Biography

Prof. T. G. Sitharam took over as Chairman, All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), Govt of India on December 21, 2022.

Prof. T. G. Sitharam was the Director of Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Assam for 3.5 years (from July 2019 to December, 2022). He Obtained his B.E.(Civil Engineering) from University of Mysore; Master’s from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1986 and Ph.D. from University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in 1991. He worked as a lecture at University of Waterloo soon after his PhD and later moved to University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA (1992-94). He also held the position of Director (additional charge) at Central Institute of Technology Kokrajhar, Assam for 1.5 years (May 2021-November 2022). Presently, he is the Chairman, Board of Governors at CIT, Kokrajhar and Chairman, Board of Management of North East Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST), Nirjuli, Arunachala Pradesh.

He is a Senior Professor in Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore and served IISc for the last 30 years. He held KSIIDC Chair Professor in the area of Energy and Mechanical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore from 2015 to 2018. He was instrumental in starting a Center for infrastructure, sustainable transport and urban planning and Master’s programme in the center at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He has served as a visiting or honorary professor at many universities in countries such as Japan, Canada, USA, Hongkong, Australia and Republic of China.

Presently, Prof. Sitharam is the member of Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Established through an Act of Parliament: SERB Act 2008, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. He was the former Chairman, Research Council, CSIR- CBRI (Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee). He was the chairman, Executive council of Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum Bangalore. He was the Governing council member of National council for Science Museums (NCSM); EC and council member of AICTE (2015-2022). He is presently the Board member of Bureau of Indian Standards and Central Power Research Institute.

His broad area of research falls in to Geotechnical Infrastructure engineering including ocean and coastal zone management, earth sciences, hydrology, seismology, and natural hazards. He has carried out Seismic microzonation of many urban centers in India including Bangalore, Lucknow and NCR Delhi. He is an authority on seismic microzonation and site effects in the world. Presently, he is the President of Indian Society of earthquake Technology and he chaired the 7th International conference on recent advances in Geotechnical earthquake engineering and soil dynamics held in July 2021. He is also the President of International Association for Coastal Reservoir Research (IACRR) and IACRR’s vision is to be the world's leading organization, dedicated to advancing all aspects of Coastal Reservoir and promoting the sustainable development and management of coastal zones. He is the Scientific Committee Chairman of the 1st IACRR International Conference on Coastal Reservoirs and Sustainable Water Management to be held in China during Nov 2023.

Over the last 35 years, he has carried out research and development in the area of geotechnical and infrastructure engineering, seismic microzonation and soil dynamics, Geotechnical earthquake engineering and has developed innovative technologies in the area of earth sciences, leading to about 500 technical papers, 20 books with Google scholar H-index of 53 and I-10 index 149 with more than 8614 citations. He has guided 40 Ph.D. students; 35 Masters Students, 25 postdoctoral students and several thousand industry professionals and teachers through continuing education workshops. He has filed for 5 patents, executed more than 120 consulting projects and 2 start-up companies to his credit. He was listed in the world's top 2% of scientists for the most-cited research scientists in various disciplines by Stanford University in 2020. Again his name appeared in the top 2% of scientists in Elsevier by Stanford University in 2021 and 2022. He was part of an 8-member expert panel set up to supervise Ram temple foundation-laying work for Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra at Ayodhya. He was the consultant for M/s AFCONS in the construction of the highest railway bridge across river Chenab near Katra. J&K and on many other important assignments.

He is the chief editor of International journal of Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, (IJGEE), PA, USA since 2010. He is the Editor-in-chief, Springer Transactions in Civil and Environmental Engineering series, Book Series, Singapore. He was the editorial board member of many international Journals of repute in his area of research like Geotechnique letters, ASCE; Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, EJGE, etc. He has delivered the prestigious Indian Geotechnical Society’s annual lecture in IGC during December 2020. He is the honorary fellow of Indian Geotechnical Society and Honorary fellow of council of Vibration Specialist. He has received many awards and occludes for his work. In 2015, he was a recipient of IGS Kuckleman Award for his life time contributions in Geotechnical Engineering. In 2014, he was a recipient of Prof. Gopal Ranjan research award from IIT Roorkee for his excellent contributions to Geotechnical Engineering in the country. IISc conferred Amulya and Vimala Reddy Lecture Award at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in the field of Sustainable Development for the year 2014 on Sitharam. Earlier, he was the recipient of Sir C.V. Raman State Award for Young Scientists, Government of Karnataka, in the year 2002 in recognition and appreciation of exceptional contributions to Engineering Sciences. He is the Fellow of ASCE, Fellow of ICE (UK), Diplomat of Geotechnical Engineering (D.Ge.) from Academy of Geo-Professionals, ASCE; Honorary Fellow of IGS, Fellow of ISET, Fellow of ISES and many other Societies. He is also a certified professional engineer and chartered engineer from Institution of Engineers.

As the Director of IIT Guwahati, he was responsible for creating 5 new schools and 5 new academic multidisciplinary centers at IITG during 2020-21 and has taken IITG as no 2 institute in citation per faculty in India (Rank 41 globally) in the recent QS world ranking 2022. IITG jumped 95 ranks from 2019 to 395th rank globally in 2022. In NIRF ranking, IITG Maintained its 7th rank in engineering under his leadership. He has also created new Industry Interaction and special Initiative (II&SI) cell at IITG and has attracted large number of companies and incubated large number of start-ups. He has lead the Research park and Technology Incubation Center at IITG effectively. He has also improved research environment at IIT Guwahati and also successful in getting additional philanthropic funds to start school of Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence; and, School of Agro & Rural technologies. His plans for upgrading scientific infrastructure at IIT Guwahati are commendable. He was able develop a strategic partnership with Govt of Assam in establishing a medical school and a commitment from Govt of Assam to start a state-of-the-art Multispecialty Hospital at IITG with partnership. He is the member of Board of Governors of many NIT’s; IIEST, NCSM, AICTE, NESAC, etc.

He is an active member Presidents’ Forum of Southeast and South Asia and Taiwan Universities (SATU Presidents’ Forum), Member of many scientific committees in International Societies of repute and many other Associations and Universities in India & abroad. He has delivered many talks on implementation plan and best case studies of National Education Policy implementation across universities and institutions.