The IWKG is very happy and proud to have three guest researchers at the institute at the moment! We warmly welcome Dr. Raphael Kweyu, Prof. Balkrishna C. Rao, and Wang Luwei.
Dr. Raphael Kweyu visits us from the Geography Department at Kenyatta University in Kenya. He has a Postdoc-scholarship from the TWAS-DFG Cooperation Visits Programme and stays in Hannover for three months from May to July 2022. His general research interest is human-environment relations. During his time in Hannover, he is working on Environmental Governance in Africa and, education and SDGs attainment in Kenya with Prof. Kerstin Nolte, and Dr Andreas Eberth from IDN.
Prof. Balkrishna C. Rao is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Design at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in India. His research interests include frugal engineering and sustainable manufacturing. Research activities in his group span studies on the mechanics underlying the entire gamut of additive and subtractive processes for improving their productivity and also efficiency. In frugal engineering, he has developed the factor of frugality approach to designing advanced frugal products in any sector. Professor Balkrishna Rao earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, US. He has also served as a research associate at Purdue with the School of Industrial Engineering. The long stint at Purdue has resulted in research contributions to the automotive- and aerospace-sectors in the US with involvement in nanotechnology for manufacturing.
Rao is currently the ICCR Chair Professor of Indian Studies at IWKG where he will teach and conduct research on advanced frugal products and frugal engineering, together with Prof. Ingo Liefner and Julian Barnikol.
Wang Luwei is a PhD student at the School of Geography at Nanjing Normal University in China. Her research focuses on technology diffusion of high-tech industries & Innovative economic geography. She will stay in Hannover for two years. Together with Prof. Ingo Liefner, Chris Brück and Florian Schneider, she collaborates on the Strategic Coupling of Foreign Trade and Domestic Innovation in China's Emerging Industries.
