Dr. Rajesh Dhakal

Dr Rajesh Prasad Dhakal
Senior Lecturer
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Rajesh Dhakal was born in 1970 in Dharan, from where he got his pre-university education. He passed SLC from the Secondary Boarding School, Dharan, and Intermediate of Science (I. Sc.) from Hattisar Campus, which is also in Dharan. It was after the 1988 (B.S. 2045) earthquake which destroyed his own house and claimed many lives in his neighbourhood; he decided to become a structural earthquake engineer. He worked hard to achieve this, and finally here he is, an established researcher in one of the world’s leading universities in the field of structural/earthquake engineering.

He completed BE (Civil Engineering) from Pulchowk Campus (Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University) in 1993 with a gold medal. Thereafter, he worked as a lecturer in the same campus and as a civil engineer with several employers in Nepal for more than two years. In 1995, he resigned from his permanent job in the Department of Irrigation and accepted an ME scholarship from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand. After completing ME (Structural Engineering) from AIT with another gold medal and working there as a research associate for six months, he headed to Tokyo University with a PhD scholarship from the Asian Development Bank. After completing PhD (Structural/Earthquake Engineering) in 2000, he worked as a Research Fellow in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore for almost three years. Since 2003, he has been working as an academic staff in University of Canterbury, New Zealand. His research area includes performance based earthquake engineering (PBEE), and seismic design and analysis of reinforced concrete (RC) structures.

Despite a short academic/research career, he has till date:

* published over 45 technical papers in the form of peer-reviewed journal articles, refereed conference proceedings and project reports;
* been awarded funding for several research proposals worth NZD159,400 as principal investigator (PI) and more than NZD5 million as a co-researcher;
* been involved in supervising 2 PhD, 11 ME and 6 undergraduate honours research projects;
* been requested to review several papers for 6 different international journals and 3 international conferences;
* been invited to deliver lectures in 8 structural/earthquake engineering related conferences and seminars;
* been requested to chair sessions in two international conferences;
* been invited to submit papers in two international journals and two international conferences; and
* been sought for advice and consultancy by professional companies in several occasions.

The honours and awards he has received to date are listed below:

* Invited by “Marques who is who in Engineering” to submit biography, 2005.

* Finalist, Lecturer of the year competition, University of Canterbury, 2005.
* Finalist, Lecturer of the year competition, University of Canterbury, 2004.
* Best Paper Award, Japan Concrete Institute, 2000.
* ADB PhD Scholarship, Asian Development Bank / Tokyo University, 1997-2000.
* Aoyagi Prize (ME Gold Medal), Asian Institute of Technology, 1997.
* The Government of Japan ME Scholarship, Asian Institute of Technology, 1995-1997.
* Vice-Chancellor Medal, Ministry of Education and Culture, Nepal, 1993.
* Mahendra Bidhya Bhusan, Decorated by His Majesty late King Birendra, 1993.
* Kulratna Tuladhar Award (BE Gold Medal), Institute of Engineering, Nepal, 1993.
* Paisley Prize, Nepal Engineering Students Society, 1989, 1990, 1991.
* Master of the Subject, Nepal Engineering Students Society, 1989, 1990, 1991.
* National Champion, All Nepal Inter-College Quiz-Contest Competition, Nepal Television, 1990.

He has also volunteered for several professional and social associations as listed below:

* Member of the organizing committee of two International Conferences.
* Member of 6 different international professional associations in civil engineering.
* Member of the management/executive committee: Structural Engineering Society Inc. (SESOC), New Zealand, since 2004.
* Member of the board of Trustees: Refugee and Migrant Centre (RMC), Christchurch, since 2004.
* Member of the management/executive committee: Nepal-New Zealand Friendship Society, Christchurch, 2004-05.
* Member of the management/executive committee: AIT Nepali Samaj, 1996.
* Student Member: General Assembly, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, 1996.
* Chair: Film and Video Committee, AIT Student Union, Thailand, 1996.
* President: Nepal Engineering Students Society (NESS), Kathmandu, 1990-91.