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Ashok Singhvi
Ashok Kumar Singhvi (born 2nd November 1950) is a geoscientist and former Dean of Physical Research Laboratory, India. His field of expertise is Geophysics, Quaternary Sciences and Quantitative Geomorphology.

Career
Singhvi graduated with an MSc from Jodhpur University, Rajasthan. He earned a PhD (Nuclear Physics) (1976) from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur for studies on hyperfine interaction, Mossbauer spectroscopy and nuclear reactions. He then joined the Geosciences Group at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, India in 1976 as a Postdoctoral Fellow, where he began applying mineral spectroscopy to study of paleoclimates. From 1977-78, he worked with Dr. Martin Aitkin at Keble College, University of Oxford, UK as a Ford Foundation Fellow, where he began thermoluminescence dating of sedimentary deposits in desert sands.

Research
Singhvi returned PRL India as an Assistant Professor in 1978, where he remained until 2017, retiring as Dean. His contribution in helping adopt thermoluminescence to date sedimentary deposits is a major method to measure paleoclimatic processes on geological timescales .His laboratory at PRL established thermoluminescence (TL) dating in India. Using luminescence spectroscopy of natural minerals in sand sediments, his group has dated various minerals across hot and cold deserts, including quartz, feldspar, gypsum, soil carbonates, carbonates, archeological sediments, glacial ice, geological faults and earthquakes, and meteorites. These studies have provided insights into monsoon trajectories, birth of deserts, wind patterns and tsunamis across multiple deserts, understanding climate–landform relationship and modeling climate activity in various regions including the Ganges plains and the Persian Gulf. More recently, his studies have contributed to understanding of the origins of Indian Middle Palaeolithic culture and modern human dispersals.

Singhvi's leadership includes heading major national programs such as the National program on the Evolution of Thar Desert ( Department of Science and Technology, India); he Geological History of Tsunamis along the Indian coasts (Ministry of Earth Sciences, India) and the Palaeoclimatic record of the Indian Sub continent.He led India's membership to the International Quaternary Union (INQUA) and led the Indian delegation to IUGS in 2004 and 2008. He has directed two UNESCO International Geological Correlation Programs (IGCP 349 and 413) on deserts, paleo-monsoons and evolution. He has served on multiple peer-review journal editorial boards, the Science Program Committee of UN sponsored International Year of Planet Earth and of the Executive Board of the Scientific Steering Committee of IGBP- PAGES core project, and Program Advisory committee for Ministry of Earth sciences. He has also served on the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) of the National Geological Research Institute (Hyderabad), Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (Dehradun), the Birbal Sahni Institute (Lucknow), the Geological Survey of India and the Archaeological Survey of India. Singhvi has been a Ford Foundation Fellow (University of Oxford and University of Missouri-St. Louis); A.v. Humboldt Fellow (University of Heidelberg), Lever Hulme Fellow (University of Sheffield), DFG Professor (University of Freiberg), Academy Professor (Sao Paulo) and Visiting Professor (USGS Denver). In his career, Singhvi has trained 14 PhD students and 12 postdoctoral scientists, co-authored over 195 articles (3500+ citations), edited/authored about 12 conference proceedings/books including two INSA reports to the International Union of Geological Sciences.

Awards and Honors
Notable awards to Singhvi include the Krishnan Medal (1988), National Mineral Award by the MInistry of Mines, Government of India (2004), Farouk El-Baz Award by Geological Society of America (2003), the Decennial Medal by the Indian Geophysical Union (2006), the triennial K Naha Medal (2007), Goyal Prize (2009), SM Khaital Gold Medal, and JC Bose National Fellowship.

He is an elected member of the Third World Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, Gujarat Science Academy (as President until 2019), Indian Academy of Sciences, The Indian Geophysical Union, and National Academy of Sciences (Allahabad, India), and the Luminescence Society of India (as President 1990-1992). Singhvi has served as the Vice-President of the Indian National Science Academy (2018-2021).