Dornadula Chandrasekharam (Chandra) was born on March 1948 in India. He is a Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, since 1987. He obtained his M.Sc. degree in Applied Geology and Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He is working in the fields of volcanology, groundwater pollution and geothermics over the past 30 years and his current research interest is geothermics. Before joining IITB he served CWRDM and CESS, Kerala, for 7 years as a senior scientist. He served as the Head of the Department of Earth Sciences (2000-2003) and Centre of Studies in Resources Engineering (2002-2008) in IITB.

Prof.Chandra was nominated as a TWAS (Third World Academy of Sciences, Italy) Visiting Professor to Sanaa University, Yemen Republic between 1996-2001 and was selected as a Senior Associate of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy from 2002-2007. He received ICTP Fellowship to conduct research at the Italian National Science Academy (CNR) in 1997 on Indian geothermal waters and gases. Chandra extensively conducted research in low enthalpy geothermal resources in India and in other countries and is very well known amongst the geothermal scientific community of the world. He chaired several World Geothermal Congresses and international geothermal conferences.  With his vast experience in geothermics, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay encouraged him to incubate M/s GeoSyndicate Power Private Ltd., the only geothermal company in India. He is currently the Chairman, the company in India.

Chandra is a member of the International Geothermal Association and Geothermal Resources Council and represented the country in World Geothermal Congresses and several international geothermal conferences. He is one of the executive members of International Society of Groundwater for Sustainable Development (ISGSD) and is a member, Editorial Board in Journal of Advanced Researches on Geology, Irvine, USA and Journal of Mineralogical and Petrological Sciences, (Japan Mineralogical Socity), Japan. He conducted short courses in low enthalpy geothermal resources in Argentina, Costa Rica, Poland and ICTP, Trieste. He supervised 15 Ph.D. students and published more than 100 scientific papers in international and national journals of repute.

Chandra has active international collaborations with – The Italian National Science Academy (CNR) - Italy, IITB - Monash University Academy – An Indian – Australian Research Partnership, University of Science and Technology (AGH) in Krakow – Poland, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Stockholm Sweden, ICS–UNIDO (International Center for Science and Higher Education: United Nations Industrial Development Organization), School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences , Beijing, and Department of Geosciences, China University, Wuhan, China. 

Chandrasekharam is an independent Director on the Board of Directors of ONGC, Western Coalfields Ltd, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd and Indian Rare Earths Ltd. He is also a member of the Advisory committee of the ONGC Energy Centre. Two among his five books – ‘Low Enthalpy Geothermal Resources for Power generation’ and ‘Geothermal Energy Resources for Developing Countries’ have become handhold kit in the geothermal power generation sectors of the world.