Jai Krishna was an eminent civil engineer from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

with specialisation in

earthquake engineering Earthquake engineering is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that designs and analyzes structures, such as buildings and bridges, with earthquakes in mind. Its overall goal is to make such structures more resistant to earthquakes. An earth ...

. He served

University of Roorkee Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (abbreviated IIT Roorkee) is a technical university located in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. It is the oldest engineering institution in India, and was founded as the College of Civil Engineering in Brit ...

for many years and rose to become its Vice Chancellor.

Early life

Jai Krishna was born on 27 January 1912 at Muzaffarnagar, in the

United Provinces of Agra and Oudh The United Provinces of Agra and Oudh was a province of India under the British Raj, which existed from 1902 to 1921; the official name was shortened by the Government of India Act 1935 to United Provinces (UP), by which the province had been ...

. He got Bachelor in Science degree from Agra college and then studied engineering at Thomason College of Civil Engineering (now University of Roorkee) passing with honours in 1935. As a student Jai Krishna won awards like Thomason Prize, Cautley Gold Medal and Calcott Reilly Memorial Gold Medal. He received his Doctoral Degree in Civil Engineering from

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. Jai Krishna joined Thomason College of Civil Engineering in 1939 as Lecturer and became Professor and the Vice Chancellor in 1969.

Contribution

*Starting of a teaching and research program in Earthquake Engineering at University of Roorkee in 1945 *Introducing courses on Soil Mechanics in 1948 and on Structural Dynamics in 1945 *Formulation of Indian Standards for Earthquake Resistant Design of Structures that was brought out by the Indian Standards Institution (now Bureau of Indian Standards). *Developed earthquake resistant design of a large number of major and important engineering projects in India. *Initiated work on design, fabrication and installation of structural response recorders and accelerographs in India to collect data. *Set up the School of Research and Training in Earthquake Engineering, at University of Roorkee.

Awards

* Bhatnagar Award of CSIR 1966, *National Design Award (1956) of the Institution of Engineers (India), *Moudgil Award of Indian Standards Institution (1945), *International Award of Japan Society of Disaster Prevention (1958) and *award for lifetime contributions in Earthquake Engineering by Indian National Academy of Engineering (1955) * Padma Bhushan in 1972 Jai Krishna was awarded Honorary Degrees of Doctorate by Agra University and the University of Roorkee.

Professional fellowships

He was a Fellow of many professional bodies and academies including: * Indian National Science Academy, * Indian National Academy of Engineering, * Institution of Engineers (India), * National Academy of Engineering, *Third World Academy of Sciences and *International Association of Earthquake Engineering — President during the period 1977-1980. *Indian National Academy of Engineering- its founder President. He died on 27 August 1999 in

Roorkee Roorkee (Rūṛkī) is a city and a municipal corporation in the Haridwar district of the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is from Haridwar city, the district headquarter. It is spread over a flat terrain under Sivalik Hills of Himalayas. The c ...

References

1912 births 1999 deaths Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in civil service Indian civil engineers Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Engineering Science People from Muzaffarnagar Indian ethnologists Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Engineers from Uttar Pradesh 20th-century Indian engineers Fellows of the Indian National Academy of Engineering {{India-engineer-stub