IIT Roorkee appoints Praveen Kumar deputy director

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee has appointed Praveen Kumar as the new deputy director of the institute. Kumar has served as the director of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Delhi and head of the civil engineering department at IIT Roorkee in his previous roles.

Kumar held the position of director at NIT Delhi from 2018 to 2020, and before that, he served in both professor and associate professor roles at IIT Roorkee from 1998 to 2015.

Notably, he has a specialization in transportation engineering, and areas of interest include rural and urban road planning, intelligent transport systems, pavement performance studies, and industrial waste utilisation in road works.

“A distinguished academician, researcher, and administrator, Kumar has served as Director, NIT Delhi, and Head, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Roorkee. His contributions to transportation engineering, rural infrastructure, and higher education are widely recognised,” IIT Roorkee posted on its X (formerly Twitter) account.

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IIT Roorkee's new deputy director achievements

In 2025, he received the Lifetime Teaching Achievement Award and subsequently joined the board of IIT Roorkee as a member for the 2026-27 term.

In 2023, he was honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award in Academics and Research by MNIT Jaipur. That same year, he was also appointed as the President of India Nominee (Visitor's Nominee) for IIT Bhubaneswar, IIT Hyderabad, Academic Staff in NITs, and IIEST Shibpur, a position he holds through 2026.

Kumar completed his bachelor’s of engineering (BE) in civil engineering from NIT Jaipur in 1987, after which he pursued master of engineering (ME) in transportation engineering from IIT Roorkee in 1990 and went on to earn his PhD in rural road planning from the same institution in 1997.