Praveen Kumar

Praveen Kumar

Born: August 19, 1963 Citizenship: United States

Alma Mater:

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India (B.Tech., Civil Engineering, 1987) Iowa State University (M.S., Civil Engineering, 1989) University of Minnesota (Ph.D., Civil Engineering, 1993) Title: Executive Director, Prairie Research Institute; Lovell Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Early Life and Education:

Praveen Kumar was born on August 19, 1963. He earned his Bachelor of Technology degree in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in 1987. He then pursued his Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Iowa State University, graduating in 1989. Kumar completed his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1993.

Career

Kumar began his career as a Visiting Research Scientist at the University Space Research Association/NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center from 1993 to 1995. He joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1995 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2001 and became a full Professor in 2006. Kumar has held several key positions, including Affiliate Faculty at various departments and institutes within the University of Illinois.

Since 2022, Kumar has served as the Executive Director of the Prairie Research Institute. He also holds the title of Lovell Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois. Additionally, Kumar has held adjunct and guest professorships at international institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the Institute of Earth Environment at the Chinese Academy of Science.

Research and Contributions

Kumar's research interests encompass hydrology, critical zone science, ecohydrology, hydroclimatology, the use of data science and informatics, information theory in geoscience, and AI/ML in the broad context of environmental engineering and geoscience. He has made significant contributions to the understanding of hydrologic and environmental systems, focusing on the interaction between water, energy, vegetation and human systems.

Kumar has been instrumental in establishing and leading several research initiatives and programs. He was the Director of Critical Zone Observatory for Intensively Managed Landscapes (IMLCZO) and currently he is the Director of Critical Interface Network for Intensively Managed Landscapes (CINet). He was a founding Board member of Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI)

He is the founding Field Editor-in-Chief of the journal Frontiers in Water and has served as the Editor-in-Chief of Water Resources Research from 2009 to 2013, and editor for Geophysical Research Letters from 2006 to 2009.

His leadership in the field has been recognized through numerous awards and honors. These include Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2024) Fellow, American Meteorological Society (2018) Fellow, American Geophysical Union (2015) Distinguished Alumnus Award, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (2018) Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Samman Award (2017) Numerous lectureships, including the Harleman Lecture, Wolman Lecture, and Silberman Distinguished Lecture

Personal Life

Praveen Kumar resides in Illinois and continues to contribute to the field of civil and environmental engineering through his research, teaching, and leadership roles.

Selected Publications

Praveen Kumar has authored and co-authored numerous influential publications in the field of hydrology and environmental engineering.

Foufoula-Georgiou, E. and P. Kumar, editors, Wavelets in Geophysics, Academic Press, 373 pp., 1994.

Kumar, P., J. Alameda, P. Bajscy, M. Folk and M. Markus, Hydroinformatics: Data Integrative Methods in Computation, Analysis and Modeling, Authored Handbook, CRC Press, 534 pp., 2005.

Full list can be found at https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4787-0308

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