Prof. Hota V.S. Ganga Rao, recipient of several research awards, has been conducting independent research since 1969; approximately $1 to $2 million per year programme under Constructed Facilities Center and Center for Integration of Composites into Infrastructure. He has developed closed-form mathematical techniques to solve discrete structural systems functions.
Hota Ganga Rao has earned a name in academic circles in the field of fibre-reinforced polymer composites. He is a visionary leader whose exceptional research and development contributions in his chosen field make him the world expert in the application of composites to constructed facilities, the implementation of polymer composite structural components for buildings and bridges.
His research focus is on theory, design, development, production and implementation of fibre-reinforced polymer composites, including recycled polymers, for constructed facilities with emphasis on high strength and stiffness structures, utility poles and underground structures.
Prof. Hota showed his merit right from his student days. His academic record at IIT Madras, from where he graduated with a B.Tech in civil engineering in 1965, was excellent, and he continued to show his scholastic prowess in his higher studies at North Carolina University, Raleigh, USA, where he received his M.S. and Doctorate in civil engineering in the short span of four years (two years each). He is highly knowledgeable and well-respected as a teacher and academician. More than 250 M.S./Ph.D. students have graduated under his expert guidance. He has published more than 300 technical papers, with several of his papers winning ‘best paper’ awards.
Prof. Hota has been recognised as an innovative researcher in his chosen field for the past thirty years. He is a scholar of extraordinary insight, whose contributions in his field were recognized on several occasions. To name a few, he received the Benedum Distinguished Scholar Award for 1990-91. Cited as one of the top five outstanding leaders for the year 1988-89 in the College of Engineering, he was awarded Udani’s Best Concrete Engineer Prize for the year 1983 on ‘Innovative Design and Construction of Precast Concrete Panels with Passive Solar Devices’.
In recognition of Prof. Ganga Rao Hota’s outstanding contributions in the application of composites in constructed facilities, IIT Madras conferred on him the distinguished alumnus award in 2011.
