Tara Shenoy Kulkarni, Ph.D., P.E., F.EWRI, F.ASCE, who has more than two decades of experience spanning environmental regulation, consulting, research, and academic leadership, has been named a fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
At Norwich University, the nation's oldest private military college and the first private institution to offer formal instruction in civil engineering, Kulkarni oversees a research portfolio exceeding $10 million annually and four research centers as well as managing endowed funds for student and faculty scholarship. She is also a tenured full professor of civil engineering.
Her research career is rooted in environmental engineering and water resources, beginning with human health risk assessments from environmental exposures and investigations into phosphorus-related eutrophication in Vermont's waters. That focus evolved into nationally recognized scholarship on green stormwater infrastructure, resilience metrics, and nature-based solutions, including publications in ASCE's Natural Hazards Review, three successive cycles of the Vermont ASCE Infrastructure Report Card, co-authorship of a water resources planning textbook, and presentations at international forums.
In 2016, Kulkarni founded Norwich University's Center for Global Resilience and Security, an interdisciplinary research center examining the intersections of water, energy, infrastructure, and climate change through a national security lens. Under her direction, the center secured over $3 million in external funding, launched the Dog River Conservancy, organized three statewide resilience conferences, and produced curriculum for mid-level U.S. Army officers through a contract with the Army Corps of Engineers. The center also established Kulkarni as a recognized voice in Vermont's policy community, contributing to the state's Climate Action Plan, providing expert testimony in the Vermont Legislature in support of the Global Warming Solutions Act, and serving on the steering committee for Vermont's FEMA State Hazard Mitigation Plan.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kulkarni led Norwich's campus wastewater-based epidemiology program, during which students designed an original automatic sampler, published their findings in a peer-reviewed undergraduate research journal, and co-presented results at an ASCE EWRI Tech Talk, exemplifying her career-long commitment to placing students in consequential research roles. Between 2012 and 2020, nearly 200 undergraduate students completed 57 community-based service-learning projects in environmental engineering under her direction, engaging approximately 30 Vermont community partners. In 2019, Kulkarni was honored with Norwich University's Homer L. Dodge Award for Excellence in Teaching, which carries the distinction of delivering the university's convocation lecture. Through the ASCE ExCEEd Teaching Fellows Program, she has also contributed to the development of civil engineering faculty nationwide.
Within ASCE, Kulkarni has served in progressive leadership roles in the Environmental and Water Resources Institute since 2015, advancing from committee member to Environmental Council chair to her current role as vice chair of EWRI's Technical Activities Coordination Executive Committee. In 2023, Kulkarni was named Vermont Engineer of the Year by the Vermont Section of ASCE.
Kulkarni earned her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the COEP Technological University, and her master’s and doctoral degrees in civil engineering from the University of Toledo and Florida State University, respectively. She is a licensed professional engineer in Michigan.
