Venkatesan (Venkat) served as a Senior Scientist G and Program Director at the National Institute of Ocean Technology, Ministry of earth sciences Chennai and served under the UNEP Regional Seas Programme in Sri Lanka. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth USA and a Fulbright Awardee and Chartered Marine Technologist by MTS USA & IMarEST UK. He worked with Indo US program as a PI for 2 program RAMA and Monsoonal studies. Recently with NOAA he organized a Climate Panel discussion. With over four decades of service he has been honored with 20 prestigious awards including Lockheed Martin award and Joint recognition by UN Bodies UNESCO IOC and WMO for his contribution outside India, MTS Fellow Award, National Award for Ocean Science & Technology from Ministry of Earth Sciences, and the National Geoscience Award, to mention a few. He earned his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science and completed a course in marine environmental pollution and management and PG Diploma in maritime Law. He is also teaching ocean policy and ocean observation tools as an adjunct faculty in three Universities. He is a Senate member of State University and member of Tamil Nadu State Coastal Zone Authority and is working on a MoES project on assessment of marine plastics in open ocean.
He served as a Chair of GRA of UNESCO IOC and member of the Steering Committee of United Nations committees such as GOOS / UNESCO / IO. Currently serving as Vice Chair of SG OOIS WMO Member for SC-ON Member of INFCOM management Board of WMO, Member of WMO RA II Task Force Singapore. DOOS, and SMART Cables; to mention few. He is serving in the professional bodies IEEE, Institution of Engineers and the Chairman of MTS India. He has to his credit 6 patents filed, 2 awarded 10 Products Technology transfer to industry Member of UNESCO IOC GOOS – MYS Industry Dialogue6 PhD Scholars and reviewed 15 PhD theses as an Examiner, 150 papers in referred Journals, 500 invited lectures, 175 papers in seminars, editorial board of 3 Journals and ha edited 3 books. He organized the largest biology class to get a Guinness Word record. He has vast experience of or gassing student programs vole to 300 competitions seminars Project funding etc. He has travelled to 40 countries and delivered lecture in many Universities in USA and responsible to sign MoU with US institutions and worked to launch NOAA MOES ocean data porta recently. His specialization includes s Marine pollution Marine debris Ocean observation Ocean policy.
