Vinayak Sinha is a Professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali (IISER Mohali) located in north-west India, where as the Founder Head he contributed to establishing the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. He completed his Bachelors in Science (BSc with Honours in Chemistry) and Master in Science (MSc: specialization in organic chemistry of natural products) in 2002 from Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Prasanthinilayam and subsequently completed a Master of Technology (M. Tech) in Analytical Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 2004. Prior to joining IISER Mohali in August 2010, he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany for six years from 2004-2010 as a doctoral and postdoctoral research scientist.
His current research is focused on investigations of emissions, atmospheric chemistry and air quality feedbacks as well as source apportionment of gases and fine mode aerosol in megacities. The investigations combine experimental tools such as proton transfer reaction mass spectrometers, gas chromatography and spectroscopic techniques with satellite remote sensed data, chemical box models and chemical transport models for comprehensive understanding. He set up the state-of-the-art IISER Mohali Central Atmospheric Chemistry facility in the north-west Indo-Gangetic Plain where atmospheric composition and meteorology measurements for >100 chemical and physical parameters including VOCs at ultra-trace level (ppt-ppb) are being made continuously since 2011. Ozone chemistry, hydroxyl radical reactivity, molecular chemical fingerprinting of air-pollution sources, volatile organic compounds, mass spectrometric measurements of atmospheric chemical composition and development of India-wide VOC emission inventories using measured emission factors and updated activity data are some of his key areas of expertise and recent contributions.
He is currently serving as a member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the International Commission on Global Atmospheric Chemistry and Air Pollution. Previously he has served as Co-chair of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study (iLEAPS), from 2014-2020, as Editor (Subject: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics) for Earth System Science Data published by EGU from 2010-2020 and as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES, Nainital, India), Member of the Atmospheric Chemistry Advisory and Monitoring Committee in Ministry of Earth Sciences, India, and been a Co-chair of (WG1) of the Atmospheric Composition in the Asian Monsoon (ACAM), as well as a contributor to the Third Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR).