Dr Akhilesh Gupta, Senior Adviser at the Department of Science and Technology (DST) assumed additional charge of Secretary of the Science and Engineering Research Board(SERB) on October 8, 2022 after Dr Sandeep Verma relinquished charges as Secretary SERB on completing his tenure on October 7.

Dr. Gupta currently heads the Policy Coordination and Programme Management Division (PCPM) division and is the overall in charge of 5 National Missions at DST ---National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical System, National Mission on Quantum Technology and Applications, National Super-computing Mission, National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change and National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem.

A distinguished atmospheric scientist, Dr Gupta has to his credit over 200 research articles in National & International journals as well as proceedings. He is editor of 5 books, author of over 350 articles and nearly 1000 reports.

He is a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (FNAE), Indian Meteorological Society (FIMS) and Associationof Agro-meteorologists (FAAM).

Some of the key research areas of interest to Dr Gupta include, Tropical cyclone prediction, monsoon meteorology, location specific weather prediction, weather and climate modelling, STI policy areas like Open science, equity & inclusion, STI financing, system interconnectedness and so on.Dr Gupta has been one of the authors of India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) and head of the Secretariat which drafted India’s new Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, that is under finalization.

With a post graduate degree from Lucknow University in Physics (1984) and a doctorate degree from IIT Delhi in Atmospheric Sciences (1999),he joined the India Meteorological Department in 1985 and later the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting in 1994, both currently under Ministry of Earth Sciences.