Vikram Chandra Thakur (born 1940) is a geologist whose work focuses on the regional geology, tectonics and earthquake geology of the Himalaya. Dr. Thakur is the former director of theWadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, India. He is a Fellow of theIndian Academy of Sciences.
Born in Dharamsala in the Himalayan state ofHimachal Pradesh in India, Dr. Thakur received his M.Sc. fromPanjab University, Chandigarh and theUniversity of Aberdeen. He went on to receive a Ph.D. DIC fromImperial College, London.
He worked as a teacher from 1962 to 1965. In 1972, Vikram Chandra Thakur joined theWadia Institute of Himalayan Geology and retired as its director. From 1972 to 1986, he was a senior scientist, and later served as its director for 13 years till year 2000. His specialization lies in the study of Himalayan geology,structural geology, and tectonics. In the course of his career, he extensively worked on the terrains of Zanskar, Ladakh, Garhwal, Chamba, Kumaon, and Arunachal Pradesh to establish their tectonic framework. He is a fellow of theIndian Academy of Sciences, and has written over 130 research papers.[1][2]
He is a recipient of the National Mineral Award of theGovernment of India (1983 – 1984), and of thePadma Shri award in 2018.[3][1] The following year, he became a laureate of theAsian Scientist 100 by theAsian Scientist.[4]