Raj Rajagopal
(CARTHA Advisor and Ambassador, 2006 to present)
Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Dr. R. Rajagopal is a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Iowa. He teaches and conducts research in the areas of environmental modeling, monitoring, management, and policy. His specialty is in the area of water quality monitoring, modeling, and public policy. He has supervised to completion the theses and dissertations of over 60 master’s and PhD students. Over the last 35 years, he has organized and directed over 120 workshops and seminars on topics in environmental science, technology, and policy; risk assessment; ground-water protection; information analysis and systems integration; and problem-solving, creativity, and innovation to over 5,000 people in academe, government, non-profit organizations and industry.
He has been invited to serve as a nominator for the annual Japan Prize (Japanese equivalent of the Nobel), since its inception in 1985. He serves as a consultant to several public, private, non-profit, and philanthropic organizations. He is a recipient of several competitive research grants and contracts from national, international, and private foundations. He is the founding editor of the journal “Environmental Practice” (formerly known as the “The Environmental Professional”) published by the Oxford University Press. He received his undergraduate and graduate training in Mathematics/Physics and Statistics from the University of Bombay, a master’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Florida and an interdisciplinary Phd in Environmental (Water) Management Systems from the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the University of Iowa in 1979, he taught at Duke University and the University of Washington for six years.
His current interests include the provision of safe drinking water, reduction of adult illiteracy, and improvement of opportunities through micro-credit for women entrepreneurs in developing countries. As part of this interest, he and a colleague led a group of 21 American students and professionals (Dec 06/Jan 07) through an 18-day short course on “Microfinance for women entrepreneurs” of Tamil Nadu, India. They plan to do a similar program this year (2007/08) for a course on “Field Experiences in Social Entrepreneurship” in Tamil Nadu.