Suriya Sundararajan
An alumnus of the IMO International Maritime Law Institute, the Alliance University, the Yeosu Academy of the Law of the Sea and the Kadir Has Law of the Sea Academy, with LLM (Distinction), LLB and BA degrees under his belt, Suriya has worked on various short-term multi-stakeholder research endeavors such as the European Union Horizon2020 Programme titled “Overcoming Regulatory Barriers for Service Robotics in an Ocean Industry Context” and METAVASEA, a project that covers people-centric transition in the era of decarbonization steered by HELMEPA. He is also a member of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) Alumni Network.
In his earlier stint, at the National Maritime Foundation (NMF) which is India’s premier maritime think tank of the Indian Navy, he served as one of its principal researchers in the field of law of the sea and public international law at New Delhi. At the NMF he set up and led the Public International Maritime Law Vertical and has worked with the Top Admirals of the Indian Navy to contribute to India’s National Maritime Policy in association with NITI Aayog. As part of research visits Suriya has boarded India’s frontline naval combatants including guided-missile frigates, a diesel-electric submarine, and the Aircraft Carrier, the INS Viraat.
He is privileged to have been commended by the Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy in 2019 for his commitment and professional competence of a very high order. He was also invited by the Foreign Services Institute, Ministry of External Affairs, India, to conduct an Induction Training Programme on the law of the sea for the Indian Foreign Service Officer Trainees and Bhutanese Diplomats.
He has presented and contributed to international conferences and expert dialogues across Europe, Asia and the Indian Ocean region, including engagements involving the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, the International Law Association — Asian Society for International Law, the U.S. Naval War College’s Stockton Center for International Law and leading academic institutions. Suriya is the author/editor of scholarly articles on law of the sea and regulation of ocean technologies.
Beyond academia, he has competed in basketball at university level and softball at national level. He is also an unapologetic cinephile, with a particular fascination for cinema as a form of political and sociological storytelling.
Currently, his interests and efforts converge around a simple but expansive question: how can international law address a rapidly changing ocean, where technology, geopolitics, environmental crisis and human ambition increasingly meet?