Department of Earthquake Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (erstwhile University of Roorkee) was established in 1960 as School of Research and Training in Earthquake Engineering. Four  major areas of earthquake engineering viz., Structural  Dynamics, Soil Dynamics, Engineering Seismology and Seismotectonics, and Instrumentation have been nurtured for the last fifty years.

The department provides Master’s  degree in three specializations namely, Structural  Dynamics, Soil Dynamics, and Seismic Vulnerability and  risk Assessment. The major functions of the Department include teaching and research, and rendering expert advice to various organizations in the area of earthquake resistant design of structures and systems, such as dams, bridges, power plants, etc. The Department has played a key role at the national level in the formulation Indian Standard Codes of Practice for earthquake resistant design of Structures.

Several major facilities have been developed in the Department to conduct experiments related to earthquake engineering. Some of the major facilities include: a low cost railway wagon shock table for dynamic testing of structural models, a computer controlled shake table to stimulate strong ground motion, a quasi static testing laboratory having servo-controlled dynamic actuator systems and servo-controlled compression testing machine, a soil dynamics laboratory equipped with liquefaction table and cyclic triaxial testing system, a seismological observatory having state of the art broadband seismograph to record earthquake ground motion, a strong motion network of 300 digital accelerographs deployed in the Himalayan region to measure strong ground motion due to moderate and major earthquakes and a state-of-the-art 12-station telemetered network to monitor local seismicity in the environs of Tehri Dam.