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Highlighting major contributions to urban planning, research excellence, and academic leadership
Served as Dean of Academics (2022–24), Dean of Planning & Development (2019–20), and Head of Department for two terms (2011–13, 2013–2015).
Head of AMRUT Centre of Urban Planning for Capacity Building (ACUPCB-SPAV), a Centre of Excellence funded by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
PhD from Norwegian University of Science and Technology with Norwegian Government Research Fellowship. MS degree with EU full-scholarship.
Senate member of SPA Bhopal, Expert Advisory Member for SPA Delhi, Board of Studies member at NICMAR University.
Specializes in climate-enabled spatial planning, resilience assessments, and environmental impact studies with field experience across multiple continents.
External jury member at prestigious institutions including University of Gloucestershire (UK), IISc Bangalore, SPA Delhi, CEPT University, and IIT Kharagpur.
Dr. Ayon Kumar Tarafdar works as a Professor at the Department of Planning. He has served as the Dean of Academics for SPA Vijayawada (2022–24), as the Dean of Planning & Development (2019–20), and as the HoD of the Department of Planning for two terms (2011–13, 2013–2015).
Presently, he is the Head of the prestigious AMRUT Centre of Urban Planning for Capacity Building (ACUPCB-SPAV) at SPA Vijayawada, which acts as a Centre of Excellence in research funded by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India. The ACUPCB (www.acupcb.spav.ac.in) undertakes high-end cutting-edge research, capacity building, and advisory to local governments in the region in the domain of Urban Planning and Climate Sensitive Development.
As a resource, Dr. Ayon is a Senate member of SPA Bhopal, a Member of the Doctoral Research Committee at SPA Delhi, and an Expert Advisory Member for the Department of Physical Planning at SPA Delhi. He serves as an Expert Member of the Board of Studies at NICMAR University Pune and has also been an Advisory Member to UPSC, Government of India, DST Government of India, and a Member of the National Educational Standing Committee of the Institute of Town Planners, India (ITPI) under MoHUA, Government of India. He has also been on advisory boards of State Governments on matters of recruitment and planning advocacy.
He has conducted several workshops and training programmes and has been part of numerous international research projects (see attached CV for details). As an academic, he has delivered several invited lectures and served as an external jury member at the University of Gloucestershire (UK), IISc Bangalore, SPA Delhi, CEPT University Ahmedabad, IIT Kharagpur, NIT Trichy, VNIT Nagpur, MANIT Bhopal, IIEST Shibpur, and SPA Bhopal.
Dr. Ayon completed his Bachelor's degree from SPA Delhi in 2000 and earned his MS in Urban Ecological Planning degree in 2002 from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU, Norway) with an EU full-scholarship. After his Master's, he worked for five years as an Urban Planner and GIS Analyst based out of Delhi, and during this period he also served as the Editor of the world's largest GIS portal Geospatial World for one year. His professional practice in the field of planning includes projects and field experience in India, North America, UAE, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, and parts of Europe.
Dr. Ayon pursued his full-time PhD degree from NTNU, Norway (2006–2010) with the acclaimed Norwegian Government Research Fellowship, and his doctoral thesis in environmental planning focused on understanding linkages between development practices and environmental impacts at a local level. He joined academics full-time at SPA Vijayawada in 2009.
As HoD Planning and Dean Academics, he was instrumental in bringing in NEP-oriented Academic Ordinances, starting new academic programmes, and streamlining several processes of academic administration, exchange, and admissions on campus. With over 23 years of experience in research, industry, and teaching, his research and works span the sub-domains of resilience and vulnerability assessments, climate-enabled spatial planning, livelihood analysis of the less-endowed, and assessments of carrying capacities in planning.
He has over 43 publications in international journals and publishers (ISBN/ISSN), 6 book chapters, and 13 international conference presentations (see attached CV for details).