Statement of Purpose

of R.N.Venkatesh (Climate Studies PhD applicant for Autumn 2021-22)

I am R.N.Venkatesh, completed MTech from IIT Delhi in Control and

Automation(Electrical Engineering).In the world of research, you are never
alone. There will be people who will be there to help you, to suggest you ideas,
to share their experiences with you and also to question your hypothesis. You
just need to ask questions and help will be always there. Society sometimes
believe that doing research is tough due to the vastness and uncertainties it
carries along. But I feel these unpredictabilities is what makes research
interesting to me and consequently learning will never be denied in the
process. Over the course of my postgraduate studies at IIT Delhi, I have found
inclination towards research, which has motivated me to consider research as
a career and I believe doing a PhD is the next important step right now.

My first experience with research was during my post graduate studies at IIT
Delhi. My post graduate thesis deals with time delay systems. These systems
arise from inherent time-delays in the components of the systems, or from the
deliberate introduction of time-delays into the systems for control purposes.
Such time delays occur often in systems in engineering, biology, chemistry,
physics, and ecology. Time-delay terms lead to an infinite number of roots of
the characteristic equation, making systems difficult to analyse with classical
methods, especially, in checking stability and designing stabilizing controllers.
So, my objective was to find more effective methods, an analytic approach to
obtain the complete solution of systems of delay differential equations.

Why Climate Studies?

From my childhood I am fascinated about our mother earth and I have seen
how it is deteriorating. The rapid growth of the human population and the
phenomenal industrial and technological developments of human society over
the past two centuries have placed unprecedented demands on Earth's natural
resources. As a result of these pressures, we have witnessed an accelerated
loss of biodiversity and a dramatic alteration of ecological patterns (ex- habitat
loss and fragmentation) and processes (ex- global climate change). I believe
that these changes have potentially devastating consequences to mankind in
the long term if left unchecked. Consequently, I want to professionally commit
in finding solutions to this dilemma. I am happy to extend my post graduate
research on time delay systems in climate studies domain, if not, I am looking
forward to take up new research topic as offered by the department.

Why IIT Bombay?

I have gone through brochure released by IDPCS and I got to know it was one
of the first doctoral programmes in India addressing research related to
climate change. As climate change is a complex domain, IDPCS consists of
eminent faculty members from various departments, who increasingly apply a
depth of expertise in their fields to address the complexity of climate change.
The course design, faculty, research initiatives, facilities etc are of high
standards. Further, India has been placed among the top 10 most affected
countries by climate change, in the Global Climate Risk index 2021 published
by the Bonn-based environmental think thank German Watch. So, it is the right
time for me to join your bandwagon, in developing adaptation, mitigation
strategies to combat climate change. I wish to have an amazing learning
experience and hope to contribute constructively to research at IIT Bombay. I
shall be truly grateful if I granted this opportunity.

R.N.Venkatesh