Biography

Dr. Venkatesh Kodur is a University Distinguished Professor and Director of the Centre on Structural Fire Engineering and Diagnostics at Michigan State University. He is an internationally recognized scholar for his contributions in civil and fire engineering fields and his research accomplishments have had major impacts. He has developed fundamental understanding on the behavior of materials and structural systems under extreme fire conditions. The techniques and methodologies resulting from his research is instrumental for minimizing the destructive impact of fire in the built infrastructure, which continues to cause thousands of deaths and billions of dollars of damage each year in the U.S. and around the world. 

Dr. Kodur has published results from his research in 500+ peer-reviewed papers in journals and conferences, and has given 100 plenary/key-note presentations at major international conferences and meetings. He is one of the highly cited authors in Civil Engineering and Fire Protection Engineering disciplines, and as per Google Scholar, he has more than 22,000 citations with an "h” index of 82. 

Dr. Kodur has served in various leadership positions, including as Chairperson (Head) and Associate Chairperson of the Department of Civil and Environment Engineering at MSU, and as Chair of various technical committees and editorial boards of journals from leading professional societies. Most recently he has been elected to be the Chairperson of the steering committee of the international organization- "Structure in Fire”, In recognition of his contributions, he has been elected as Fellow of seven Institutes and Academies; including Academy of Sciences of the Royal Society of Canada, Canadian Academy of Engineering, American Society of Civil Engineers, and Indian National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Kodur is also the recipient of distinguished awards, such as ‘NATO award for collaborative research’, ‘Govt. of Canada (NRCC) Outstanding Achievement Award’, and ‘Fulbright Scholar’ award. Dr. Kodur also holds prestigious appointments including, “Distinguished Invited Visiting Professor” at EWHA Woman’s University, South Korea; “INFOSYS Distinguished Visiting Chair Professor” at the Indian Institute of Science; Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay; and Government of India “VAJRA Faculty (Award) for Collaborative Research” at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi and “Adjunct Professor” at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Most notably, Dr. Kodur was part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and American Society of Civil Engineers high profile "Experts Team" that investigated the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings as a result of September 11 terrorist attacks.

Education