Committee

Dr. Umberto Berardi is the President of the Canadian Acoustical Association and the International Association of Building Physics. He was Canada Research Chair in Building Science (2021–2024) and a Full Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University (2014–2024), where he directed the BeTOP center. His research focuses on innovative materials and nanotechnologies for sustainable buildings. With over 400 publications, 20,000 citations, and an h-index of 64 (Google Scholar), he is a leading expert in his field. He has chaired major international conferences, served as an editor for top journals, and received numerous awards, including Canada’s Clean50 and the ECTP-NETZSCH Award. His research has attracted over $2.5M in funding.

Dr. Khalid Kaddoura is a seasoned expert in Condition Assessment and Infrastructure Asset Management with over 12 years of global experience. He currently serves as a Team Lead at GHD Canada, following his tenure as Technical Director at AECOM Canada. Holding a PhD in Infrastructure Asset Management from Concordia University, Dr. Kaddoura specializes in advanced condition assessment, risk modeling, and optimizing capital improvement plans. He has authored over 40 technical papers and received numerous awards, including the 2024 Visionary Award from the Canadian Network of Asset Managers (CNAM). As an Adjunct Professor at Lawrence Tech University, he teaches courses on risk management and predictive modeling. Passionate about innovation and mentoring future engineers, Dr. Kaddoura is a leader in sustainable infrastructure solutions. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his family, playing and watching soccer, particularly Manchester United games

Professor Ji Wang is the Qianjiang Chair Professor of Zhejiang Province at Ningbo University, where he has been since 2002. He is also the founding director of the Piezoelectric Device Laboratory, a Key Laboratory recognized by the Municipality of Ningbo. Professor Wang’s academic background includes a PhD and Master's from Princeton University, with extensive prior industry experience as a senior engineer at companies like SaRonix, NetFront Communications, and Epson. His research focuses on acoustic waves, high-frequency vibrations, and resonator design, with numerous patents in the U.S. and China. He has authored around 240 journal papers and is an active leader in the acoustic wave device industry, serving on several international committees. He was editor-in-chief of Structural Longevity from 2015 to 2020 and contributes to multiple editorial boards.

Doctor of Sciences (Engineering), Professor, Academician Mikayel G. Melkumyan (born on June 10, 1951) is a distinguished Armenian scientist and engineer specializing in earthquake resistant construction. After graduating from the Civil Engineering Department of Yerevan Polytechnic Institute in 1973 he began researching the behavior of various reinforced concrete structures under seismic actions. Following the devastating 1988 Spitak earthquake, Melkumyan focused on analyzing of structural failures and developing of innovative seismic isolation techniques. His research at the Institute of Industrial Science the University of Tokyo resulted in the “Melkumyan Hysteresis Model”, enhancing the understanding of shear behavior in structures. From 1992 through 1996 he was a teaching Professor at the College of Engineering of the American University of Armenia (AUA), giving lectures on non-linear behavior of reinforced concrete structures and design principles in earthquake resistant construction. He pioneered methods for retrofitting buildings by base isolation while keeping them operational. His patented technologies have been implemented in seismic isolation design for construction of new and retrofitting of existing buildings in Armenia, Russia, Romania, Peru, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. Melkumyan has authored 260 scientific works, including 21 books (6 monographs), 11 normative documents, codes, and standards, and 12 inventions. He is the president of the Armenian Association for Earthquake Engineering, CEO of the “Melkumyan Seismic Technologies” LLC, and has served on various international committees and editorial boards. His efforts have significantly advanced seismic engineering, positioning Armenia among the leaders in this vital field.

Roberto Stark, FACI, is the President of Stark + Ortiz, S.C., a consulting firm based in Mexico City, which provides structural design services for urban and infrastructure projects throughout Mexico, Peru, Panama, Spain, Colombia, Guatemala, Qatar, Aruba, USA and Bahamas. He is a member of ACI Committees 318, Structural Concrete Building Code; 369, Seismic Repair and Rehabilitation; 374, Performance-Based Seismic Design of Concrete Buildings; He is also a member of ACI Subcommittee 318-L, International Liaison. He was a Director of the ACI Board of Direction for the term 2015-2018. Since 1979, Stark has been a Professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and was Head of the Graduate Department of Structural Engineering from 1988-1992. He has given seminars on different topics related to concrete and seismic design in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominic Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, India, Peru, Spain, South Korea and the United States. He received the Gabino Barreda Medal for the highest Academic Achievement in 1981. He received the ACI Charles S. Whitney Medal in 2018 and the ACI Design Award in 2019. ACI Fellow Member 2001. ACI Honorary Member 2022. AGIES Honorary Member 2019. The Roberto Melli Medal 2023, In 2024, he received the Life achievement Lorenzo H. Zambrano from CEMEX. He served as the Mexican delegate on ISO-TC 71 from 2005 to 2012. He received his BS in civil engineering from UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico, in 1981 and his MS and PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, in 1983 and 1988, respectively.

Dr. Osman Adiguzel is a retired Professor of Physics with over 45 years of academic experience. He graduated from Ankara University in 1974 and earned his Ph.D. from Dicle University, Turkey. He conducted postdoctoral research on shape memory alloys at Surrey University, UK. Dr. Adiguzel has published over 80 scientific papers and participated in more than 350 conferences globally, serving as a keynote or plenary speaker in many. He also held leadership roles, including Director of the Graduate School at Firat University (1999–2004), and supervised multiple graduate theses. His research focuses on shape memory alloys, phase transformations, crystallography, and diffraction techniques.

Dr. Forcellini received his Master's degree from the University of Bologna in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2006. His Master's thesis, entitled Study of Soil Structure Interaction was developed in collaboration at the University of California, San Diego in collaboration with Prof. Ahmed Elgamal and Dr. Jinchi Lu. Since then, he has continued to collaborate with Prof. Ahmed Elgamal and Prof. James M. Kelly at UC Berkeley. He worked as a bridge engineer between 2007 and 2009. Since 2009, he has been teaching at the University of San Marino. He completed his PhD A structural optimized performance based earthquake engineering methodology and risk-management decision making at the University of San Marino.

Youichi Yasuda is a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Nihon University, College of Science and Technology, in Tokyo, Japan. He holds a Doctor of Engineering degree from Nihon University, where he also completed his Bachelor's and Master's degrees. Professor Yasuda's academic career at Nihon University spans over 30 years, with roles ranging from Research Associate to Professor. He has also held visiting positions at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and the University of Queensland in Australia. He is widely recognized for his contributions to hydraulic engineering, receiving several prestigious awards from the American Society of Civil Engineers, including the Karl Emil Hilgard Hydraulic Prize and the J.C. Stevens Award. Professor Yasuda’s academic achievements are widely recognized. He received the Karl Emil Hilgard Hydraulic Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in 2000 for the best paper published in the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering. He was awarded the J.C. Stevens Award for the best discussion paper in the same journal in 2005 and again in 2013. Furthermore, in 2012, he was honored with the Outstanding Reviewer Award by ASCE’s Journal of Hydraulic Engineering.

Stefano Pagliara is a Full Professor of Hydraulic Structures at the University of Pisa, with over 25 years of experience in hydraulic engineering, water protection, and hydrology. He specializes in hydraulic and reclamation works, flood management, and river course regulation. Prof. Pagliara has held significant positions, including serving on the IAHR Council (2015-2019) and as the president of the "Hydraulic Structures" section of IAHR. He has led national research projects on low-impact hydraulic works and flood risk reduction. Additionally, he teaches courses on hydraulic protection, hydrology, and hydrodynamics at the University of Pisa and the Naval Academy of Livorno. Prof. Pagliara is also an esteemed reviewer for leading international journals and has received awards for his contributions to scientific research. He is an active member of several scientific associations, including IAHS, IAHR, and ASCE.

Hashem Al-Mattarneh was born in Zarka, Jordan in 1961. He graduated from Civil Engineering College at Yarmouk University, Jordan, in 1986. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the National University of Malaysia in 2000 and 2005 respectively. He worked as a design and consultant engineer from 1986 until 1997. From 2002 to 2005 he has been an Assistant Professor at University Technology MARA, Malaysia. In 2006 he was an Associate Professor and Head of the structural unit at University Tenaga National, Malaysia. From 2009 to 2011he was the dean of the faculty of engineering at Jerash University, Jordan. From 2011 until 2017 Dr. Al-Mattarneh was an associate professor and head of quality, development, and accreditation at Faculty of Engineering, Najran University, Saudi Arabia. His research activity has been addressed to sensors, electromagnetic nondestructive testing and evaluation, advanced material characterization, and structural health monitoring. Currently, he is a professor at Yarmouk University, Irbid Jordan. Dr. Al-Mattarneh is a member of several national and international organizations including, JEA, ACI, ASNT, IACT, IEEE, and ASCE.

Michele Fabio Granata is a Civil Engineer with a PhD in Structural Engineering and is currently a Researcher in Structural Engineering (Tecnica delle Costruzioni) at the Università di Palermo. He holds the Italian Scientific Qualification (ASN) as an Associate Professor in Structural Engineering. Granata has a distinguished academic background, having earned his PhD in Structural Engineering in 2006 and a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering with honors in 2001 from the Università degli Studi di Palermo. He has also completed a Master's in "Naturalistic and Environmental Engineering" in 2002. His professional qualifications include being registered as a Professional Engineer with the Ordine degli Ingegneri della Provincia di Caltanissetta. Granata's research interests encompass Structural Engineering, with a focus on concrete, prestressed concrete, steel structures, bridge engineering, structural analysis methods, and spatial structures.

Dr Pilar Maria Guerrieri holds a PhD with honours in ‘Architectural Composition’ from Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage in Delhi and Westminster University in London. She is an Architectural Historian, particularly interested in re-reading pregnant contemporary issues from a historical perspective to give them a new light and a wider understanding. She has been extensively studying the development of megacitiesand the effects of cultural exchanges, exploring the meaning of terms such as ‘tradition’, ‘identity’ and ‘heritage’, and she is now interested in the relationship between city, environment and human well-being. Pilar since she finished her PhD is teaching. She has been teaching ‘History and Theory of Architecture and Human Settlements’ in Delhi at the Italian-Indian GD Goenka University, branch of Politecnico di Milano in India, and she is now teaching ‘History of Architecture and Urban Planning’, at Politecnico di Milano (DASTU) in Italy. She has been published in several international journals, participated at national and international conferences. She is the author of the book Maps of Delhi (Niyogi, 2017) and Negotiating Cultures: Delhi’s Architecture and Planning from 1912 to 1962 (Oxford University Press, 2018), Architettura di Egizio Nichelli (1937-1991), (Franco Angeli, 2022), Post Western Histories of Architecture, with Marco Biraghi, (Routledge, 2023).

Prof. Dr. Foo Keng Yuen is the UNESCO Co-Chair on Ecohydraulics for Sustainable Water Infrastructures for SDG 6 in the Asia and the Pacific Region. His research interests are environmental engineering, waste utilization, water treatment technology, catalysis, food security and toxicology, and environmental health. He has involved in different kinds of university, national and international research grants, amounting to approximately RM 10 million. His aptitude for high quality research of international standing has been supported by the consultancy projects of exceeding RM 3 million, more than 100 international publications, with a total citation of exceeding 18,000, and an author h-index of 51. In term of Intellectual Properties, he holds 3 patents, 1 trade-secret and 1 trademark. Foo’s scholastic achievements and thought leadership are recognised locally and internationally. He is honoured to be the Top 2% Scientists in their Respective Fields and Top 2% Highly Cited Scientists in the world by the Stanford University, California consequentially for 5 years. Foo has been nominated to be the honouree of the Ten Outstanding Young Malaysians (ToYM) 2022, Top Research Scientist Malaysia (TRSM) 2019, National Young Scientist Award 2017, International Young Inventor Award, Marquis Who's Who in the World, Top 100 Engineers, and Honorary Doctorate of Letters by International Biographical Centre Cambridge, England, and special award or medal winners in International Inventions, Competitions and Exhibitions. He serves as the Editor, Editorial Board Members, Scientific Adviser, Technical Committee, Review Committee, Keynote and Invited Speakers in international scientific journals, conferences, and research seminars. Foo has been nominated as the Chief Consultant for several UNESCO’s international workshops, connecting with more than 30 industrial partners. He has been appointed as the technical consultant for TG Ocean Health Food Industries Limited Company and research and development (R&D) consultant for Gold Choice Food Industries Limited Company.

Shieh-Kung Huang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) in Taichung, Taiwan, where he has been employed since February 2021. He earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from National Taiwan University in 2019, with a dissertation focused on signal decomposition and feature extraction techniques for seismic mitigation of vibration-sensitive equipment. Huang also holds an M.S. in Civil Engineering from the same university, where he researched damage identification in structural systems using adaptive extended Kalman filtering. He completed his B.S. in Civil Engineering at Chung-Yuan Christian University. Before joining NCHU, Huang worked as an Assistant Researcher Fellow at the Structural Control Division of the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) from 2008 to 2021. Additionally, he was a visiting scholar at the University of California San Diego from 2018 to 2019. His research interests include smart structures, structural health monitoring, structural control, damage detection, sensor technology, signal processing, artificial intelligence, advanced experimental techniques, and earthquake early warning.

Dr. Abdelrahman is a Professor of Concrete Structures and former Chair of the Structural Engineering Department at Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. He is a Fellow of the Egyptian Society of Engineers and the General Secretary of the Egyptian Society of Civil Engineers. Dr. Abdelrahman has authored the book Strengthening of Concrete Structures (Springer, 2023) and has over 35 journal publications. He has supervised numerous PhD and MSc students and serves on several academic committees. As a consultant, he founded Amr Abdelrahman Consultant Engineers in 2000, contributing to major projects in the Middle East and Gulf regions.

Said KENAI is a professor of concrete technology and building materials at the University Saâd Dahleb-Blida1, Algeria. He earned his PhD from the University of Leeds in 1988. A member of ACI and a founding member of MRS-Africa, he chairs RILEM-TC on agro-waste in cementitious materials (2018-2024) and serves as the convenor for the Middle East and North Africa region since 2024. Professor KENAI has supervised 34 PhD theses and is ranked among the top 2% worldwide in building and construction. His research focuses on concrete durability, waste reuse, self-compacting concrete, and structural strengthening. He has published over 150 papers, co-authored six book chapters, and he is a member of the editorial boards of several reputable journals, such as Journal of Advances in Concrete Construction, Techno Press; Materials and Structures, RILEM; Chemistry Africa, Springer; and The Open Civil Engineering Journal, among others.

Dr. Mohammad Arif Kamal is an Architect having 20 years of Teaching, Research and Professional experience in the field of Architecture, Building Technology and Interior Design. He did his Bachelor of Architecture (B. Arch.) with Honors from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India in 2000, and secured a Master of Architecture (M. Arch.) on an MHRD GATE Fellowship from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, in 2002 and Ph.D. in ‘Energy Responsiveness in Traditional Residential Buildings of Lucknow’ on MHRD Fellowship, from IIT, Roorkee in 2007. His major fields of interest are Environmental Design, Sustainable Architecture, Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Climate Responsive Architecture, and Traditional Architecture etc. Dr. Kamal is presently working as an Associate Professor at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. He has published 5 books and edited 4 Special Topic Volumes related to Sustainable Building Materials, published by Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland. He has published extensively around 120 papers in International Journals and Conferences. Dr. Kamal has an h-index of 13 and i10 index of 20 with around 883 Citations (Highest in Architecture in India). Dr. Kamal is an Editorial Board Member of many International Journals (including Scopus indexed Journals) and Conferences related to the Field of Architectural Engineering and Building Technology. He has evaluated research theses for several universities in India and abroad. He is a lifetime member of the Council of Architecture, India, and an Associate member of the Indian Institute of Architects, India. He is also a panel member of several International Research Organizations and Professional Bodies.

Dr. Abdollah Tabaroei graduated with a BSc. of civil engineering from Islamic Azad University, Bojnourd Branch, Bojnourd, Iran in 2009.His Master's science course were fulfilled at Islamic Azad University, Najaf Abad Branch, Najaf Abad, Iran with field of geotechnical engineering in 2012.He received PhD degree in civil engineering in field of geotechnical engineering from Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran in 2018.He is serving as one of the faculty member in faculty of engineering, Eshragh Institute of Higher Education, Bojnourd, Iran form 2020. He taught and has been a guest lecturer at many other universities since 2019 in Iran. He has authored over 50 publications in archival journals (Q1 to Q4 level), and national and international conferences, two patents and one research project. He has been a reviewer in many journals such as Journal of Advances in Civil and Architectural Engineering, ASCE Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction Journal, Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering and International Journal of Mining and Geo-Engineering. His research interests include physical Modelling in geotechnical engineering, numerical simulations in geotechnique, soil-structure interaction, earthquake geotechnical engineering, soil behavior under repeated loading, tunnel engineering and design of excavation support systems. He is supervisor in the dissertations of over than 10 of graduate students of different universities of Iran in fields of geotechnical engineering, structural engineering and hydraulic structures and water.