International Alumnus of the Year: Ravi Kuchimanchi, M.S. ’91, Ph.D. ’95
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- Published: Thursday, April 12 2012 09:42
While a graduate student at University of Maryland, Ravi Kuchimanchi founded the Association for India’s Development (AID), a volunteer movement for sustainable, holistic development with 50 chapters in the United States, UK, Australia and India. It brings highly skilled professionals to work with the poor and underprivileged, promoting a deeper understanding of the causes of poverty. Each year, AID raises more than $1 million in the United States and mobilizes nearly 1,000 volunteers to tackle the corruption and exploitation that keeps many Indian residents living in poverty.
Passionately interested in pursuing appropriate technology to benefit the underprivileged, Ravi and his colleagues recently adapted the traditional haybox cooker to local materials so that it can be made in villages while improving energy efficiency; developed a pedal power generator to light remote, off-the-grid village schools; and forged a collaboration between AID and grassroots groups in the Narmada River Valley to bring electricity to 12 hamlets of the tribal village Bilgaon. Ravi holds a B.Tech in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Maryland. He has published several papers in international physics journals including Physical Review Letters and has recently proposed a theory that makes predictions for neutron’s electric dipole moment.
