Biographical note

Dr. Arvind Kumar Agnihotri is Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at NIT Jalandhar. He completed his Ph.D. from IIT Roorkee, M.Tech. from NIT Kurukshetra and B.E. from Panjab University Chandigarh. He possesses a work experience of around 34 years in research, teaching, and academic administration, with several years spent holding key leadership positions. His areas of interest are geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering, reinforced earth (geosynthetics and geofibers), ground improvement and soil-structure interaction. He has supervised 15 Ph.D. theses and 58 M.Tech. dissertations. He has 85 publications in international refereed journals and 60 publications in various national and international conferences/symposia. He has served Head of the Civil Engineering department, Dean Academics, Dean Planning and Development, and officiated as Campus Director at Dr. B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar. He has completed several sponsored projects, including World Bank projects. He is Fellow/Member of many professional organizations like ASCE, IGS, ISTE, ISSMGE and IRC. He has organized many national and international events successfully. He has edited 5 books, and he is Reviewer of many international journals. 

Dr. Krishna R. Reddy is University Scholar, Distinguished Researcher, and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of both the Sustainable Engineering Research and Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering laboratories at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), USA. He received his Ph.D. in civil engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Prior to joining UIC, he worked for three years in consulting as Geotechnical/Geoenvironmental Engineer. His research expertise includes environmental remediation, waste containment, beneficial use of waste and recycled materials and sustainable and resilient engineering. Dr. Reddy has authored four books, 298 journal papers, 30 edited books and conference proceedings, 25 book chapters and 200 conference papers. His h-index is 73 with more than 18,000 citations. Because of his excellent contributions, Dr. Reddy received several awards, such as the Fulbright US Scholar Award, ASCE Wesley W. Horner Award, ASTM Hogentogler Award, UIC Distinguished Researcher Award, University of Illinois Scholar Award and the University of Illinois Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Dr. Ajay Bansal is Professor of Chemical Engineering at Dr. B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, India. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Panjab University, Chandigarh; M.Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi; and B. E. from Government Engineering College, Raipur (now NIT Raipur). He received the university gold medal for being first in his batch of B.E. at Pt. Ravishankar University, Raipur. He has served as Head of Chemical Engineering Department for two terms and was Associate Dean for Research and Consultancy at NIT Jalandhar. Dr. Bansal has more than 28 years of teaching, consulting and research experience within the fields of chemical and environmental engineering. His research expertise includes areas, such as nano-photocatalysis, advanced oxidation processes, waste water treatment, solid waste management, multiphase reactors, and rheologically complex fluids. He has supervised 8 Ph.D. dissertations, published 3 books, 3 book chapters, 45 journal papers and 65 conference papers. Dr. Bansal is on the editorial board and is Reviewer of many journals. He has been Active Member of various professional societies and is Fellow of Institution of Engineers (India) and Fellow of Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE), Kolkata. Dr. Bansal has served twice as Vice-President of IIChE. He has been Chairman and Honorary Secretary of Doaba Regional Centre of IIChE as well.