-right in chronological sequence).

Wolfram Thiemann has been an influential proponent of environmental chemistry, meteoritics and interstellar organic chemistry.

Karl Erik Zimen was Germany's prominent nuclear scientist and policymaker. He also served as the founding director of the Hahn-Meitner-Institute for Nuclear Research in Berlin, which today is known as the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin.

Otto Hahn is considered as the Father of Nuclear Chemistry. He is the discoverer of Nuclear Fission and several transuranic elements and nuclear phenomena.

Theodor Zincke is well-regarded among organic chemists, as the discoverer of important chemical reactions - Zincke Reaction, Zincke-Suhl Reaction and the Zincke Nitration.

Friedrich Woehler was the first to synthesize urea and had co-discovered elements Beryllium, Silicon and the compound silicon nitride. He discovered calcium carbide. Woehler, in his times, had the largest collection of meteorites.

Jons Jacob Berzelius is considered as the father of Modern Chemistry. He has several firsts to his credit. He discovered the elements cerium, silicon, selenium and thorium. He has coined several terminologies of prime importance to modern chemistry - allotrope, catalysis, isomer, polymer and protein.

Enjoy this interesting trivia!