Dr. John Hurtado, interim dean of engineering at Texas A&M University, has appointed Dr. Vijaykumar Panchang as the associate head of the Department of Ocean Engineering at Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG).
Panchang studied civil engineering at the University of Pune. He received a Master of Technology at the Indian Institute of Technology before obtaining his Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Maine.
In 2002, Panchang joined Texas A&M as professor and head in the Department of Maritime Systems Engineering at TAMUG. There he also served as head of the marine engineering technology department. After this administrative stint of approximately 10 years, he was awarded the Powell Chair in Engineering and Technology. In 2013, he served as chair of the mechanical engineering program for six years at Texas A&M University at Qatar and was interim chair of petroleum engineering for over a year. Panchang was awarded the rank of Regents Professor in 2008.
Prior to joining Texas A&M, he served as program director for physical sciences and engineering at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program (Commerce Department, Washington, D.C.) for four years and as a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine.
Panchang is a fellow of the American Society Civil Engineers (ASCE), and has served as chief editor of ASCE’s Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering; he currently serves on the journal’s editorial board. He is the recipient of the ASCE’s Torrens Award (for meritorious services as an editor) and the Moffat-Nichol Award (for his contributions to harbor and coastal engineering). He also serves on the editorial advisory panel of the Journal of Maritime Engineering, published by the U.K. Institution of Civil Engineers.