Sekhar Chandra Dutta – Prominent Civil Engineer and Professor Renowned for Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics

Civil engineering encompasses designing, developing, and maintaining civil structures and infrastructure projects, including buildings, houses, roads, canals, bridges, airports, and several other structures. The buildings, bridges, apartment complexes, dams, roads, and other prominent civil structures will crumble and fall if civil engineers do not provide their valuable input and advice for maintaining structural integrity under hazardous conditions or environments. Civil engineers play a primary role in public and private construction or infrastructure projects by offering their expertise in designing and constructing structures that stand the test of time. Civil engineers are also essential for ensuring that buildings and construction projects do not collapse and remain intact during and after severe weather events or natural disasters. Civil engineering encompasses numerous subdisciplines focusing on specific elements of construction and civil development projects. Some prominent subdisciplines include construction, materials, environmental, urban, structural, and earthquake engineering.

Earthquake engineering is a subcategory of civil engineering that focuses explicitly on evaluating and designing structures and buildings from the perspective of risks stemming from earthquakes and other natural hazards. The primary objective of earthquake engineering is to construct and develop structures that withstand earthquakes and other natural disasters. Earthquake engineers formulate strategies for preventing damage and collapse to buildings and structures from natural disasters. Earthquake engineers develop and propose design mechanisms that minimize and avoid significant damage to buildings during earthquakes. Earthquake engineering and structural dynamics are also essential during the planning phases for high-rise buildings and structures to prevent human and economic losses. Prominent earthquake engineers like Sekhar Chandra Dutta try to prevent structural collapses and minimize damage to buildings stemming from earthquakes and other natural disasters.

Sekhar Chandra Dutta is a civil engineer with experience in structural dynamics and earthquake engineering. He is a professor and head of the civil engineering department at the Indian School of Mines (ISM) at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). He is a civil engineer and teacher with extensive research on structural dynamics, seismic design of asymmetric structures, soil structure interaction, earthquake engineering, and seismic safety of dams. Dutta also served as a guest faculty member at the University of Windsor, Canada, in 2015. He was also the dean of alum affairs and international relations at the Bhubaneswar campus of IIT. A career academic in civil engineering, Dutta also served as the dean for continuing education and students’ affairs at IIT Bhubaneswar.

Dutta established and became the head of the school of infrastructure at IIT Bhubaneswar in 2009. He was also a visiting Fulbright Nehru senior research fellow at the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Davis, where he worked with renowned civil engineer professor Sashi K. Kunnath. Dutta also served as a lecturer and professor in several other prominent academic institutions, including Bengal Engineering and Science University and B.E. College (D.U.). He was also the chairperson of the committee for green technology and sustainable agenda and convenor of the Bengal Engineering and Science University research task force.

Research plays a primary role in increasing and enhancing scientific knowledge in a field due to the impact of data and findings on professional practices and standards. Scholars improve professional practice by offering recommendations to field practitioners based on scientific data. Sekhar Chandra Dutta also co-authored a book and a chapter in a book with Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay on the impacts of earthquakes and natural disasters on structures and how to improve their resistance. Dutta’s book, “Improving earthquake and cyclone resistance of structures: Guidelines for the Indian subcontinent, was published in 2014. The book chapter “Indian Cyclones and Earthquakes: Their Impact on Structures” came out in 2018 as part of the Encyclopedia of natural hazards. The two books offer extensive insight into how earthquakes affect structures and how planners can prevent collapses or damage to structures from natural disasters.

Dutta performed extensive research on the seismic behavior of buildings, the effects of earthquakes on structures, and structures’ seismic vulnerability. He published more than 120 scientific journal articles during his career related to various studies in civil, earthquake, and structural engineering. Dutta also has 80 conference publications with numerous reports and articles published in newspapers and magazines, covering his work and expertise in earthquake engineering. He also led multiple research studies and academic theses focusing on structural behavior, earthquake engineering, and seismic behavior of structures. Dutta’s extensive experience and research in the field make him an expert in offering advice, recommendations, and suggestions for preventing and minimizing collapses of buildings and structures through adequate planning.