Dr. Ratnesh Kumar is Professor in the Department of Applied Mechanics at Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, where he has been since 2012. Prior to VNIT, he was associated with various academia and industry. He worked as Fellow B at Earthquake Engineering Department of Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Assistant Professor at School of Engineering of Gautam Buddha University, and served as Head of Structural Design Division in Privitech Consulting Engineers Pvt. Limited, New Delhi. He received Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Bangalore University in the year 2000, M. Tech and Ph. D from Earthquake Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. His research interests span structural engineering and earthquake engineering. Much of his work has been on improving the understanding, design, and performance of reinforced concrete structures. He is also working in the area of seismic evaluation and retrofitting and seismic risk assessment. He is also heading various laboratories, such as Advanced Computing, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Fire Engineering laboratory at VNIT. He has guided 3 Ph. D. and 28 M. Tech thesis, and presently, two Ph.D. students are working under his guidance. He has given more than twenty-five invited talks and tutorials at various academic and industrial forum, coordinated fifteen short-term courses and workshops on various aspects of structural and earthquake engineering, and published more than sixty research papers in reputed journals and conferences. He is associated with various research projects of more than fifteen million rupees and handled consultancy project of more than twenty million rupees. He received Sir Arthur Cotton Memorial Prize (IEI) in 2011. He is member of Indian Water Works Association, Institution of Engineers (India), Bamboo Society of India, and Indian Society of Earthquake Technology. Later, he also served as executive committee member during 2011-12. He is reviewer of many journals, such as American Concrete Institute, Engineering Structures, Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, Journal of Structural Fire Engineering, and many more. Dr. Sachin Bakre is Professor at the Department of Applied Mechanics, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, India. His research interest includes seismic response control, finite element analysis, dynamic response analysis, and response of structures to blast induced vibrations. He has supervised 3 Ph.D. students and more than 45 M.Tech. students. He has published more than 45 research publications in national and international peer-reviewed journals and conferences. Dr. Bakre has been engaged in various administrative duties, such as Head of the Department, Associate Dean (Civil Works), Associate Dean (Stores Purchase), Chairman (MTech Admissions), and many other. He has handled various research and consultancy projects sponsored by Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Public Works Department, Central Public Works Department, Mahadiscom, Military Engineering Services, State Irrigation Department, and Indian Railways, among others. Dr. Manmohan Dass Goel completed his Bachelor of Engineering from Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering, Nagpur. He was awarded three gold medals by Nagpur University for academic excellence. He completed M.Tech. in offshore engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Mumbai in year 2003. His Ph.D. is from Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and University of Federal Armed Forces, Munich, Germany, under German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Sandwich Fellowship in year 2013. He was awarded Surendranath Mukherjee Memorial Medal for best research paper by Institution of Engineers (India) in year 2009. He has been selected Young Ambassador by German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD) for consecutively for two years. His doctoral thesis has been awarded as the best thesis by the Indian National Academy of Engineering under "Innovative Student Project Award 2013" at doctoral level in Civil Engineering discipline. He has been awarded “CSIR Young Scientist Awards-2014” in Engineering Sciences by CSIR. He is recipient of “Young Engineer Award” from Institution of Engineers (India) in 2014. He has been nominated as “DAAD Research Ambassador” by German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD). He is also recipient of “Young Associate”, Maharashtra Academy of Sciences, Maharashtra in year 2015. His paper has been awarded IGS-HEICO Biennial Award- 2017 by Indian Geotechnical Society (IGS), India as a best paper on “Rock Mechanics” published in Indian Geotechnical Journal through Indian Geotechnical Society (IGS). He has been interviewed by Rajya Sabha TV under popular science program “Eureka” in recognition of contribution to the R&D in Engineering Sciences. He has been Senate Member of ACSIR (Academy of Scientific & Innovative Research) CSIR, Delhi. Currently, he is serving as Associate Professor, Department of Applied Mechanics, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur. Prior to this, he served CSIR-AMPRI Bhopal and CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) Nagpur, India as Scientist. He has more than 150 international and national journal/conference publications to his credit. His areas of research interest include blast analysis, blast resistant structures, lightweight materials, composite structures, low, medium and high strain rate material characterization and computational mechanics. He is looking forward to contribute in the broader areas of structural protection systems used against blast and impact loading.
