Tharshikka Vickneswaran has bagged Women Outstanding Academician Award of the Year

Tharshikka Vickneswaran has bagged Women Outstanding Academician Award of the Year

• May 31, 2023

My desire and enthusiasm behind choosing civil engineering can be undoubtedly related to the idea of achieving something great in Civil Engineering. It was the field of Geotechnical Engineering which principally caught my interest. The undergraduate curriculum in Civil Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, acquainted me with an extensive range of subjects, both in and outside the field, and successfully earned First class (with a GPA of 3.75 out of 4) in B.Sc.Eng.(Hons.) in Civil Engineering.

I received Professor A. Thurairajah’s gold medal for being the topper in the field of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Also, I was awarded the “Best Performance Appreciation Award” by YMCA Jaffna. Upon my graduation, I received a full scholarship to pursue my Ph.D. at Clemson University. I graduated from Clemson University in May 2022 with a GPA of 4.0. During my Ph.D. I was able to get Doctoral Dissertation Grant, Aniket Shrikhande Memorial Annual Graduate Fellowship, a Graduate travel grant, and Emerging Leaders Annual Fellowship.

Upon graduation, I joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Louisville, USA as an Assistant Professor. Women’s representation in Civil Engineering is considerably lower than men’s compared to other professions. As a woman, I had to experience a unique process of identity construction. As a woman in Civil Engineering, my undergraduate and graduate experiences have benefitted from opportunities for women in Engineering at both the department and university level, as well as supportive and unbiased mentors. However, there were instances where I received discouragement from my colleagues.

I was told that Civil Engineering is not for girls and was asked why I was wasting time in Engineering. Still, I managed to overcome all those discouragements and challenges and was able to excel in my field. I believe that I am one of the best examples for many people, and I will encourage my female students and help them excel in their fields.

The motivation behind my research is to anticipate the future expansion of climatic changes on the natural (earth slopes) and engineered infrastructures (buried pipes) and mitigate the associated risks by using the site-specific historical climatic and soil data using coupled Geotechnical-Hydrological finite element computer program. Climate change and seasonal variability have increased the occurrence of extreme events (droughts, hurricanes, flooding).

These extreme climatic events have caused a significant socio-economic loss in different regions around the world. Failure to take into account of the potential adverse effects of climate changes on the performance of natural and engineered infrastructures like earth slopes and buried pipelines will lead to additional risks to human lives and the country's economy.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Women Icon powered by Times Women for the recognition and for awarding me the “Women Outstanding Academician Award of the Year". There are few such organizations that recognize the achievements of women in their field. In that way, I’m so much proud to receive this award. I express my heartfelt delight to all that enabled me to achieve this goal. I consider myself lucky to have received this prize from you. I hope to continue doing my best in the future.