Kumares C. Sinha

Sinha received his bachelor's degree from Jadavpur University in India in 1961, and his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Connecticut in 1966 and 1968, respectively. He was a faculty member at Marquette University for six years before joining the school of civil engineering at Purdue in 1974. Sinha served as head of the transportation and infrastructure systems area in the school of civil engineering at Purdue from 1981 to 2001 and director of the joint transportation research program of Purdue University and the Indiana Department of Transportation from 1995 to 2010. He was a visiting professor of civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in fall 1980 and at the Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee, India, in spring 1981. He was also Lockheed Martin Guest Professor of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida during 2015–2016 and Hagler Fellow and eminent scholar-in-residence at Texas A&M University during 2016–2017. He has been an honorary or a guest professor at five universities in China.

Sinha conducts research in the areas of highway infrastructure planning, engineering and management. One of his chief contributions is the development of an integrated approach to highway-asset-management based on facility condition modeling, treatment effectiveness and life-cycle costing. Sinha's studies on system performance, costing, and network optimization have informed pavement, bridge and safety management systems developed by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He has also served as a consultant for the World Bank and the United Nations Environmental Program, conducting transportation systems analysis and planning in countries such as Bangladesh, China, Georgia, India, Iran, Nepal, Palestine and Yemen, among others. He was one of the early advocates for the use of advanced technologies in transportation. He and his colleagues at Purdue were early researchers conducting experiments for shared mobility service. Sinha's most recent work examines the impacts of autonomous transportation and connected vehicles. He is the co-author (with Samuel Labi) of Transportation Decision Making: Principles of Project Development and Programming (Wiley & Sons, 2007).

Sinha is the Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the Journal of Transportation Engineering (ASCE), and he serves on the editorial boards of Transportation and Statistics (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, US DOT), the Journal of Transportation in Developing Economies (Springer), the Journal of Transportation (Institute of Transportation Engineers), and the Archives of Transport Quarterly (Polish Academy of Sciences). He has served as President of the Transportation & Development Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), President of the Research and Education Division of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), and President of the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC). He also served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Transportation Research Board (2011–2017), Strategic Highway Research Program Oversight Committee (2009–2015), Blue Ribbon Panel of Experts, US National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission (2006–2007), and Federal Advisory Council on Transportation Statistics (2001–2005).

BA. Jadavpur University in India in 1961

MA. University of Connecticut, 1966

PhD. University of Conneticut, 1968

Edgar B. and Hedwig E. Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering, Purdue University