Dr. Akshai K. Runchal is the founder and Director of CFD Virtual Reality Institute and ACRI group of companies. His expertise is in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). He obtained his Ph.D. in 1969 from Imperial College (London, U.K.) under the guidance of Prof. D, B. Spalding and was a key member of the 3-person team led by Spalding that invented the Finite Volume Method (FVM) in the mid 1960's. Since 1979, he has consulted widely on flow, heat and mass transfer, combustion, environmental impact, hazardous and nuclear waste, ground water and decision analysis to over 200 clients in 20 countries. He is the principal author of PORFLOW, TIDAL, ANSWER and RADM simulation models that are used worldwide. He received his Bachelor’s in Engineering from PEC in1964. He has taught as regular or adjunct faculty at a number of leading institutes including IIT(Kanpur), Imperial College (London), University of California (Los Angeles) and Cal State (Northridge). He has authored or co-authored 7 books and over 200 technical publications. He has received many honors and awards, and given many invited contributions at conferences.
Dr. Runchal grew up in the scenic hill town of McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala that is now on the world map as the hometown of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Since 2006 he has been deeply engaged in reviving the lost heritage of Kangra Miniature Paintings through Kangra Arts Promotion Society – an NGO based in McLeod Ganj. He divides his time between Los Angeles and McLeod Ganj and is actively engaged in promoting education, training and R&D in CFD and related disciplines.