Dr. Patro B. P. K
Chief Scientist , Magnetotellurics
Research Area
Dr. Prasanta K. Patro received his B.Sc from Berhampur University, Orissa and M.Sc. from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam. After completing his masters, Dr. Patro joined NGRI and worked towards his PhD from Osmania University, Hyderabad. Dr. Patro is currently working as Chief Scientist at CSIR-NGRI. Dr. Patro has been studying the resistivity structure of crust and upper mantle using magnetotelluric (MT) method, which uses electromagnetic induction in the earth. Since the resistivity is a physical parameter which is sensitive to the existence of fluids and minerals, Dr. Patro’s study has given important information on seismotectonics and resource explorations. He has applied magnetotellurics (MT) technique employing the state-of-ar powerful tools in processing, decomposition of MT tensor and modeling approaches (1D, 2D, 3D and anisotropy ) to study a variety of problems encompassing both solid earth geophysics and exploration aspects. For example, diversities in the crust and lithospheric electrical structures of the geotectonic units of south & central India viz. the Deccan Volcanic Province and the Southern Granulite Terrain have been brought out with particular focus on the DVP and its seismotectonics. In the recent times, Dr. Patro’s research is focused on Himalayan tectonics and the Cascaida Subduction Zone, North America using the MT. Development of new 3-D inversion techniques to invert the magnetotelluric response functions. Dr. Patro is the recipient of several prominent recognitions, notable among them being Krishnan Gold Medal from Indian Geophysical Union, Post-doctoral research fellowship from the Oregon State University, USA; Japan Science Promotion Society (JSPS) fellowship, Tokyo and the BOYSCAST fellowship from Government of India..