Shiv Talwar received his undergraduate degree in civil engineering from the Punjab University, India and his graduate degrees from Lehigh University, USA and the University of Waterloo, Canada.
Shiv retired from his career of teaching civil engineering in 1996 and established Spiritual Heritage Education Network Inc. in 2000 with the mission of researching, developing, delivering and promoting education to cultivate deep feelings of unity in diversity. Shiv has served as its President since its inception.
Shiv owes his spiritual education to his parents, his school teachers in India and his mentor, Swami Vishwatma Bawra to whom he is eternally indebted.
Shiv has been researching how religions may be many but their core wisdom is one. He just completed the manuscript of a book entitled The Common Ground: A Unified Basis for Existence. This book is expected to be published before the conference begins. It is a study of vedic wisdom, that of Abrahamic traditions, Chinese Taoism and modern science to show how various religious traditions are underlain by the same wisdom which is also the summit of scientific discovery.