Amit Kanvinde Named Next Associate Dean for Academic Personnel and Planning

Amit Kanvinde, professor of civil and environmental engineering, will serve as the College of Engineering’s next associate dean for academic personnel and planning. His appointment begins July 1, 2023 and is effective until June 30, 2028. The position is currently held by Jeannie Darby, who was appointed to a limited term in the fall of 2022.

"I'm very honored and excited to serve the college, especially in a role where I get to support and interact with possibly the most brilliant, innovative and diverse faculty colleagues anywhere," said Kanvinde, who will be responsible for academic planning, developing academic policies and procedures and supervising all academic programs within the college.

Kanvinde joined UC Davis in 2004 after earning his M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. He led the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as chair from 2015-2020 during a period of significant faculty hiring that resulted in greater diversity. He currently serves on the college’s Faculty Executive Committee.

Kanvinde’s research focuses on the seismic response of steel buildings, and recent projects have developed methods to assess the fracture risk of existing buildings along with technologies for highly deformable structural connections for new buildings. He is the author or co-author of more than 70 peer-reviewed articles and is well-recognized for his research. Kanvinde has been awarded the American Society of Civil Engineers' Norman Medal (2008), Walter Huber Research Prize (2016) and State of the Art of Civil Engineering Award (2018), as well as the American Institute of Steel Construction's Special Achievement (2017) and T.R. Higgins Lectureship (2022) awards. In 2017, Kanvinde was selected by the National Academy of Engineering as one of "the nation’s brightest young engineers" to participate in their Frontiers of Engineering program.