Speakers

Prof Meenakshi Arora is Professor in the Department of Infrastructure Engineering at The University of Melbourne, Associate Dean for graduate Research at the Faculty of Engineering and IT and served as Director of Melbourne India Postgraduate Academy (MIPA) 2015-24. Her main research interests are water quality (surface water, groundwater and stormwater), contaminant transport modelling and groundwater remediation. She has close collaboration with Victorian water authorities such as Melbourne Water, Yarra Valley Water, Southeast Water, councils and several industries.

Prof. Arora has received awards for her leadership and groundbreaking research including Women in Water Leadership Award, Excellence Award for Internationalisation of Research, Australia India Impact Award and Victoria Fellowship for innovative research in Physical Sciences. She leads several national and international projects funded by government and industry.

She has developed a cost-effective groundwater treatment plant to provide safe drinking water to the rural communities in Rajasthan India and has served on NHMRC's 'Fluoride Reference Group' panel to advise on the fluoridation of drinking water in Australia. Recently, she received a funding grant from the Australia India Institute to support the fieldwork necessary for understanding the extent of the groundwater contamination issue in India, and funding from Liquid I.V. to research low-cost methods to remove harmful groundwater contaminants that affect drinking water in rural communities in India.

Dr. Arora has chaired several international conferences including 'Practical Responses to Climate Change' and four Melbourne India Postgraduate Conferences. She has published widely in high impact journals and delivered keynote addresses in various international conferences. She serves as a member of editorial boards as well as reviewers for various journals of high repute.