Nathan Kathir

Nathan M. Kathir, P.E.(CO), F.ASCE is a civil/structural engineer with over 35 years of experience in government and private industry.  He earned his PhD in civil/structural engineering and is a licensed professional engineer (PE) in the state of Colorado and a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers. After leaving the federal government with more than 30 years of civilian service in which he spent the last five years supporting the White House, he is currently an associate professor and the director of senior projects with the Department of Mechanical Engineering. 

He has been an engineering program evaluator for ABET since 2000 and currently serves as a commissioner with ABET’s Engineering Accreditation Commission. As an ABET expert, Kathir has evaluated engineering programs for accreditation at 25 institutions both in the U.S. and internationally.

Kathir's areas of expertise include critical infrastructure protection (CIP), vulnerability assessments and mitigations, probabilistic risk evaluation and risk management, Security engineering, blast modeling and mitigation of effects, facilities engineering, and facilities management. 

In addition to teaching a number of engineering courses, his primary duties are directing the capstone program and teaching the senior design course. He advises students on creative ways to solve real-world engineering problems and ensures students get experience in planning, design, research, manufacturing, and project management before they graduate. He also coordinates the accreditation efforts for the mechanical engineering program and is an active member of ASCE’s Committee on Accreditation.  Kathir joined Mason full-time in August 2019 after being an adjunct faculty for three years.

Degrees

• PhD, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
• MS, Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University, Washington D.C.
• MS, Civil Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND
• M. Engr. Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand
• BS, Civil Engineering, University of Ceylon at Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

Research Interests

• Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP)
• Vulnerability assessments and mitigations
• Probabilistic risk evaluation and risk management
• Security engineering, blast modeling and mitigation of effects
• Facilities engineering, and facilities management