Vijay P. Singh, Ph.D., D.Sc., P.E., Hon.D.WRE, F.EWRI, Dist.M.ASCE, a distinguished professor, author, and recipient of over 100 awards for his teaching, research, and professional services, has been honored by ASCE as the Outstanding Projects And Leaders award winner in education.
The ASCE OPAL awards honor outstanding civil engineering leaders for their lifetime accomplishments. This year’s OPAL leadership award winners will be honored at the OPAL Awards Gala, a virtual event held Oct. 8 as part of the ASCE 2021 Convention.
Singh is recognized for his demonstrated excellence in furthering civil engineering education. His scholarship, matched with humanitarianism, has contributed more to the advancement of water resources engineering than perhaps anyone else’s. He holds the position of University Distinguished Professor, Regents Professor, and is the inaugural holder of Caroline and William N. Lehrer Distinguished Chair in Water Engineering at Texas A&M University after years of incomparable service as faculty in several departments.
He is the author or co-author of over 32 textbooks, 75 edited reference volumes, numerous book chapters, over 1,370 journal articles, hundreds of conference papers, and many technical reports. Singh is editor in chief of two book series and three highly prestigious journals. He has served on numerous expert panels and professional committees in the U.S. and abroad. He has been president and senior vice president of the American Institute of Hydrology, president of American Academy of Water Resources Engineers, and vice president of Global Groundwater Scientists.
Singh is also a seasoned visiting researcher, with positions and professorships that have taken him to Norway, Australia, Austria, China, Sweden, Canada, and Turkey among others. Of the almost 40 courses he has taught at undergraduate and graduate levels, most of them he created and developed by himself. His courses and research encompass watershed modeling, streamflow forecasting, landfill hydrology, hydrodynamics of surface irrigation, dam break analysis, hydraulic geometry, hydrologic impacts of climate change, food-water energy nexus, and a multiplicity of other topics.
In India, in his native village near Agra, he established a school for imparting quality education virtually free of cost, and the school now has four campuses for graduated levels and a current enrollment of 1,800 students. It is financed entirely through his own funds. In addition, he set up the Foundation of Aggrandizement of Rural Areas (FARA), advancing the causes of afforestation, civil hygiene, protection/management of water resources, and other issues, including women’s emancipation.
Among Singh’s awards are six prizes from ASCE (Arid Lands Hydraulic Engineering Award, Ven Te Chow Award, Royce J. Tipton Award, Richard R. Torrens Award, Norman Medal, Lifetime Achievement Award, EWRI), the Ray K. Linsley Award (AIH), Crystal Drop Award and Chow Memorial Award (IWRA), Merriam Improved Irrigation Award (USCID), ADS/Hancor Soil & Water Engineering Award (ASABE), and three honorary doctorates. He is a fellow of no less than nine, and a member of 14 professional societies/associations, and belongs to 11 international science or engineering academies.
Singh directed the Water Resources Program at Louisiana State University for over 22 years, and the Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute from 2003 to 2006. He has supervised 30 doctoral and 33 master’s theses.
