Tarun Kant obtained his BSc (1962) degree from the University of Allahabad, BTech (Hons) in Civil Engineering (1967) from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay and MTech (1969) with specialization in structural engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. He spent a year and a half in a consulting engineering firm in Mumbai before joining IIT Bombay on (1971) as a Lecturer. He earned his PhD degree (1977) from IIT Bombay and was selected as an Assistant Professor (1978) and later became a Professor (1986). He has been Head of the Department (2000-02), Dean (Planning) of the Institute (2001-03), Chairman of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE-1998), and Chairman of the Central Library (1993-98).

Academic and Research Achievements: Professor Kant's research interest was in computational methods of structural analysis and theories of plates and shells. His work on thick shell theories and development of a numerical integration (NI) technique involving segmentation, which could capture boundary layer effects, was significant. Later, he got interested in the mechanics of multilayered fibre-reinforced plastic composites (FRPCs). A laminate is a multilayered composite made up of several individual layers (laminae). Development of two-dimensional accurate plate/shell analytical models, from these physically three-dimensional laminates, has been an area of his active research. Kant has made significant contributions to the mechanics of FRPCs, which has led to better understanding of their behaviour. He initiated a systematic research effort, towards the development of both continuum and discrete [finite element (FE)] higher order deformation models for improved response characteristics of the laminates in the form of beams, plates and shells. His demonstration of Co FE formulation of higher order displacement theories is considered as a pioneering work and is now being extensively used. His group has clearly demonstrated the application of these analytical and computational models to a variety of problems in structural engineering. Recently, his group has shown the effectiveness of a new partial discretization methodology through marriage of FE and NI approaches for evaluation of inter-laminar stresses in layered composites. He has published 117 articles in refereed journal and edited four books. Kant has supervised 22 PhD Theses and 71 MTech dissertations.

Other Contributions: Kant is responsible for establishing a Research School of Computational Structural Mechanics at IIT-Bombay. He was President of the Indian Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ISTAM) for two terms (1999 and 2000), and has founded Indian Association for Computational Mechanics (IndACM) and Indian Association for Structural Engineering (IASE). Currently he serves on the Editorial Boards of four international journals.

Awards and Honours: Professor Kant was conferred the HH Mathur Award by IIT-Bombay (2007); recipient of the Burmah-Shell Best Paper Prize; the 1979 Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Trust (UK) Scholarship and won the 1992-93 European Commission (EC) Senior Faculty Exchange Fellowship. He is a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (1999) and Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (2004).