Dr. Rahul Sharma joined Odyssey as Chief Scientific Advisor after retiring as Chief Scientist from the CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography in Goa, India with an experience of almost 40 years in the field of exploration and exploitation of deep-sea minerals. He has also led a multi-disciplinary group on ‘Environmental studies for marine mining’. He has a master’s degree in Geology and a doctorate in Marine Science. His professional interests include application of exploration and environmental data to deep-sea mining.

He has edited three special issues of journals, published 38 scientific papers, authored 27 articles and 41 technical reports, and presented more than 60 papers at national and international conferences. He has also edited books on ‘Deep-sea Mining’, ‘Environmental issues of deep-sea mining’ and ‘Perspectives on deep-sea mining’, published by Springer International Publishers in 2017, 2019 and 2022 that contain 18-23 chapters contributed by experts from around the world.

His international assignments include Visiting Scientist to Japan, Visiting Professor to Saudi Arabia, member of the UNIDO mission ‘to assess the status of Deep-sea mining technologies' in Europe, USA and Japan, invited speaker and consultant for the International Seabed Authority, Jamaica. He has contributed to the ‘World Ocean Assessment report I’ of the United Nations and has also been invited to contribute a chapter on ‘Potential impacts of deep-sea mining on marine ecosystem’ for the Oxford Encyclopaedia for environmental science. In addition to his research career, he has been involved with several activities relating to science communication and outreach, as well as training programs for international participants, professionals and students.