Featured in Technology Today (Volume 35, Issue 2), a quarterly publication of the Louisiana Transportation Research Center.
External Programs Associate Director Vijaya (V.J.) Gopu, Ph.D., P.E. was recently honored with two special distinctions. First, he was named Researcher of the Year by ULL’s College of Engineering for showing exceptional performance and commitment to the department. Next, he was appointed by Governor Edwards to serve a six-year term on the Louisiana Professional Engineering and Land Surveying (LAPELS) Board as a professional engineer representing education. In this new role, he will serve Louisiana citizens by helping to safeguard their life and property through careful enforcement of the standards of engineering practice by professionals registered and licensed by the board.
As a LAPELS board member, Dr. Gopu also hopes to facilitate a higher level of communication with the licenses in this digital age and help promote the registration of all engineering faculty at Louisiana universities. “Students pursuing engineering degrees should be taught to take pride in becoming registered engineers by faculty who need to make a commitment to becoming registered engineers,” explained Dr. Gopu. “Medical schools would never allow a non-board certified doctor to train medical students; it is important that engineering schools follow their lead. I would like to assist in this change.”
Dr. Gopu has been an associate director for LTRC the past 16 years and is thankful for the support and encouragement the center has offered. “LTRC has supported and encouraged my efforts to engage in a myriad of proposal development activities that benefited a large number of faculty in our state universities and participate in consortium driven efforts that enhanced the visibility and stature of LTRC,” said Dr. Gopu.
“LTRC support was instrumental in my gaining several awards/recognitions from the universities I was affiliated with. It would have been difficult to participate or be involved in a large number of transportation-related arenas without being at LTRC.”
In addition to his long-standing position with LTRC, Dr. Gopu has held the Formosa Plastics Distinguished Professor Emeritus position at LSU since 2000, is a Stuller Settings-Matthew Stuller LEQSF/Regents Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, is the chair of the Industrial Advisory Board for the NSF Center for Integration of Composites in Infrastructure, and is a founding member of the International Association for Bridge Management and Safety–USA.
Decades of Service
After earning his B.S. in Civil Engineering with distinction from Andhra University in 1971, Dr. Gopu went on to obtain his M.S. and Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from Colorado State University in 1972 and 1975. When he joined the civil engineering faculty at LSU in 1978, no one could anticipate the impact he would have in the field of education and research.
In fact, he has supervised the research work of 48 master’s and doctoral students and served as the principal or co-principal investigator of over 60 research projects with total expenditures exceeding $20 million.
During his 22-year tenure at LSU (1978-2000), he served as the department’s structures program and graduate program coordinator. During a sabbatical in 1985, Dr. Gopu served as a visiting professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden for eight months. And during his final two years at LSU, Dr. Gopu worked as the Program Director for Structural Systems and Materials in the Directorate of Engineering at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C., on an IPA appointment (1998-2000). In this role, he established a $20-million joint NSF-HUD initiative in support of President Clinton’s PATH (Partnership for Advancing Technologies for Housing) program.
As evidenced in his lasting service to Louisiana and its universities, Dr. Gopu also became the first engineering professor in Louisiana history to achieve tenure as a full professor at four Louisiana universities.