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Sudhir K Jain received his education as Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) from University of Roorkee in 1979, the Master of Science from California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, USA in 1980, and the Doctor of Philosophy, also from Caltech, in 1983. He joined Civil Engineering faculty at IIT Kanpur in 1984 and in June 2009 moved over to IIT Gandhinagar as its Director.
At IIT Kanpur, Professor Jain has taught earthquake and structural engineering and has mentored a large number of students and young engineers from Industry. He is an active researcher in earthquake engineering and has published more than 150 research papers. He has carried out important studies after all the major earthquakes in India since 1988. He has been instrumental in improving state-of-the-practice in the construction industry in India, through development of Indian seismic codes and commentaries, and extremely popular continuing education courses for professional engineers. Since 2001, Dr. Jain has organized the hugely popular annual Summer Camp at IIT Kanpur for undergraduate students of Civil Engineering from all over India to motivate them towards the profession.
Dr. Jain has offered his expertise as consultant to several major bridge projects in high seismic regions of India, two concrete gravity dams in Sikkim, a base-isolated hospital in Simla, and a major crude oil pipeline. He has consulted for the World Bank on seismic safety issues in Srinagar, Kashmir and in Istanbul, Turkey.
To meet the information needs of professionals and the public, he set up the National Information Center of Earthquake Engineering (NICEE) at IIT Kanpur. NICEE receives no budgetary support from anywhere, and operates entirely on the interest income of its endowment, sponsorships, publications sales, and donations.
He is the key person behind the development of the National Program on Earthquake Engineering Education (NPEEE) in India to build capacity in earthquake engineering in numerous civil engineering and architecture colleges across India. He was the National Coordinator of NPEEE during 2003-07. More than 1,300 faculty members from across India were trained in earthquake engineering under this programme.
Professor Sudhir Jain has shouldered many administrative responsibilities at IIT Kanpur that include Head of Civil Engineering Department (2001-2003); Chairman, Student Placement Committee (1995-96); Coordinator, Quality Improvement Programme (1997-1999); and Coordinator, Centre for Development of Technical Education (1997-1999). Professor Jain also served as the Dean, Resource Planning and Generation (2005-2008) at IIT Kanpur wherein he mobilized the alumni, raised very substantial funds, and initiated a number of new programmes to encourage and support excellence at IITK.
Dr. Jain serves on the Board of Directors of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering (2000- ) and is currently its Executive Vice President (2008- ). He is on the Board of Directors of the World Seismic Safety Initiative (2002- ), an organization that promotes earthquake risk reduction in developing countries. He is also the Executive Board Member of the Asia-Pacific Association for Public Safety Science and Technology (2008- ). Professor Jain was elected a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering in 2003. |
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