Dr. S. Shrihari, Professor of Civil Engineering at National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, Karnataka (formerly known as KREC), obtained his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Government College of Engineering, Trichur, then affiliated to Cochin University, in 1983. He joined the teaching profession at the erstwhile KREC after a brief stint at some small-scale construction works. He then went to IIT Kanpur for M.Tech. in environmental engineering and then University of Roorkee for his doctoral degree, awarded for the thesis entitled ‘Effects of Benthal Sludge on Overlying Water,’ which was a study conducted on the sludge deposits on River Ganga.
Dr. Shrihari was involved in various service related projects like the national survey of drinking water quality under the Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission in 1994 and the Nirmala Grama Yojana for National Hygiene Awareness in 1995 besides several consultancy and design projects for several small industries and domestic habitations. Several post-graduate students have worked under his supervision on service oriented projects on drinking water and sanitation.
In 2001, Dr. Shrihari was appointed a fulltime officer in the Industry-Institute Partnership Cell of NITK Surathkal. He was selected for the Fulbright Indo-American Environmental Leadership in 2004 and visited Louisiana State University, USA. Presently, he has been designated as the campus representative for Fulbright programmes at NITK Surathkal.
Dr. Shrihari has been working on water quality assessment and treatment-surveillance of drinking water quality, performance evaluation of water treatment facilities, technology development for improvement of water quality, monitoring and management of priority organic pollutants and other pollutants, evaluation of water resources for health-related water quality parameters, water quality management for pesticides contamination, environmental impact assessment, and and geo-environmental engineering.
Dr. Shrihari has undertaken R&D projects worth more than Rs.100 lakh funded by various agencies. He has published 138 papers (62 papers in peer reviewed journals), and authored three books. He has been invited to deliver special lectures at several national and international conferences. He was also awarded the Prof. R.C. Singh Memorial Prize for best paper published in the Journal of Institution of Engineers (India).
Dr. Shrihari is the current Chairman of Institution of Engineers (India) Mangalore, and has been a life fellow of the IEI. He is also life member of the ISTE, IAEM and ACCE (I).