Dr. Saikat Sarkar is Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. He performed his doctoral research in structural engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, under the supervision of Prof. Debasish Roy and was awarded Ph.D. degree in 2014. Dr. Sarkar pursued his postdoctoral research in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, USA, under the supervision of Prof.

J.N. Reddy. Before joining IIT Delhi, Dr. Sarkar served as an Assistant Professor at IIT Indore. Dr. Sarkar specializes in solid mechanics, finite element analysis, fracture and failure analysis of structures, and inverse problems. He has so far published 26 research articles in highly reputed international journals and 3 book chapters.

Prof. Tarun Kant, Professor Emeritus at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) in Mumbai, was born on July 1, 1946, in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, India. He received a B.Sc. degree from Allahabad University in 1962, a B.Tech. (Hons) degree in civil engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay in 1967, and an M.Tech.

in civil engineering, specializing in structural engineering, from the IIT Kanpur in 1969. Prof. Kant spent about 18 months at a consulting engineering firm in Mumbai before becoming Lecturer at IIT Bombay in January 1971. He received a Ph.D. degree in 1977 from IIT Bombay. He became Assistant Professor in 1978 and Professor in 1986. At IIT Bombay, he has been Department Head (2000-2002), Dean of planning (2001-2003), and Chair of the Joint Entrance Examination (1998) and the Central Library (1995-1999).