Edward M. Curtis Visiting Professorship in Civil Engineering

This endowed visiting professorship has been established to attract internationally renowned visitors to spend an academic year with the faculty and students of the Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering at Purdue University. The visiting professorship provides financial support to attract and assist the awardee during the stay.

2025-2026 Curtis Professorship Announcement

Current and Past Recipients

2024 Curtis Professor - Dr. D. Nagesh Kumar, FNA, FASc, FNASc
Visiting from the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
Dr. Nagesh specializes in hydrology and related fields. His research interests include stochastic hydrology, climate change, water resource systems, deep learning, evolutionary algorithms and remote sensing & GIS applications in water resources.
 

2024 Curtis Professor - Dr. Tejas Murthy
Visiting from the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
Tejas Gorur Murthy is a professor of civil engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, INDIA. He works on the mechanics of granular media.  He uses image based techniques for understanding the mechanics of granular materials and solids at multiple length scales.
 

2022 Curtis Professor - Dr. Marian Muste
Research Engineer, IIHR Hydroscience and Engineering
Researcher, Iowa Flood Center, Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research
Adjunct Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Geographical and Sustainability Sciences
University of Iowa
 

2021 Curtis Professor - Dr. Michael Inggs
Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
Dr. Inggs has had extensive teaching experience, including development of a Master's program in radar technology, as well as an outstanding research career in multiple areas of microwave sensor and algorithm development. He is also a partner in droneSAR, a South African startup company that is developing lower cost compact SAR technology which can be flown on small manned aircraft and UAVs.

2019 Curtis Professor - Ahmed Mohamed
Chief Technology Officer at Geomatics USA
Dr. Mohamed's research interests include geomatics navigation and mapping technologies including direct geo-referencing, GPS/GNSS, inertial navigation, digital imaging, LiDAR, and geospatial informatics, and their applications in resource management and operation.

2018 Curtis Professor - Luis B. Fargier-Gabaldon
Visiting from the Universidad de los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela
Dr. Luis B. Fargier G. is expert in the assessment and design of structures required to resist extreme events. His career is endorsed by more than a million square-feet of bridge superstructure and 30 building structures. His research interests include bridge and earthquake engineering.
Wolfgang Foerstner 2017 Curtis Professor - Wolfgang Förstner
University of Bonn (Bonn, Germany)
Mengkai Li 2016 Curtis Professor - Mengkai Li
Assistant Professor, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing, China)
Curtis Professor Seminar 2017 (March 28, 2017)
Dr. Li specializes in UV disinfection and UV-based advanced oxidation processes for water and wastewater treatment. His research interests include high efficiency photoreactor design, long-term monitoring and fluence validation of UV reactors, and removal of micropollutants from water by advanced oxidation processes.
Kyungrock Paik 2015 Curtis Professor - Kyungrock Paik
Visiting from the School of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at Korea University
Dr. Paik specializes in hydrology and related fields. His research interests focus on Earth’s surface dynamics, feedback with anthropogenic influences in the context of global environmental changes, and emergence of characteristic patterns in complex networks or systems.
Bin Xu 2014 Curtis Professor - Bin Xu
Professor of Civil Engineering, Lotus Scholar, and Vice-Dean at the College of Civil Engineering in Hunan University, China
Curtis Professor Seminar 2014
"Research on Monitoring and Defect Detection at HNU & Future Collaboration with Purdue"
Dr. Xu's research interests include structural dynamics and nonlinear behavior identification and control, nondestructive testing, dynamic stress sensing technologies, and multi-scale dynamic behavior of concrete structures.
Michal Glinicki 2013 Curtis Professor - Michal A. Glinicki
Visiting from the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw, Poland)
Curtis Professor Seminar 2013
"Advances in research on concrete with reduced CO2 footprint"
Professor Glinicki is an expert in the development of multi-component materials for sustainable construction and experimental evaluation of material properties and performance in structures exposed to severe environments.
Chandra Ojha 2012 Curtis Professor - Chandra Ojha
Visiting from the Indian Institute of Technology (Roorkee, India)
Curtis Professor Seminar 2012 (November 13, 2012)
"Challenges in the Indian Water Sector and the IITR-Purdue Collaboration"
Hoon Sohn 2011 Curtis Professor - Hoon Sohn
Visiting from The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Daejon, South Korea)
Curtis Professor Seminar 2011 (September 6, 2011)
"Structural Health Monitoring Research at KAIST and Future Collaborations at Purdue"