Prominent Civil, Structural, and Earthquake Engineer and Professor – Sekhar Chandra Dutta

Engineering is one of the most popular and ageless academic disciplines due to the need for engineers in almost all aspects of industrial, construction, civil, mechanical, electrical, and electronic projects. Engineers offer valuable insights regarding the technical aspects of a project due to their expertise and skills acquired through education and research. Engineering evolved significantly over the years to introduce, develop, and improve numerous disciplines focusing on particular aspects of the primary domain. For example, the civil engineering field witnessed significant changes over the past few decades, paving the way for environmental, transportation, geotechnical, municipal, construction, structural, and earthquake engineering. 

The evolving disciplines motivated numerous scientists, researchers, and academics to perform studies and research in their respective fields to enhance knowledge and offer valuable insights for field practitioners. Structural and earthquake engineering witnessed significant growth and evolution in the past few years mainly because of the contribution of academics, professors, and research scholars, especially in the developed world. However, developing nations also produced remarkable scholars and academics who are essential in advancing civil, structural, and earthquake engineering disciplines. Sekhar Chandra Dutta is a career academic, structural, and earthquake engineer with vast teaching and research experience.

Education and Experience

Sekhar Chandra Dutta is a career academic with experience as a professor at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and several other educational institutions. Dutta completed his bachelor of engineering (BE) in civil engineering from the University of Calcutta, Kolkata, in 1988. He completed his Master in Engineering (ME) from the same institute in 1990. He went to the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur to complete his Ph.D. in civil engineering with a focus on structural engineering in 1996. Dutta completed several research projects and published numerous scholarly articles in scientific journals starting in 1992 after completing his master’s degree in engineering. He published over 120 scholarly articles in scientific journals individually and in collaboration with other authors, engineers, and scientists.

Sekhar Chandra Dutta started his professional career as a teacher in 1995 by assuming the role of a lecturer at the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIES), formerly the Bengal Engineering College (BE College) (DU) Shibpur, India. He became an assistant professor of applied mechanics two years later. He continued his tenure at the college until 2004 before working as a professor of civil engineering at Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, where he worked for five years until 2009. Dutta founded the School of Infrastructure at the Bhubaneswar campus of the Indian Institutes of Technology and became its chairperson in 2009. He was also a visiting Fulbright Nehru senior research fellow at the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Davis, from 2010 to 2011. Dutta started his career at IIT Bhubaneswar in 2009 and continued teaching and serving in various roles at the institute for several years, including dean of student affairs, continuing education, alum affairs, and international relations.

Research and Scholarly Work

Sekhar Chandra Dutta is a professor and career academic with extensive research experience and numerous scholarly works to his credit. Some of his primary research interests include structural dynamics, earthquake engineering, soil structure interaction, seismic design of masonry or asymmetric structures, and seismic safety of structures. Dutta published over 120 research articles in scholarly journals from 1992 to 2022, mainly focusing on structural and earthquake engineering topics and subjects. Most of Dutta’s research centered on structural behavior, safety, and integrity against seismic activity or natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, and cyclones. He also co-authored a book, “improving earthquake and cyclone resistance of structures: guidelines for the Indian subcontinent,” and a chapter called “Indian Cyclones and Earthquake: Impact of Structures” in the Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards. Dutta also has over 80 conference publications and three technical reports revolving around civil, structural, and earthquake engineering. 

Recognition and Achievements

Sekhar Chandra Dutta received substantial recognition for his structural and earthquake engineering contributions. He was included in the top 2 percent scientists list prepared by Stanford University in 2021 and was selected for the DUO 2020 exchange program under the auspices of the ASEM DUO Secretariat for exchange-based research collaboration with the University of Manchester, UK. He was elected as the Fellow of the Indian Association of Structural Engineers (FIAStructE) in 2018 and a Fellow of the Institute of Civil Engineering (FICE) in 2019. Dutta also became a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India) in 2008 and a Fellow of the West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology. He also visited and served as a guest lecturer in several renowned universities, including the University of Windsor, Canada, in 2015 and the University of Surrey, UK, in 2016.

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