Advanced Foundation Engineering

Dr. T. G. Sitharam has obtained his BE(Civil Engg) from Govt BDT College of Engineering, Davanagere, from Mysore University, India in 1983, Masters in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1986 and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in 1991 in the area of geomechanics. Further he was a Research Scientist (for his post doctoral work) at centre for earth sciences and engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA until 1994. He served as a lecturer for six months in 1991 at University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He has served in many organizations like Bapuji Institute of Engineering & technology, Davanagere; Central pollution control Board, Govt of India; IIT Delhi; University of Waterloo, Canada; University of Texas at Austin, USA; and Yamaguchi University, Japan. Throughout his education, sitharam is meritorious student and stood first in his class and has secured first class with distinction always.

Since June, 1994 he is at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and presently he is a senior PROFESSOR in the department of Civil Engineering. He was the founder Chairman of Centre for infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP) at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and he has responsible for receiving a research grant of 300 million Rupees from Government of Karnataka and had developed a team of about 100 researchers at CiSTUP. He is responsible for starting an M. Tech and Ph.D. programme in Transportation and Infrastructure Engineering at Indian Institute of Science. He is member of many committees formed by the Govt of Karnataka and advices on infrastructure related topics. His area of research interest is in Geotechnical engineering, geotechnical earthquake engineering, infrastructure engineering, rock mechanics and engineering, and earth dam designs. He has served as convener for developing Geotechnical guidelines for seismic microzonation supported by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Govt of India, NewDelhi. His work on seismic microzonation of urban areas, Liquefaction analyses, and earthquake hazard evaluation in the area of geotechnical earthquake engineering has received recognition worldwide and he is an authority on this subject.
He is the Chief Editor of an International journal of Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering published by IGI Global, PA, USA. He is also serving chief editor of sustainable urbanziation, planning and progress, Whoice publishers PTE Ltd., Singapore. He served as an Associate Editor (AE) for ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, USA for the period 2006-2009 and presently Member, Committee on Soils and Rock Instrumentation (AFS20), Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Division of National research Council (NRC), USA for the period 2007-2016. Professor Sitharam has guided 25 Ph.D students, 4 MSc(Engg - by research) students and more than 25 ME project students. Currently he has 8 doctoral students working under him. He has executed more than 25 research projects as a principal investigator funded by Govt of India, Govt of Karnataka, also International projects from European Union and German academy of Sciences. He has several ongoing research projects to his credit to the tune of several hundred million rupees.

He has served as Programme Advisory Committee (PAC) member for Ministry of Earth Sciences and Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. He was the PAC member of landslides in Department of Science and technology, Govt of India and also member of Technical advisory board of Jirbaum-Manipur railway line, Govt. of India. He is the consultant for slope stability and foundations for the highest elevated bridge across river Chenab for M/S AFCONS near Katra, Jammu and Kashmir. He has designed more than 35 earth and tailing dams in different parts of India.

He has more than 500 publications to his credit in International / national journals and conferences with an H-index of 33 and i-10 index of 83 (3218 citations) with more than 200 International journal publications of repute. He has written ten text books and book volumes. Further, He is an excellent Civil Engineering consultant and has carried out more than 120 consultancy projects in the area of infrastructure, geotechnical engineering and rock engineering in particular.

He has 4 patents to his credit and has started / involved in 3 start-up companies in his areas of research. He is director of a vertical of shockwave technologies Pvt Ltd in the area of enhanced oil recovery / reservoir stimulation project for which a field trial is being carried out jointly with ONGC, Govt of India. This start-up has received Rs58 crores for a field trial of shock wave assisted fracturing in shale and sandstone reservoirs. Recently, in Dec 2017, he has delivered 28th L S Chandrakant Memorial lecture on Challenges and Issues of Outcome based education (OBE) organized by Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) Karnataka State section at Banaglore.

In 2015, he is a recipient of IGS Kuckleman Award for his life time contributions in Geotechnical Engineering. In 2014, he is a recipient of Prof. Gopal Ranjan research award from IIT Roorkee for his excellent contributions to Geotechnical Engineering in the country. This was given to Prof. Sitharam for his pioneering work in Geotechnical engineering. Recently, Amulya and Vimala Reddy Lecture Award at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in the field of Sustainable Development for the year 2014 was conferred on Prof. Sitharam. Earlier, he is 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 was also the recipient of 1998 S.P. Research award (SAARC) from SP research foundation, USA for his contributions to geotechnical Engineering in SAARC countries. He has also received many best paper awards for his papers published in conferences and journals.

He has served as a visiting Professor at the Rock Engineering group, Department of Civil Engineering, Yamaguchi University, Ube, Japan for one year 1999-2000. He was also a visiting professor at Technical University of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Canada. Further he was a visiting professor at University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in 2003. Further, he has visited University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, UK and University of Leeds, UK for research interactions. He was a William Mong fellow at University of Hongkong, Hong Kong during 2011. He was holding adjunct professor position from Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Jharkhand (renamed as Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Dhanbad) in the department of Civil Engineering during 2014-15. He has travelled to more than 20countries for research and teaching interactions and they include America, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Khazakistan, Malaysia, Thailand, Mexico, Russia, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Singapore, Spain and Turkey.

He has delivered lectures invited / keynote lectures and also chaired/co-chaired technical sessions in several International and national conferences. Prof. Sitharam is a life member of several professional organizations including ISET, ISRM, ISSMGE, JGS, IGS, etc.. He has travelled across the globe and delivered talks in many countries. He was the Chairman of the Indian Geotechnical Society, Bangalore Chapter until 2013 and also served as secretary of the society in the past. He was the national executive committee member of Indian Geotechnical Society in 1998; Governing Council of International Society of Rock. He is presently vice president of Indian Society of Earthquake technology (ISET) and national executive committee member of Indian Geotechnical Society for the period 2015-2016. He is the fellow of Indian Geotechnical Society, Fellow of Institution of Engineers (India).He is also Dean of Yoga and Physical sciences, S-VYASA Deemed University, Bangalore.