Dr. Kuruvilla John
Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies
Dr. Kuruvilla John is primarily responsible for strategic growth in externally sponsored research and graduate student enrollment within each of the departments in the College of Engineering. In this capacity, he works closely with faculty and staff in the college, as well as with the Toulouse School of Graduate Studies and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, to develop new graduate programs and secure additional research funding streams.
He holds an academic appointment as a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering at UNT. He obtained his B. Tech degree in chemical engineering from Anna University in India in 1986. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees also in chemical engineering from the University of Iowa in 1989 and 1996, respectively. He worked as a visiting scientist at IBM’s Bergen Scientific Centre in Norway and as a research associate with the State University of New York at Albany prior to moving to Texas in 1995.
He started his academic career at Texas A&M University – Kingsville (TAMUK). Prior to coming to UNT, he served as the interim dean and associate dean of the Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering at TAMUK. His research interests are in the area of environmental sustainability with a focus on air quality modeling and monitoring. He was responsible for securing over 30 externally sponsored research contracts, grants and projects worth over $18 million from various funding agencies including National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. He has served as a principal investigator and project director of a National Science Foundation funded center for research excellence in science and technology. The multi-disciplinary collaborative center was focused on coastal environmental sustainability and it was funded at $ 1 million per year. Dr. John has supervised over 40 M.S. students and 3 Ph.D. students at TAMUK. He has published quite extensively and in 2007 he co-edited a book titled “The Changing Climate of South Texas 1900-2100: Problems and Prospects, Impacts and Implications”.
