Amiteash Paul

Amiteash Paul is a Biology student at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). Amiteash’s dream is to reorient education systems so that environmental competence is as fundamental as academic, personal and social competence are today. Through his many award-winning projects and creative initiatives, Amiteash galvanizes students, workers, and the community to adopt innovative waste segregation and recycling practices to help conserve resources and reach sustainability. He received the prestigious Diana Award in 2019 for educating students and the community about waste segregation and environmental protection.

At high school, his efforts to raise student awareness of recycling, sustainable waste management, reducing kitchen waste, and saving energy and water resulted in his school being awarded the DEWA-KHDA Conservation Award for successfully lowering energy and water wastage in the school.

Amiteash has also conducted educational waste segregation workshops among Indian laborers in the UAE, so that when they return to India, they will raise awareness among family and community members and educate them to follow sustainable waste management practices. His initiative was recognized by the Times Network Group and the ICICI Bank, who awarded him the Non-Resident Indian of The Year Award in 2018.

Being an active member of the Emirates Environmental Group (EEG) and Bee'ah, UAE's leading integrated environmental and waste management company, Amiteash motivated his neighbors and peers to participate in various recycling and clean up drives such as the ‘Neighborhood Recycling Project’, ‘One Root One Communi-Tree Initiative’, ‘Clean Up the World’ and ‘Clean Up UAE’.

At NYUAD he is a member of the Ecoherence Student Interest Group and also is a member of the Student Government’s Sustainability Committee. He has also held several positions at The Gazelle, an independent student publication serving the NYU Abu Dhabi community and the greater NYU global network.

On top of environmental issues, Amiteash is also passionate about advocating for changing attitudes toward people with disabilities and tackling the discrimination that pushes them to the margins of society. He is a volunteer and teaching assistant with the RKM Blind Boys’ Academy, India, Manzil Centre for Special Needs, part of the Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services, and the Ideal School for the Deaf, India. He is also involved in various charitable and voluntary activities with the Indian Consulate, Community Development Authority-Dubai, and other NGOs.

Amiteash believes the academic community has an important role to play in towards environmental protection and sustainable development, and he played an integral part in organizing both the inaugural and second conference of NYUAD and American University of Sharjah’s Higher Education Climate Dialogues in 2021 and 2022. These are student-run conferences that aim to engage students, faculty, and other community stakeholders in discussing sustainable development and climate action commitments at higher education institutions in the UAE and the wider region.