Dr. Amit Kumar

CURRENT ACADEMIC ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES

Dr. Amit Kumar is a Professor of Practice in the School of Civil and Chemical Engineering.

Key Roles and Responsibilities

• Leading teaching, research, and academic mentoring in:
  • Climate adaptation and green construction
  • Safe & resilient infrastructure planning & design
  • Urban risk and vulnerability analysis
• Developing interdisciplinary academic and research programmes
• Guiding industry-linked resilience and infrastructure projects
• Supervising academic and industrial research
• Supporting institutional collaborations on infrastructure resilience and sustainability
• Contributing to policy-oriented applied research in sustainability, resilience and habitat planning

Professional Affiliation / Awards & Fellowships Received

(i) Professional Association and membership

·          Life Member, Indian Society of Earthquake Technology, 1999

·          Life Member, Indian Society of Remote Sensing 2003

·          Life Member Academy of General Education 1995

·          AIE, Institution of Engineers, 23-5-1997

·          Chairman: Ad-hoc Board of Studies on Disaster Management, University of Pune (2007-08)

·          Member: Ad-hoc Board of Studies on Community awareness, University of Pune(2007-08)

·          Member of committee constituted by National Disaster Management Authority for DRR guidelines (2007)

(ii) International Fellowship

·          Young Scientist Fellowship Award, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, 2001

·          Applied Research Grants for Disaster Risk Reduction program, World Bank’s Hazard Management Unit (HMU 2002-2004)

·          Young Scientists Summer Program (YSSP) at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria, around 2005.

Professional Affiliations and Contributions

Organizations Engaged

• UNDP, UNICEF, UNHABITAT, UNHCR, FAO,
• CARE – Int’l, Save the Children, World Vision – International, Oxfam –Int’l, IFRC,
• Asian Disaster Preparedness Center
• NDMA Government of India, State Governments – Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttarakhand, J&K,  UT Ladakh, Bihar, Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya
• Aga Khan Development Network
• World Bank
• GIZ

 

 International Professional Exposure

Countries of Engagement

India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Nepal, Bangladesh, Laos, China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Iran, Portugal, New Zealand, Netherlands, Italy, and others.

 

 Key Achievements

• 28+ years of international professional experience across Asia, Europe and Africa
  • Led DRR and resilient infrastructure programmes in – Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Nepal, Laos PDR, Bangladesh, India
• Directed resilience upgrades for:
  • 900+ schools and health facilities
  • 1000+ resilient housing interventions
  • +2000 critical facilities for seismic rehabilitation and retrofitting planning & design  
• Led multi-country DRR and climate resilience initiatives under AKDN and ADPC
• Developed integrated:
  • Hazard Vulnerability & Risk Assessments (HVRA)
  • Urban resilience frameworks
  • Seismic retrofitting methodologies
• Led to:
  • National Seismic Risk Mitigation Programme (India)
  • Earthquake Early Warning System planning
  • Risk-informed urban planning
• Published:
  • 16 peer-reviewed international journal papers
  • 39+ international conference papers