Dr. Amiy Varma holds B.Tech, MSCE, and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in North Dakota, a certified Professional Transportation Operations Engineer (by the Institute of Transportation Engineers, ITE), and a certified planner (by the American Institute of Certified Planners, AICP). His passion for airports began with his 1987 master’s thesis on decision support systems for airport noise compatibility. Since then, he has sustained and deepened his engagement in aviation through graduate coursework, thirty years of teaching airport planning and design and related specialized courses at North Dakota State University (NDSU), and over three and a half decades of advising, supervising, and researching varied aviation topics, particularly related to compatibility, sustainability, and resilience. He has authored numerous papers and presentations and has held active and leadership roles in ASCE, TRB, ITE, and APA committees. In 2020, he transitioned from academia to establish a consulting and research firm focused on aviation and transportation systems, as well as related, emerging technologies.
As an educator, Dr. Varma has taught over 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students during a thirty-year career at NDSU. Through his teaching and mentorship, Dr. Varma has prepared a generation of aviation and airport professionals, particularly in infrastructure planning, design, and operations, ensuring compatibility, sustainability, and resilience. As a researcher, Dr. Varma has focused his research on the safety, security, sustainability, and resilience of transportation systems and airports. He has conducted research that advanced the state of the art and state of practice in transportation and aviation through funding from NSF, NASA-EPSCoR, NSF-EPSCoR, SDDOT, Mn/DOT, ACRP, NCHRP, and TCRP. He is currently conducting an ACRP-sponsored seminal work on the seismic resilience of airside horizontal infrastructure within the airport operations area at airports of all sizes, which will develop new guidelines.
Dr. Varma has chaired several committees for ASCE, ITE, TRB, and NDSU. His notable leadership roles include developing the Sustainable Freight Session and Airport Front Development Workshop for APA; serving as Chair of TRB’s Airport–Aircraft Compatibility Committee (6 years); Vice-Chair/Chair of ITE’s Freight Mobility Council (4 years); and Chair of ASCE T&DI’s Aviation Planning and Operations Committee (11 years). From 2018 to 2026, he organized, moderated, and presented at aviation sessions at the International Conference on Transportation and Development (ICTD) each year. He currently serves as Chair of ASCE’s Aviation Council, continuing his long-standing commitment to advancing the field of aviation.
Dr. Varma has played a significant role in promoting safe, secure, sustainable, and resilient airport infrastructure and operations through his cumulative and collective efforts as an educator, researcher, consultant, mentor, and leader over the past thirty-five years.