New fellowship honors structural engineering professor
Subby Rajan Structural Engineering Fellowship honors longtime faculty member and will support graduate students
Aaron Fairchild (left) and Dharan Arumugam (middle), both civil, environmental and sustainable engineering graduate students in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, are the first recipients of the Subby Rajan Structural Engineering Fellowship. The fellowship is named in honor of Subramaniam “Subby” Rajan (right), a professor of civil, environmental and sustainable engineering in the Fulton Schools; it will support graduate students specializing in structural engineering. Photographer: Erika Gronek/ASU
Subramaniam “Subby” Rajan, a professor of civil, environmental and sustainable engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, began his academic career at ASU in fall 1983. Since then, he has mentored about 100 graduate students, who are now employed as engineers around the world.
“My graduate students have helped me immensely in my research work,” Rajan says. “I have authored most of my 200-plus journal articles and refereed conference papers with graduate students as co-authors.”
One of those former graduate students is Mustaque Hossain, now a civil engineering professor at Kansas State University. Hossain approached Ram Pendyala, who is a professor and director of the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, part of the Fulton Schools, about creating a new fellowship in honor of his former mentor to help support ASU structural engineering graduate students. There are currently about 40 donors who have contributed to the fellowship.
The inaugural recipients of the Subby Rajan Structural Engineering Graduate Fellowship are Aaron Fairchild, a civil, environmental, and sustainable engineering master’s degree student, and Dharan Arumugam, a civil, environmental and sustainable engineering doctoral student.
“Receiving the fellowship was a tremendous honor and a source of encouragement to continue my studies,” Fairchild says. “It symbolized recognition from one of my favorite professors and boosted my confidence in pursuing my academic goals. It has also been an additional motivation to strive for greater excellence in my research and coursework.”
Arumugam also expressed his gratitude for being among the fellowship’s first recipients.
“Dr. Rajan is one of the finest educators I have encountered,” he says. “I had the privilege of taking two of his courses, both of which significantly enhanced my technical expertise and refined my analytical thinking. His structured approach to teaching, sincerity and deep commitment to his students left a lasting impression on me.”
“Beyond academics, he has been an approachable and insightful mentor, offering guidance that has helped me gain clarity in my thoughts and maintain a positive outlook in life,” he adds.
In the world of academia, graduate students provide invaluable service to faculty members by supporting them as they teach courses and manage and execute research projects.
“I am hoping that the fellowship will permit Dharan and Aaron to cover a portion of their expenses — living costs and funds needed to learn new skills, attend conferences, present their work and interact with their peers,” Rajan says. “I want them to be ambassadors of our structures and materials research group.”
Rajan’s research interests include a wide variety of areas, such as structural analysis via the finite element method, design produced through numerical optimization techniques, understanding material behavior by using experimental methods and constitutive modeling, and advancing software development with object-oriented programming and parallel processing.
Rajan sparked Fairchild’s interest in the programming side of structural engineering by showing him that coding isn’t only for computer science majors and has substantial potential to improve efficiency.
“Dr. Rajan’s classes are notoriously challenging, but that’s what stimulated my learning,” Fairchild says. “Pushing through the difficult coursework and attempting to master the concepts significantly improved my confidence in tackling complex problems. His rigorous teaching style pushed me to excel and instilled a disciplined approach to learning.”
Fairchild says he admires how Rajan is always striving to tackle more difficult problems and is never satisfied with the status quo.
“What I really appreciate is his comprehensive approach to teaching,” Fairchild says. “He essentially taught us how to think in a way that’s both rigorous and adaptable to different levels of complexity, showing us how to solve problems by hand or how to leverage the power of computational tools.”
Rajan’s approach to teaching is not only appreciated by his students but also by Fulton Schools leadership.
“Dr. Subby Rajan has instilled in his graduate students the technical rigor, problem-solving mindset and passion for structural engineering that define our profession,” Pendyala says. “His commitment to mentorship and his unwavering dedication to student success have left an indelible mark on our school and the global engineering community.”
Support such as this fellowship makes a significant difference to students by easing financial burdens and serving as a source of encouragement, as even small recognitions can have a lasting impact.
The effect that such a fellowship has on the legacy of a mentor doesn’t go unnoticed either.
“This fellowship is a fitting tribute to Rajan’s legacy, ensuring that future generations of structural engineers continue to benefit from the same spirit of excellence and support that he so generously provided,” Pendyala says. “We thank the instigators and donors who made the establishment of this fellowship possible.”
