Environmental Sciences and Sustainable Engineering Centre

The environmental sciences and sustainable engineering Centre (ESSENCE) at IIT Palakkad aims to provide an interdisciplinary platform to find ways to sustainably meet the needs of the present without compromising future generation’s ability to meet their own needs. We take inspiration from local community’s needs, sustainable development goals identified by the United Nations, and Paris Climate Agreement to focus our research efforts on ‘Enabling Responsible Development through Research in Environmental Science and Sustainable Engineering’. For more details...

Thrust Areas

Climate Action
Environmental and Human Health
Translating Research and Development into Policy
Resilient Societies

Faculty

Deepak Jaiswal
Mintu Porel
Divya PV
Praveena Gangadharan
Veena Venudharan
Athira P
Arun Rahul
M. Sabarimalai Manikandan
Sarmistha Singh
Richa Agnihotri

Resources Available

Air quality monitoring station
Smart agriculture field research site (in preparation)
High performance computing resources
Various other central research facilities at IIT Palakkad


Walk-in Plant Growth Chamber at the ESSENCE laboratory	Field deployment of the LI-COR LI-6800 portable photosynthesis system for leaf-scale gas exchange measurements	LI-COR LI-7810 trace gas analyser deployed with a soil chamber for measuring soil greenhouse gas fluxes in the field

The Miyawaki forest on the IIT Palakkad campus, with a litter trap installed for the collection and study of leaf litter as part of ongoing research	Aerial views of the ongoing pot-based field study examining the impact of microplastics in biosolids on plants — shown at the establishment phase (left) and after substantial plant growth (right)
		Plant Canopy Analyzer

Programs

ESSENCE currently offers Ph.D./M.S.(by Research) programs focusing on the above-mentioned thrust areas. Faculty members at ESSENCE are working on various aspects within the current thrust areas.