Professor Sibnath Deb, PhD and DSc, is a full-time professor at the Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University (a central university), India. Professor Deb is also acting as Director (I/C), Directorate of Distance Education, and Dean (I/C), School of Law, Pondicherry University. Prior to joining the Pondicherry University, he was teaching at the University of Calcutta. In 1994, Professor Deb did an intensive course on ‘HIV/AIDS and Qualitative Research’ from the University of Western Australia. From April 2009 to August 2009, Professor Deb visited the School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia, as Visiting Faculty. Currently, he is also Adjunct Professor at the School of Public Health and Social Work, QUT, Australia. During 2004–2008, he served the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) as Councillor Member. In brief, he has got 28 years of teaching, research and administrative experience and has produced 19 PhDs in addition to publishing more than 100 research articles/book chapters in the leading national and international journals. Professor Deb has written six books and edited five books. His latest published books are (a) Child Safety, Welfare and Well-being: Issues and Challenges (2016); (b) An Empirical Investigation into Child Abuse and Neglect in India: Burden, Impact and Protective Measures (2018); and (c) Positive Schooling and Child Development: International Perspectives (2018). His one more book titled Distance Education: Prospects, Challenges and Way Forward is in press. Professor Deb has received three national and three international awards in recognition of his contribution in the field of psychology. His current areas of research interest include family dynamics, parenting styles, child safety, students’ mental health, adolescent reproductive health and applied social psychology. Aleena Maria Sunny is a full-time PhD scholar under the supervision of Professor Sibnath Deb at the Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University. She holds an Master’s degree in Applied Clinical Psychology in applied clinical psychology from Tata Institute of Social Sciences and a Bachelor’s (Honours) Degree (Honours) in psychology from Christ University, Bengaluru. Recently, she co-authored two books titled (a) Disadvantaged Children in India: Empirical Evidence, Policies and Actions (2020) and (b) Childhood to Adolescence: Issues and Concerns (2019) with Professor Sibnath Deb. Her research interests include clinical psychology, neuro-cognitive psychology and child development. Professor Nilanjana Sanyal, PhD, is currently a retired professor of the Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta. She is also a practising psychoanalyst for the last 36 years. She has imparted training in counselling in various governmental institutions and NGOs, both nationally and internationally, and is consistently involved in mass media programmes for awareness generation regarding mental health issues. She is also a columnist in different national dailies and magazines. She has authored a book, Positivism, Positive Psychology and Spirituality, edited two books and is a co-author of a test manual. She has over 180 international and national publications including 28 book chapters to her credit till date. Her research interests include psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy, personality, clinical and spiritual psychology and interpersonal relationships. She is a co-researcher for the creation of a registered assessment methodology, namely the Fairy Tale Test (FTT) with Dr Carina Coulacouglou, University of Athens, Greece. She is a member of International Psychoanalytical Association and an honorary member of the FTT Society, Greece, apart from her membership in other national and international professional bodies. She is a gold medallist of the University of Calcutta, at both UG and PG levels. She received the Jubilee Merit Prize and Jawaharlal Nehru Award from the Government of India along with the Suhashini Basu Memorial Prize from the Indian Psychoanalytical Society for excellence of a research paper. Apart from other awards, she is also the recipient of the Professor Maya Deb Memorial Award (2012) from the Asiatic Society, Kolkata.
