Venkatesh Kodur has been named chairperson of the Michigan State University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His appointment is effective July 1.
Kodur is a professor and director of the MSU Center on Structural Fire Engineering and Diagnostics, and associate chairperson for CEE graduate studies.
“My vision is to further advance the research and teaching missions of civil and environmental engineering programs,” he said, “and to further enhance the CEE department recognition, nationally and internationally, for innovative research and advancing knowledge.”
Kodur’s work has led to the development of a fundamental understanding of fire behavior of material and structural systems, and also has resulted in numerous design approaches and innovative and cost-effective solutions for enhancing fire-resistance of structural systems.
He has published more than 350 peer-reviewed papers in journals and conferences, and has given numerous invited keynote presentations.
He was part of the FEMA/ASCE Building Performance Assessment Team that studied the collapse of World Trade Center buildings as a result of Sept. 11 terrorist incidents.
Kodur earned a bachelor’s degree (1985) in civil engineering at Bangalore University in India; and a master’s (1988) and a Ph.D. (1992) in structural engineering at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
He succeeds Thomas Wolff, associate professor of CEE, who has served interim chairperson of the department.