Prof. Som Nath Sachdeva
Prof SomNath Sachdeva is an alumnus of Kurukshetra University who did his graduation in Civil Engineering from Regional Engineering College Kurukshetra and later his Doctorate from this university under the guidance of renowned Professors from IIT Roorkee & NIT Kurukshetra. Dr Som Nath has more than 33 years of rich experience of teaching, research, consultancy & administration in an Institution of National Importance, NIT Kurukshetra. A National Scholarship holder, he obtained his all academic qualifications with top rank in Board & University. His area of specialisation is Transportation Engineering. He is credited to start M.Tech Program in Transportation Engineering in 2005 in Civil Engineering Deptt of NIT Kurukshetra and set up two advanced labs in the field along with updating of existing Highway Engineering Lab.
Dr Som Nath started his teaching career from Punjab Engineering College Chandigarh before joining NIT Kurukshetra. He has been adjudged as the Best Teacher of Civil Engineering Department in the students’ feedback. His passion for teaching can be judged from the fact that he preferred teaching profession to his other selections that include: commissioned officer in Army Engineers through Service Selection Board; Executive Engineer in Border Roads Organisation through Indian Engineering Services Examination of UPSC; and Executive Engineer in Construction Wing of All India Radio & Doordarshan through IES exam of UPSC, and so on.
As far as R&D is concerned, he has supervised more than 70 MTech & PhD scholars for their dissertation; published more than 100 research papers in reputed national / international journals and conferences, some of them in very high impact factor SCI journals; published 3 books and 06 book chapters with reputed international publishers and did many sponsored R&D Projects successfully. He was bestowed with Best Paper award and gold medal for his research paper in the Journal of Indian Roads Congress. Similarly, he got another Best paper award in an International Conference held in USA. He has visited many countries in pursuit of his research work including University of Cambridge UK; Zhejiang Wanli University, Ningbo, China; and visited countries like USA, and Hongkong. He has also chaired many technical sessions of conferences and delivered technical talks. He is also the reviewer of many reputed national & international journals.
He is well known as the main consultant in the field of Highway Engineering in this part of the country. He has been providing consultancy to various Govt & private sector organisations for the last about 25 years
in the field of Pavement Design, Mix Designs, Geometric Design of Roads, Traffic Studies, Transportation Planning, Material Testing, Field Investigations, and Quality control jobs; and in the process earned a very
good revenue for his Institute.
Dr Sachdeva has been the coordinator of State Technical Agency of Govt of India for the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna Projects in Haryana, and was instrumental in providing technical and R&D input to widening and strengthening of many Rural Roads of Haryana worth more than Rs. 2000 crores. For his valuable contribution, he got special appreciation of the state govt.
Prof SomNath has performed almost all the administrative assignments at NIT Kurukshetra including Head of the Department, Director of grievance cell, Chief Warden, President Students Clubs, P/I Examination etc. He also served as NCC officer for about 15 years and held the commissioned rank of Captain. He also has the administrative experience of being the member of the Executive Council & Academic Council of three Universities of Haryana and Court of Kurukshetra University. Besides, he has been member of many reputed national level committees like member of H-3 committee of Indian Roads Congress for formulation of Standards & Codes in the area of cement concrete pavements, and expert member of National Board of Accreditation and so on. He is also a Master Trainer of Road Safety of Govt of India and a life member of various reputed professional societies.
Prof Sachdeva is equally known for his contribution to social service activities. He has notable contribution in preparing plan for widening of Railway road to 4-lane; and widening of road from Pipli to
Third Gate upto Jayotisar to 6-lane. He has been associated with the project of providing fresh water supply from Narwana Branch Canal to Brahmsarovar; and also associated with the project of providing fresh water supply to Pehowa Tirath including remodelling the bed of its Sarovar for keeping the water clean. Besides, he contributed to the preparation of proposal for development of various sites under Krishna Circuit in Kurukshetra which resulted in securing a grant of more than 90 crore from Govt of India for this project. He has been a member of the advisory committee of International Gita Mahotsv and contributed immensely for its great success. For the notable contributions to the society, he has been
honoured in the past by Hon’ble Chief Minister of Haryana and Hon’ble Governor of Haryana.
Prof Sachdeva’s all-round capabilities are reflected from the fact that not only he is good at academics, research, consultancy and administration; but also equally good in extra-curricular activities. As student, he represented the state in badminton and also in on the spot painting competition and won prizes. He had also been the best shooter of NCC in Kurukshetra University in his student days.
Prof Som Nath, overall, is a very simple and straight forward person with a very positive attitude; this all provide him a very strong footing to lead this prestigious university of the state.