Professor Abdoun
is the Thomas Iovino Chair Professor and Director, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Geo-Centrifuge Center. He is a Distinguished Global Professor at New York University in Abu Dhabi. He received several awards from professional societies, including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) “Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Excellence in Research Prize”, the US Army “Commander’s Award for Public Service with accompanying medal”, and “Shamsher Prakash International Research Award” for young engineers, scientists and researchers. He is also the recipient of several educational societies, including the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) north region “Outstanding Teaching Award”, the “Wharton QS-Stars Reimagine Education Bronze Award”, and Chi Epsilon National Civil Engineering Honor Society “Excellence in Teaching Award”; for the successful development & implementation of web-based education tools and mixed reality educational games in the undergraduate engineering education at several USA campuses. He authored or co-authored over 200 technical publications. His research interests cover geotechnical engineering, Advanced Field Monitoring, Centrifuge & Full-scale Testing, Soil-Structure Interaction, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, Satellite Based InSAR Remote sensing, Modeling of Blast loading & Hurricane loading, and offshore systems. He served as chair or member of national and international professional committees of major projects associated with tunnels, dams, levees, and pipelines.
Dr. Elfass
is a Research Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. He served as an investigator on projects funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Federal Highway Administration as well as Departments of Transportation. Dr. Elfass’ research interests include experimental and analytical studies of seismic performance of bridge foundations, soil-structure-interaction, behavior of shallow foundations, performance of geosynthetics in geotechnical applications, and pile and pile group response under axial and lateral loading. He holds two patents to improve the axial capacity of drilled shaft and improve their performance during earthquakes. He is currently designing the largest soil box in the U.S. to further investigate soil-structure-interaction. Dr. Elfass has authored and co-authored several technical publications and served on technical committees. He is the recipient of the 2016 “Teacher of The Year” award from the ASCE local chapter. Dr. Elfass is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) and Project Management Professional (PMP).
