Dr. S.M. Gandhi obtained his M. Tech and Ph.D degrees in Applied Geology in 1967 and 1975, respectively, from Sagar University, India. He joined Hindustan Zinc (HZL) in 1971 as Exploration/Mining geologist and worked in Zawar group of mines until 1974. Between 1974 and 1979, he was a Canadian Commonwealth Fellow and carried out research on Lithogeochemical Exploration Techniques for base metals in Eastern Canada and obtained a Ph.D from Univ. of New Brunswick (UNB), Canada, in 1978. During his stay in North America, besides serving as a faculty member in UNB in mineral exploration and exploration geochemistry, Dr. Gandhi visited and worked in various world-class base and precious metal prospects/deposits along with multinational exploration groups in Canada and USA. He has 62 scientific publications in peer-reviewed, national and international journals. He is now a consultant in Mineral Exploration & Mineral Evaluation and a guest faculty member in a few Universities, teaching Mineral Exploration courses. Prof. B. C. Sarkar obtained his five-year Integrated M.Sc. degree in Applied Geology from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1980. He served Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited during 1980-81 and Hindustan Zinc Limited during 1981-89 as Geologist and Senior Geologist. Prof. Sarkar obtained his Ph.D. degree in Mining Geostatistics and D.I.C. in Mineral Resources Engineering from Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London in 1988 on a Government of India Scholarship. During his PhD, Prof Sarkar developed an Integrated Geological-Geostatistical System (details published in Mining Magazine, London 1988) and applied it to five mineral deposits across the globe representing different mineralisation types. Having worked in Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd. (MECL), Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) and presently being with Indian School of Mines (ISM) since December 1989, Prof. Sarkar contributed significantly to the mineral exploration developments of various explored and un-explored deposit areas and mines in the country and abroad. Prof Sarkar has been the Chairman of MEAI organised All India Exploration Geologists Meet in 2014 and is the recipient of various awards in recognition of scholarship, impeccable devotion to work and outstanding achievements in the field of Mineral Exploration.
