Alakendra N Roychoudhury was educated in India and the USA, obtained his PhD in low-temperature aqueous geochemistry and an interdisciplinary certificate in Geohydrology from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA in March 1999. Without going through a Post doctoral phase he started his teaching career at Northwestern University as a lecturer from January 1999 in the department of geological sciences and eventually moved to the University of Cape Town in July 2001 to take up the position of Senior lecturer and the responsibility of reviving the Taught Masters program in Environmental Geochemistry.

Alakendra Roychoudhury aroy@geology.uct.ac.za 3

His research primarily focuses on the kinetics of microbially-mediated reactions and their role in biogeochemical cycling, and transport and fate of contaminants in subsurface porous media. The research encompasses curiosity driven aspect in terms of understanding the chemical evolution of Earth's aquatic systems and associated processes, as well as application of kinetic processes towards solving environmental problems created by anthropogenic impacts. His overall goal is to systematically link process-based knowledge gained from pristine and impacted environments to understand the temporal aspects of global change.