Sai Vanapalli has been actively involved with research activities related to mechanics of unsaturated soils since receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Saskatchewan in 1994. Presently, Dr. Vanapalli is Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ottawa. His research focus has been towards developing simple techniques for estimating the shear strength of unsaturated soils and extending them in the design foundations. More recently, he has been developing simple techniques to estimate and model the 1-D heave in expansive soils.

Dr. Vanapalli has been an author or coauthor of over 150 research publications in peer-reviewed journals, refereed conferences including one book chapter, four keynote papers, and two state-of-the-art reports for international unsaturated soil conferences. He will be delivering three more keynote addresses at different unsaturated soils conferences during the next two years.

Dr. Vanapalli is a volunteer for several activities of Canadian Geotechnical Society, Professional Engineers of Ontario and TC6 of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, which is responsible for promoting cooperation and exchange of knowledge in the area of mechanics of Unsaturated Soils.

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