Tara Shenoy Kulkarni

Tara Kulkarni is the Associate Provost for Research and Chief Research Officer at Norwich University (NU), overseeing internal and external grant activities, faculty and student research, research compliance, and the university’s five research centers. Her expertise spans water, energy, and environmental systems, with a focus on critical infrastructure and national security. Her research has been funded by the NSF, USEPA, NEH, and the DoD, as well as private foundations such as the High Meadows Fund and the Davis Educational Foundation. She has co-authored a book on water resources and published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, books, and conference proceedings. Since 2013, she has received numerous research awards.

A Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Management, Tara served as department chair (2021-2022). During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led Norwich’s wastewater-based epidemiology initiative for early SARS-CoV-2 detection. She received Norwich’s Homer L. Dodge Award for Excellence in Teaching (2019), has mentored new faculty through the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE’s) ExCEEd workshops, and coached for the National Center for Faculty Diversity and Development. She was a 2019 Women in Green keynote speaker and received the Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Journal of Civil Engineering Education (2020).

As founding director of NU’s Center for Global Resilience and Security (2016-2022), she led initiatives on environmental security, energy resilience, and the Resilient Vermont Network. She served on Vermont’s State Hazard Mitigation Planning Steering Committee, is a member of the Science and Data Subcommittee of Vermont’s Climate Council, and is an active leader in ASCE’s EWRI. She has also served on the Vermont Energy Action Network board and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Association of Environmental Health and Sciences Foundation. Tara holds a Ph.D. from Florida State University and is a licensed Professional Engineer with nearly 20 years of experience in state government, environmental management consulting, and academia.

Ph.D. Civil Engineering, Florida State University
M.S. Civil Engineering, University of Toledo
B.E. Civil Engineering, College of Engineering Pune Technological University

Morris, T., Kulkarni, T., Ku, Y., & Liptak, M. (2024). Amplifying Education: A Case Study in Advancing Academic Centres at Norwich University. Scientia Militaria - South African Journal of Military Studies, 52(2). 

Pion, N., and Kulkarni, T. (2023). “Drinking Water”, 2023 Vermont Infrastructure Report Card, American Society of Civil Engineers, 33-42.

Wyman, S., Kulkarni, T., and Vietrova, K. (2023). “Energy”, 2023 Vermont Infrastructure Report Card, American Society of Civil Engineers, 43-50.