Prof. N. Vinod Chandra Menon is an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and has participated in training programmes at Cranfield University, UK and the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex. He has attended a six weeks training on Disaster Management in Russia, participated in the Global Training of Trainers Program of UNICEF at New York on Emergency Preparedness and Response and attended the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC) Training at Brindisi, Italy.

Prof. Menon has worked in the Economics Area of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and in the Information Centre on development-Policy Modelling (ICDM) supported by the IDRC, Canada at Systems Research Institute, Pune. Since 1986, he worked as Associate Professor (Economics and Planning) at Maharashtra Institute of Development Administration (MIDA), Pune and from 1996 as Professor (Disaster Management) at the Yeshwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA), Pune. While working as the Professor at the Centre for Disaster Management at YASHADA, Pune, he coordinated the preparation of state and district disaster management plans, the setting up of a state-wide satellite-based Emergency Operations Centre network and the preparation of spatial and non-spatial overlays of ARCINFO-based geographic information system covering 43,000 villages of 35 districts of Maharashtra.

In August 2002, Prof. Menon joined the UNICEF India Country Office in charge of emergency preparedness and response. He coordinated the UNICEF response to floods in several states, drought in Rajasthan, post-earthquake rehabilitation efforts in Gujarat and the Indian Ocean Tsunami in the affected states and Union territories, including Andaman & Nicobar islands. He has been a Member of the United Nations Disaster Management Team in India, UNICEF Country Management Team and the Operations Group.

Prof. Menon was nominated as a Member of the High Power Committee (HPC) on Disaster Management Plans set up by the Government of India in 1999. He has worked as Consultant to the World Bank, UNDP, UNICEF and ADPC, Bangkok on Disaster Management related projects. He has published scores of articles, papers and chapters in books on disaster management. Prof. Menon has participated and presented papers at several International Conferences in USA, UK, Germany, Thailand, Nepal, Italy, Japan, etc.

In August 2005, Prof. Menon was nominated as a Member of the newly constituted National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) headed by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India.