Scientific Board
USA
Biography
Prof. Dr. Bjorn Birgisson is a distinguished Research Professor in the department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, USA. He has completed his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (Geomechanics) from University of Minnesota in 1996. He has done M.S. in Civil Engineering from Cornell University in 1991.
USA
Biography
Prof. Dr. Nabil F. Grace, university distinguished professor, was appointed dean of Lawrence Technological University’s College of Engineering (COE) in 2011. The College’s degree offerings are among of the largest and most diverse in Michigan and include two doctoral, 11 master’s, l1 bachelor’s, and 2 associate programs. Dr. Grace was very instrumental in initiating the COE graduate programs. Also, was responsible on developing new undergraduate programs such as Architectural Engineering, Robotic Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Imbedded Software Engineering. Grace is the founding director of Lawrence Tech’s Center for Innovative Materials Research (CIMR), one of the largest and most comprehensive infrastructure laboratories in the nation, and also founding director of the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Center of Excellence of Infrastructure that has been funded by MDOT and FHWA for a number of years. Grace’s prolific research in CIMR has been leading to massive improvements in the durability, life, safety, and ultimately the cost of transportation-related infrastructure, particularly highway bridges. He has been awarded dozens of federal, state, and private research grants and contracts totaling nearly $28 million. For the first time in the COE history, LTU received two large pool-fund research projects jointly supported by seven DOTs.These grants have helped finance the construction of CIMR, the purchase of state-of-the art testing equipment such as the environmental/loading chamber, fire/loading chamber, and hundreds of tests aimed at determining the life, durability, and performance of new materials. This testing has provided hundreds of Lawrence Tech students, from the bachelor’s to doctoral level, with first-hand real- world experiences that have prepared them for outstanding careers. Grace is one of the world’s leading experts in the use of carbon-fiber reinforced polymer composites to replace steel in bridge construction, and has conducted extensive research on a variety of applications for reinforced polymer materials. Using those composites virtually eliminate corrosion caused by salt and other chemicals and double the lifespan of bridges. His work has led to campus visits by Michigan governor, two U.S. senators, several members of Congress, and numerous representatives of state agencies and private companies. Grace was invited by a governor to participate in a trade mission to Japan that led a Japanese manufacturer of carbon fiber strands to build a plant in Michigan-within close proximity to CIMR, the first in the U.S., and hire Michigan workers. Grace began teaching at Lawrence Tech in 1988 and was appointed chairman of what is today LTU’s Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering in 2002. Grace is the first Dean of the COE to achieve a six-year ABET accreditation for all engineering programs. He founded Innovation, the College of Engineering’s annual magazine, distributed to collegiate and practicing engineering leaders, and well as LTU engineering alumni, nationwide A native of Egypt who earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at Cairo University, Grace came to the United States by way of the University of Windsor, where he earned his master’s degree in 1981 and PhD in 1986. He was a group leader at Giffels Associates before coming to Lawrence Tech.
Canada
Biography
Prof. Dr. Gordon Huang is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Energy and Environment, and Executive Director of the Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Communities at the University of Regina, Canada. He holds BSC from Peking University (China), MSc from Simon Fraser University (Canada) and PhD from McMaster University (Canada). Since the 1990s, Huang has led or been involved in over 150 environment-related research projects, produced over 700 peer-refereed international journal papers (with an H-index of 46 in Science Citation Index), and supervised over 100 Master/PhD students. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and the President of the International Society for Environmental Information Sciences. He also acts (or acted) as editor-in-chief for 2 international journals and editorial board member for over 10 journals, and was conference chair or keynote speaker at over 40 international events. He has also served the United Nations Development Programme as Chief Scientist for the Program of Rural Water Resources Management and Drinking Water Safety, and was involved in a number of UNDP-supported research activities in China.
Greece
Biography
Prof. Dr. Christopher J. Koroneos is teaching the Renewable Energy Sources course at the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program “’Environment and Development” of the National Technical University of Athens. He is Research Associate at Columbia University in New York, USA, and he is also teaching at the Hellenic Open University. His research activities include renewable energy sources, environmental management, life cycle assessment, exergy analysis and design of chemical and environmental units. He has more than 70 publications in Scientific Journals and more than 150 publications in proceedings of International conferences, he is in the editorial committee of 16 scientific journals, and he has participated in 37 national and international research projects.
India
Biography
Prof. Dr. Nivedita Haran is an Independent Director of our Company. She has a Ph.D. in Humanities and Social Sciences from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. She retired as the Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Home Affairs, Government of Kerala, India.
Poland
Biography
Prof. Dr. Elzbieta Macioszek, Professor SUT earned her Degree of Master of Science at Silesian University of Technology, Faculty of Material Science, Metallurgy and Transport, Poland, in 2002. The degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences (PhD) in Civil Engineering, Wroclaw University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Poland in 2007. PhD thesis merited an Honors Pass. She has the degree of Doctor of Science in the field of construction (specialization: Traffic Engineering) at University of Technology and Life Sciences in Bydgoszcz, Faculty of Building, Architecture and Environmental Engineering, Poland, in 2015. Currently she works as Professor SUT at the Department of Transport Systems and Traffic Engineering, Faculty of Transport and Aviation Engineering of the Silesian University of Technology. She is Author and co-author almost 200 scientific papers/chapters in books, member of numerous organizational, program, technical and scientific committees of scientific conferences organized in various countries around the world. She is also member of editorial teams in journals connected with transport, traffic and civil engineering, and reviewer in many scientific journals connected with transport, traffic and civil engineering. She was Invited Speaker on "Eight International Conference on "Advances in Civil, Structural and Mechanical Engineering" in Paris (June 2018). Her research area include traffic measurements and analysis, transport systems modeling and optimization, transport networks, road infrastructure design, traffic control. Her scientific interests combine the problems of the road traffic engineering (including traffic analysis and prognosis, transport systems modeling and optimization of the transport networks) with the development of the commuting behaviors within the cities. Her professional experience includes more then twenty national and international contract works in the field of traffic engineering and transportation.
Australia
Biography
Prof. Manoj Khandelwal is the Program Coordinator of mining engineering at Federation University and is an Australian Endeavour Fellow. Dr Khandelwal has more than a decade of research and academic teaching experience in Australia and India. Dr Khandelwal has been recognized as a leading expert in ‘Mining Geomechanics’ and ‘Rock Blasting’. So far, Dr Khandelwal has published more than 130 research papers in different reputed journals and conference proceedings. His total citations are more than 4000 and his current h index is 35. He is also the author of a technical book. He has successfully completed several research and consultancy research projects in his area of interest. He has been awarded a number of prestigious awards, in which some of them are the Young Scientist Award at the hands of the President of India during the 93rd Indian Science Congress, Young Engineers Award by Institution of Engineers’ India, Young Mining Engineer of the Year and SRG Information Technology award from Mining Engineers’ Association of India, Endeavour Research and Executive Fellowship from Govt of Australia, etc. Dr Khandelwal is a member of the editorial board of several international journals published from various continents.
Spain
Biography
Prof. Dr. Cesar Porras Amores, he is a professor at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) and teaches Construction Materials and Building Energy Modeling. His research focuses on the development of advanced numerical models and the implementation of monitoring systems, in order to study building´s energy efficiency and indoor air quality. In recent years, he has participated in several research projects, coordinating activities and multidisciplinary initiatives in the field of building construction.
Italy
Biography
Dr. Anna Dell’Amico, Research fellow at the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture of the University of Pavia, she obtained the title of Ph.D. (ICAR17), with the thesis entitled "The experimentation of parametric moderation procedures for cultural heritage. From digital survey to the HBIM model for the enhancement and management of some examples of the historical and architectural heritage ". Since 2015 he has been actively collaborating with the DAda-LAB, Drawing Architecture DocumentAction Laboratory, in particular on issues related to the management of databases, dealing with parametric modeling systems and detection systems using mobile laser scanner technology.
UK
Biography
Dr. Maxwell Fordjour Antwi-Afari is a Lecturer in Construction & Qs at School of Engineering Systems & Management in Aston University, Birmingham, UK. He attained his Ph.D. in Construction Information Technology at the Department of Building and Real Estate in The Hong Kong Polytechnic University through the Postgraduate Studentship Scholarship in March 2019. He received his MPhil in Building Technology at the Department of Building Technology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi-Ghana in August 2015. Maxwell obtained his BSc in Construction Technology and Management (First Class Honours) from KNUST, Kumasi-Ghana in August 2012.
Hong Kong
Biography
Prof. Dr. Wai Yuen Szeto is a Professor and an Associate Head at the Department of Civil Engineering at The University of Hong Kong, and the Deputy Director of the Institute of Transport Studies at that university. He is a Top 1 % Scholar 2015-2021 (according to Clarivate Analytics' Essential Science Indicators). His current h-index is 55 (Google Scholar). He is an author of over 155 refereed journal papers, with two papers in Operations Research and 34 papers in Transportation Research Part B. His publications have been cited over 8500 times (Google Scholar). The publications are related to shared mobility, dynamic traffic assignment, transport network design, public transport, network reliability, game theoretic approaches to transport and logistic problems, modeling land use, transport and environment interaction, and sustainable transport. He received the World Conference on Transport Research Prize (2001), the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies Outstanding Paper Award (2003), the Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Outstanding Dissertation Paper Award and the Gordon Newell Memorial Prize (2005), the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers Outstanding Paper Award for Young Engineers/Researchers (2008), the Best Paper Award of the 10th International Workshop on Computational Transportation Science (2018), and the Outstanding Paper Award of the 2018 China Urban Transportation Planning Annual Meeting. He also received Certificate of Excellence in Reviewing from Transportation Research Part B in 2013 and Transportation Research Part C in 2013 and 2016. Currently, he is an Editor of Transportmetrica B, an Associate Editor of Transportation Research Part D and E, Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems, Transportmetrica A, Travel Behaviour and Society, an Area Editor of Networks and Spatial Economics, and an Editorial Board Member of Transportation Research Part C and International Journal of Sustainable Transportation.
Netherlands
Biography
Dr. Anupam Kumar graduated from the department of civil engineering of Indian Institute of technology, Roorkee, India. Immediately after graduation, he worked as structural design Engineer in India for two years. In the late 2006, he joined the faculty of Civil Engineering and Environment at National University of Singapore as PhD research scholar. Since 2012 he is working in the Section of Pavement Engineering, led by Prof. Tom Scarpas. He participated in several projects mainly related but not limited to tire-pavement interaction. He is also actively involved in organizing international courses, workshops and conferences. He was one of the lecturers during a successfully concluded international course on "Micromechanical analysis of Asphalt Concrete" in June 2015.
Iran
Biography
Dr. Ali. Biglari, I obtained my Ph.D. in Civil Eng. (Computational Mechanics-Structural Engineering) from the University of Glasgow in 2013 and developed my research as a postdoctoral researcher on Computational Mechanics-Geotechnical Engineering. From 2014 I was appointed Assistant Professor. My field of research and teaching is in the area of the sustainable designing approach. I am leading a research team to develop a Resilient Seismic Design approach for structures and Geo-Structures using both classic and Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods. Beyond my research accomplishments to date and others in preparation, I have been fortunate to obtain a wide range of experience in both academia and industry. My academic roles have included Lectureship Positions, Course Coordinator, Knowledge Transfer, Industry Adviser, and Head of Subject.