An International Workshop
Creating the Information Commons for e-Science:
Toward Institutional Policies and Guidelines for Action
 UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France
1-2 September 2005


Subiah ArunachalamSubiah Arunachalam - Biography

Distinguished Fellow, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, India

Subbiah Arunachalam (Arun) is an information scientist based in Chennai in South India.

He is:

  • an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), 
  • an Honorary Member of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST),
  • a Life Member of IASLIC, Indian Association of Special Libraries and Information Centers,
  • a Trustee of the Electronic Publishing Trust
  • a member of the Governing Board of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics.
  • a trustee of OneWorld South Asia,
  • a member of the Executive Committee of the Global Knowledge Partnership,
  • a member of the international advisory board of IICD, The Hague.

Associated with Indian academic and scholarly communities for over three decades, he has been an editor of scientific journals [Indian Journal of Technology, Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research, Indian Journal of Chemistry, Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences, and Pramana - Journal of Physics], a science writer, a chemistry researcher, an information science instructor, a librarian in a national laboratory, the executive secretary of the Indian Academy of Sciences, and a part-time visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

He has more than 60 papers to his credit and is on the editorial boards of six refereed international journals, including Journal of Information Science and Current Science. He has delivered more than 50 invited talks at international conferences.

A volunteer with the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), in Chennai, India, since April 1996, his research interests include science on the periphery, scientometrics, information access, and the application of information and communication technologies in development and poverty reduction programmes. He is an ardent advocate open access archiving and is especially active in persuading researchers and research institutions in the developing countries to adopt open access archiving. To see his writings, please search for "Subbiah Arunachalam" in http://A9.com or www.google.com.

Arun was trained as a chemist, but came to recognise that his calling was in information science when he was a doctoral student at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. At MSSRF Arun's group is working with the rural poor to see how ICT-enabled development programmes can make a difference to the lives of the rural poor. The Information Village Research Project has won many awards. More importantly, it seems to be bringing in benefits to the local community.