work_institution children nationality field spouse image article_title name occupation
indian institute of technology bombay devanshu kant , vishaal kant indian civil engineering rekha srivastava thumb tarun kant
 prof. tarun kant teacher and researcher
tarun kant

tarun kant was born on 1 july 1946 at ballia in uttar pradesh , india .
he received his bsc degree from the allahabad university in 1962 , his btech -lrb- hons -rrb- in civil engineering from the indian institute of technology bombay -lrb- iit bombay -rrb- in 1967 and mtech in civil engineering with specialization in structural engineering from the indian institute of technology kanpur -lrb- iit kanpur -rrb- in 1969 .
he spent about one and a half years in a consulting engineering firm in mumbai before joining iit bombay on 20 january1971 as a lecturer .
he earned his phd degree while working as a lecturer from iit bombay in 1977 .
he was selected as an assistant professor in 1978 and a professor in 1986 .
he has held the positions of the department head -lrb- 2000-2002 -rrb- , the dean -lrb- planning -rrb- of the institute -lrb- 2001-2003 -rrb- , the chairman of the prestigious joint entrance examination -lrb- jee-1998 -rrb- and the chairman of the central library -lrb- 1995-1999 -rrb- with great distinction .
he initiated and introduced many innovations effectively during his tenure .
the institute appointed him as an institute chair professor with effect from 31st december 2009 .
prof. kant was elected a fellow of the indian national academy of engineering -lrb- inae -rrb- in 1999 , a fellow of the indian academy of sciences -lrb- iasc -rrb- in 2004 , a fellow of the indian national science academy -lrb- insa -rrb- in 2007 and a fellow of the national academy of sciences , india -lrb- nasi -rrb- in 2011 .
he is the first and only civil engineer in the country to get elected to all the four national academies .
he is also the fourth civil engineer to get elected to the two national science academies -lrb- insa and iasc -rrb- .
he has been visiting professors at university of wales , swansea -lrb- 1979 - ' 82 -rrb- , university of cambridge -lrb- 1993 -rrb- and university of california , los angeles -lrb- 2005 -rrb- .
he is a recipient of the `` burmah-shell best paper prize '' .
he was awarded the `` 1979 jawaharlal nehru memorial trust -lrb- u.k -rrb- scholarship '' and the `` 1992 - ’93 european commission -lrb- ec -rrb- senior faculty exchange fellowship '' , both by the government of india .
iit-bombay , on 13 march 2007 , conferred the `` 2006 professor h.h. mathur award for excellence in research in applied sciences '' in recognition of his outstanding work in the area of mechanics of composite materials and structures .
he also received the `` 2009 khosla national award for his life time achievement '' in the field of engineering .
he is also a recipient of the `` 2010 iit bombay research paper award '' .
iit bombay , on 4 april 2012 , conferred on him the `` 2011 life time achievement award '' .
iccs17 -lrb- 17th international conference on composite structures , porto , portugal , 17 -- 21 june 2013 -rrb- honoured him by calling him a `` legend '' and recognized him as a pioneer in initiating a new direction in mechanics of composites .
he has published more than 135 research papers in refereed journals , 6 chapters in edited books , about 145 papers in conference proceedings , edited 4 books and currently serves on the editorial boards of 5 international journals and in diverse areas of computational structural mechanics .
he has supervised 25 phd theses and over 75 mtech dissertations .
he has `` research & citation standing in terms of h-index of 25 on web of science . ''
his current citations are over 1800 on web of science he has carried out 12 sponsored projects and has authored about 21 unpublished reports .
he has edited a set of two volumes entitled `` finite elements in computational mechanics '' , pergamon press , oxford , 1985 -lrb- isbn 978-0-08-031682-6 -rrb- and has co-edited another volume entitled `` advances in structural engineering '' , quest publications , mumbai , 2000 -lrb- isbn 81-87099-08-9 -rrb- .
he served a term on the editorial board of computational mechanics -- an international journal and currently serves on editorial boards of 5 international journals : structural engineering & mechanics - an international journal international journal for computational methods in engineering science and mechanics -lrb- cmesm -rrb- -lsb- taylor & francis , computer modeling in engineering & sciences -lrb- cmes -rrb- science press , advances in civil engineering publishing corp. and international journal of computational methods scientific .
he is responsible for establishing a research school of computational structural mechanics at iit-bombay which has influenced many of his colleagues as well .
he was elected president of the indian society of theoretical and applied mechanics -lrb- istam -rrb- for two terms -lrb- 1999 and 2000 -rrb- , has founded indian association for computational mechanics -lrb- indacm -rrb- and indian association for structural engineering -lrb- iase -rrb- and is responsible for organization of biennial iccms -lrb- international congress on computational mechanics and simulation -rrb- and sec -lrb- structural engineering convention -rrb- congresses in the country .
he was an insa nominated member on the national committee of international union of theoretical & applied mechanics -lrb- iutam -rrb- for two 3 year terms : july 2000-june 2003 and january 2008-december 2011 .
he was also a member of the general assembly of iutam until 2012 .
he is presently the convener and member of engineering & technology sections of insa and iasc , respectively .
he has been on the advisory panels of many national and international conferences .
he has lectured at several universities and research institutions and has participated in numerous conferences and seminars both within and outside india .
he was the convener of a very successful international conference on finite elements in computational mechanics held in 1985 -lrb- feicom-85 -rrb- at bombay .
he was also general chairman of sec-2000 : 2nd structural engineering convention held on 5 -- 8 january 2000 at iit-bombay and chair of iccms09 : 3rdinternational congress on computational mechanics & simulation held on 1 -- 5 december 2009 at iit-bombay .
he is listed in several who 's who in the world .
he is a fellow of the institution of engineers -lrb- ie -rrb- and the aeronautical society of india -lrb- aesi -rrb- , a member of international association for computational mechanics -lrb- iacm -rrb- and life members of the indian society of theoretical and applied mechanics -lrb- istam -rrb- and indian society for technical education -lrb- iste -rrb- and founder life member of international society for computational engineering and science -lrb- isces -rrb- , indian association for computational mechanics -lrb- indacm -rrb- and indian association for structural engineering -lrb- iase -rrb- .
he is also a nominated fellow of the world innovation foundation -lrb- u.k -rrb- .
his research interests lie in the areas of solid mechanics , plates , shells , fibre reinforced polymer composites , refined higher-order theories , thermal stresses , transient dynamics , finite element and other numerical methods , use of polymer composites in construction , mechanics of composite materials and structures & computational mechanics .
