In 2017, Sorab Panday was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering for “the development of computer codes for solving complex groundwater problems.”
Two years later, the veteran engineer joined the faculty of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Department of Biological Systems Engineering (BSE) to share some of his specialized knowledge and advance approaches to analysis of environmental and water problems in the state.
Sorab lives and works in Herndon, Virginia, where he is a principal engineer with GSI Environmental. He brings more than 30 years of experience in developing and applying flow and transport models for subsurface contamination evaluations and water resource management.
Before the pandemic, he had been spending one week every other month in Lincoln working with BSE and civil and environmental engineering faculty; advising staff at the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources and USGS Nebraska Water Science Center on water models used in state water planning; assisting faculty in developing collaborations nationally and internationally; and leveraging efforts with industry and other organizations to enhance UNL’s ability to impact important issues related to water management and research across the region.
NWC Director Chittaranjan Ray played a pivotal role in recruiting Panday to campus and in introducing him to the significant issues and entities within UNL and the State of Nebraska. In April 2020, he presented “Understand Your Water Resource with Groundwater Modeling” as part of NWC’s Spring Seminar Series, which is available here: go.unl.edu/sorab.
Born in Mumbai, India, Sorab received his Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from Washington State University; M.S. in civil engineering from the University of Delaware; and B. Tech. in civil engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai.