Nirmala holds a PhD in Environmental Technology and is a seasoned specialist in life cycle assessment (LCA), carbon assessment, and waste management, with over 20 years of international experience in environmental technology and research. Before joining IGES as a Senior Fellow in 2024, she worked as a Principal Consultant at Resource Futures in the UK. She has extensive experience supporting national governments and private sectors in developing various models and tools for carbon and sustainability assessment across multiple fields, including waste, textiles, paint, plastics, and the steel industry. Nirmala also worked as a consultant for the Energy Saving Trust in the UK, where she helped to assess the sustainability of solar-based cold rooms and refrigeration systems for the African region. Additionally, she has been a fellow at IGES since 2014, contributing to numerous quantitative based policy research and tools/models development projects.
From 2011 to 2014, Nirmala served as a policy researcher at IGES, focusing on quantitative research and model/tool development enabling policy and decision-making. Earlier in her career, she worked as a researcher at The Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment (JGSEE) in Thailand and as a lecturer at the University of Peradeniya before joining IGES in 2011. In recognition of her significant contributions to climate change research, she has been honoured by inclusion in Marquis Who's Who in the World and was ranked among Marquis Who’s Who Top Scientists for 2023-2024.