Dr Sourav Paul is an estuarine ecologist and one of the cofounders of the Estuarine and Coastal Studies Foundation (ECSF). He visions for a holistic  development of estuarine-coastal studies and associated issues in India. Dr Paul has been instrumental for cyclone ecology research program of Indian estuaries and his efforts are fittingly recognised by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, UNESCO during UN Ocean Decade 2021-2030. Previously, he has been awarded DST-Inspire Faculty fellowship and different extramural grants from the Govt. of India and the Govt. of West Bengal to carry out ecological research on Ganges estuary during that tenure his built ‘Coastal and Quantitative Ecology Research Laboratory’ at the University of Calcutta. His works on the ecology of Ganges estuary led him to earn excellence from Department of Science and Technology, India. In his early academic career, Dr Paul has earned his doctoral degree from the University of Otago, New Zealand where he studied ecological physiology of estuarine crustaceans. He went on to conduct post-doctoral research in ecology of estuaries and coastal ecosystems of South Africa and Uruguay. He has led and published several research articles on estuaries in various international and national journals. His mission is to build the ECSF as an institution which pursues excellence in estuarine and coastal studies for better serving the humanity.