Bio: Shirish obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya, Bhopal, and M. Tech. (specialization in thermal Sciences) from the National Institute of Technology, Calicut, India. During his MTech., he developed a MATLAB code for predicting the behaviour of compression ignition engines during water-diesel co-injection. He is currently associated with Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research, IISc as a doctoral researcher. His research topic at IISc is clean coal conversion of high ash Indian coal. This work includes fundamental experiments like single particle combustion experiments, char reactivity assessment in packed bed reactor, cold flow visualization, image processing, and cold flow two-phase simulation by commercial software like ANSYS fluent. He was also involved in designing and developing a two-stage cyclone gasifier based on the understanding acquired through fundamental experiments. The pilot plant of two-stage gasification can handle indigenous high-ash coal and generate syngas with a high calorific value of 11 MJ/kg with more than 50% hydrogen. His research interests include conversion of solid fuel to gaseous fuel, solid fuel to liquid fuel, waste to energy, carbon capture and sequestration, reactor design, process scaling, and intensification. He believes that the knowledge gained during his education should be used to solve problems of ordinary people. Keeping this responsibility in mind, he also was involved in a group activity for designing a torrefaction system to utilize the agro residue, which was otherwise gone to stubble burning, causing substantial environmental damage. In his spare time, he loves to listen to music, play tabla, paint, make sketches, and read novels.