Bibhu P. Nayak is an Associate Professor at School of Livelihoods and Development, Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Hyderabad Campus. He is an economist by training and has been working on environmental and resource governance issues. He teaches courses like Ecological Economics, Theories of Economic Development and other courses linking institutions, environment and development.  Prior to TISS, he worked for The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi and Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru in India. 

He has worked on several research and consultancy projects funded by various national and international agencies. His research interest include economics of conservation, community based institutions, social capital and collective action, participatory natural resource management and rural livelihood systems. He has worked on research projects with inter-disciplinary focus and travelled extensively across different states in India for field research. He published some of his research on different national and international journals and participated in several international summer schools, national and international conferences and workshops. He is the recipient for Global Development Network (GDN) Medal for Research on Development in 2013.

He has been associated with professional associations like Indian Society of Ecological Economics (INSEE), Orissa Economic Association (OEA) and several academic networks like South Asia Network for Environment and Development (SANDEE); Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSR); Research Committee on Behavioral Insights, Green Growth Knowledge Platform; Ronald Coase Institute Alumni Network, among others.