Nemkumar (Nemy) Banthia is a Killam University Professor and Canada Research Chair at University of British Columbia. His primary area of research is in Sustainable Concrete Infrastructure with emphasis on nano-modified fiber reinforced composites, ultra-high performance concrete materials, waste recycling, fracture analysis, earthquake strengthening and sensor based structural health monitoring.

He is one of Top 25 ‘Most Cited in the field of Construction & Building Materials’ as per Platinum H-Index.

Having graduated over 75 doctoral and post-doctoral students, Dr. Banthia holds 9 patents, has published over 475 refereed papers and has edited 20 volumes. He serves on the Editorial Board of nine international journals and is the Editor-in-Chief of the J. of Cement and Concrete Composites— a journal with a 2022 Impact Factor of 12.6. This is the Journal with the highest impact factor in the field of Construction Materials.

His awards include the Wason Medal of American Concrete Institute, Solutions Through Research Award of the BC Innovation Council, Wolfson Merit Award of the Royal Society of the UK, Killam Research Prize from the Killam Foundation, Horst Leipholz Medal of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, Mufti Medal of Excellence of the International Society for Health Monitoring of Infrastructure, Leadership in Science and Technology Award of the Drishti Foundation, Industry Marvel Award of the Darpan Society and Global Citizenship Award of alumni-UBC. In 2018, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology recognized him with Excellence in Technology and Innovation Award. In 2020, IIT-Delhi recognized him with a Distinguished Alumni Award for Contributions to Teaching and Research. More recently, in March 2022, Dr. Banthia received the Jacob Biely Faculty Research Prize which is regarded as UBC’s premier award for research across all disciplines. In July 2022, Dr. Banthia received the Dean’s Medal of Distinction from the UBC Faculty of Applied Science.

Dr. Banthia is a fellow of the American Concrete Institute, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, Indian Concrete Institute, Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE), Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), and the Royal Society of Canada.

Dr. Banthia leads the India-Canada Centre for Innovative Multidisciplinary Partnerships to Accelerate Community Transformation and Sustainability (IC-IMPACTS)—a Research Centre of Excellence—as its Scientific Director and CEO. Under Dr. Banthia’s leadership, IC-IMPACTS has graduated over 1200 post-graduate students in Canada and India, published over 1100 peer-reviewed papers, obtained 31 patents and launched 8 start-ups. IC-IMPACTS has also placed over 30 technologies in remote and rural communities many of which belong to Canada’s First Nations.