In a first, India-born geophysicist Paramesh Banerjee in race to head Chinese institute

In a first, India-born geophysicist Paramesh Banerjee is among the four shortlisted to head the Institute of Geophysics, a top scientific organisation of China's Earthquake Administration (CEA). The other three candidates are Chinese.

"Final result is not out yet, but will feel proud to be the first Indian in that position," Banerjee, currently technical director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) at Nanyang Technical University (NTU), told this correspondent in an email.

"That's great news," Vineet Gahalaut, director of the National Centre for Seismology in New Delhi, told reporters.

"Paramesh was one amongst the few who initiated GPS measurements in India and, during the 2004



Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, he was the one who proposed that the giant earthquakes could cause deformation at distances as far as 2,500 km away which could be captured by the GPS."

Banerjee, who in 2017 was elected president of the Asian Seismological Commission (ASC), "has made tremendous impact in a short time", added Harsh Gupta, renowned seismologist and former secretary of what is now the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Developing an earthquake resilient society is of utmost importance for the Asian region where almost 80 per cent of fatalities due to earthquakes occur, Gupta said.

"It is hoped that under the leadership of Paramesh Banerjee, if selected, such problems would be addressed."