Title: Professor of Civil Engineering
Company: The University of Houston
Location: Houston, Texas, United States
Cumaraswamy Vipulanandan, PhD, Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Houston, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements, and leadership in civil engineering.
As a child, Dr. Vipulanandan was fascinated by the buildings that he saw all around him, and remembers feeling a sense of awe after realizing that each one was full of individual people going about their lives. Dr. Vipulanandan dreamed of learning how to make buildings safer with modern technology, and began his career by pursuing a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from the University of Moratuwa, graduating in 1980. He continued his education abroad, earning a Master of Science in civil engineering from Northwestern University in 1981 with a stunning 4.0 average, and returning in 1984 to complete his Doctor of Philosophy in civil engineering.
After completing his doctoral studies, Dr. Vipulanandan joined the faculty at the University of Houston’s Cullen College of Engineering, becoming an assistant professor of civil engineering in 1984. He rose to associate professor in 1990 and full professor in 1995, and continues to teach in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. From 2001 until 2009, Dr. Vipulanandan served as department chair, and he has been Director of the Center for Innovative Grouting Materials and Technology (CIGMAT) at the University of Houston since 1994, drawing on his extensive research and patent history working with concrete and grout compounds.
Dr. Vipulanandan has been extensively published and he is perhaps best-known for his development of the widely-adopted ‘Vipulanandan Rheological Model’ for fluid characterization. His research has resulted in the creation of models for detecting and quantifying corrosion, tests for the evaluation of concrete bonds and fractures, and numerous novel building materials including biosurfactants, several kinds of nanoparticles, materials for use in wastewater systems, and his greatest breakthrough, a /smart cement’ capable of measuring weight loads, temperature, movement, and other metrics. His innovations have won him dozens of awards and accolades, most recently a 2011 citation for Most Valuable Profession in Underground Construction, a research award from the Texas Department of Transportation, and the 2005 Fluor Daniel Faculty Excellence Award, the highest honor presented by the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering. Dr. Vipulanandan has been a member of several specialized committees of the American Concrete Institute and the American Society of Civil Engineers for more than three decades, and is a longtime member of the Board of Directors of the Gulf Coast Trenchless Association, among other organizations. He has been married to his wife, Giritha Vipulanandan, since 1986, and is proud to note that both of his daughters have pursued careers as specialist medical providers.
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