The Grainger College of Engineering

Imad Al-Qadi

Imad Al-Qadi
Imad Al-Qadi he/him/his
  • Professor
  • Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering
  • Director, Illinois Center for Transportation
(217) 265-0427
1207 Newmark Civil Engineering Bldg

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Education

  • PhD, Civil Engineering, Penn State, University Park, PA, 1990
  • MEng, Civil Engineering, Penn State, University Park, PA, 1986
  • BSCE, Civil Engineering, Yarmouk University (currently JUST), Irbid, Jordan, 1984

Biography

Al-Qadi holds the Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering and is the Director of the Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Prior to his appointment at UIUC, he served as an instructor and research engineer at Penn State University from 1988 to 1990, and as a faculty member in the Charles E. Via Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech from 1990 to 2004. By 1998, he had been promoted to full professor and was subsequently named the Charles E. Via Jr. Professor. Al-Qadi earned his B.S. (1984) from Yarmouk University in Jordan, and his M.Eng. (1986) and Ph.D. (1990) degrees in civil engineering from Penn State University.

At Virginia Tech, Al-Qadi established the roadway infrastructure group and designed various heavily instrumented pavement sections for the Smart Road, a state-of-the-art full-scale research facility that became one of North America’s leading transportation test environments. At UIUC, he founded and elevated ICT to international prominence and initiated the Illinois Autonomous and Connected Track (I-ACT), a proposed high-speed, multimodal test track in Rantoul, Illinois. Recently designed, I-ACT is set to become one of the world’s most advanced test tracks for electric and autonomous vehicles, freight, and energy harvesting technologies.

Al-Qadi’s research and consulting focus on a range of transportation-related topics, including highway and airfield sustainability, rolling resistance, fuel consumption, resilience, pavement mechanics, advanced modeling, tire-pavement interaction, transportation modeling and testing, interface systems (including geosynthetics), asphalt mixes, pavement recycling optimization, ground-penetrating radar, infrastructure asset management, and autonomous vehicles. He also investigates energy harvesting, truck platoons, and the impact of electric trucks on infrastructure.

A registered professional engineer, Al-Qadi is an elected Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and an honorary member of multiple organizations. He has served as an honorary professor at institutions including Southeast University, Chang'an University, and Tongji University in China, Aston University in the UK, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, and Harbin Institute of Technology in China. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Pavement Engineering, and has held editorial positions with other journals.

Al-Qadi has received numerous prestigious awards, including the National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award (1994), the Quadrennial International Geosynthetic Society Award (2002), ARTBA S.S. Steinberg Award (2013), and the ASCE James Laurie Prize (2007). More recently, he was honored with the 2024 Executive Officer Distinguished Leadership Award and the TRB Roy W. Crum Distinguished Service Award (2023). His achievements were also profiled in the November-December 2006 issue of TRNews. He has been recognized with several best paper awards and received honors for excellence in research and teaching. In 2024, he received the 2024 Executive Officer Distinguished Leadership Award, the University of Illinois 2024-25 President’s Executive Leadership Program Fellow, and the CUTC Life Achievement Award for Transportation Research and Education (2025).

Al-Qadi is the past president of the ASCE Transportation and Development Institute and founder of the Academy of Pavement Science and Engineering. He has chaired/co-chaired more than 30 international conferences, including the 2006 International NDE Conference on Civil Engineering and multiple ASCE International Airfield and Highway Pavement Conferences. His service extends to leadership roles in technical committees and taskforces.

A prolific scholar, Al-Qadi has authored over 1,000 publications, including more than 390 refereed journal papers and 160 refereed conference papers. He has served as the principal investigator for over 180 research projects, with sponsorship from various federal, state, and international agencies, as well as industry. His consulting work includes major projects with organizations such as the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), BP Amoco, Michelin, and several others.

Research Statement

Al-Qadi’s teaching, research, and consulting interests and expertise focus primarily on highway and airfield sustainability, rolling resistance and fuel consumption, resiliency, pavement mechanics, advanced modeling, tire-pavement interaction, transportation roadway modeling and testing, interface and interlayer systems (including geosynthetics), pavement materials, sustainability, and life-cycle assessment, asphalt mixes, recycled materials and performance prediction, modified asphalt binder rheology, pavement recycling optimization, ground-penetrating radar optimization and signal analysis, infrastructure asset management systems and pavement condition assessment, preservation technologies, transportation infrastructure instrumentation and full-scale accelerated testing; autonomous and conceded vehicles and trucks, energy harvesting, truck platoons and impact of electrical trucks on infrastructure, and forensic engineering and arbitration.

Research Interests

  • Asphalt Technology and Binder Rheology
  • Pavement Sustainability, Recycling, and Life Cycle Assessment
  • Pavement Fracture, Reflection Cracking, and Geosynthetically Stabilized and Reinforced Pavements
  • Nondestructive Evaluation and Noninvasive Material Characterization; Ground Penetrating Radar
  • Pavement Modeling, Design, Analysis, Instrumentation, Rehabilitation, and Management Systems

Research Areas

Books Edited or Co-Edited (Original Editions)

Selected Articles in Journals

Articles in Conference Proceedings

Reports

Teaching Honors

  • Recipient of 2025 College Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring.
  • Recipient of Engineering Council Award for Excellence in Advising, 2010.

Research Honors

  • Dr. Al-Qadi’s graduate students received numerous awards from FHWA (Eisenhower fellows), FAA, AAPT, ASCE, ACPR, IAPA, ICT, WTS, UIUC CoE Mavis Award, Wiley Award, AAAEA, Society of Women Engineers, MIT Rising Stars, and many other organizations. He advised them throughout the award research requirements.
  • Advisor for many winning projects, including the FAA Design Competition for Universities on Airport and Operation and Maintenance, 2008 (won 1st and 3rd places) and 2009 (won 2nd place).
  • Dr. Al-Qadi’s research has appeared in several professional magazines, newspapers, and TV and radio programs in the US, and abroad, including ASCE Magazine, Roads and Bridges, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald, WBES, Annajah Radio, Roanoke Times, News Gazette, AVIONEWS, Transportation Urban Planning Magazine, Erosion, Alhayat, Alwatar, Quds, Rockford Register Star, WCIA, WAND, Tyre Asia, Wallstreet Journal, and several other publications.
  • Several of Dr. Al-Qadi’s TRB papers were selected Practice-Ready Papers and distributed to the US DOT materials and pavement engineers:”Runway Instrumentation and Response Measurements,” “Influence of Filler Fractional Voids on Mastic and Mixture Performance,” “Impact of Wide-Base Tires on Pavements: Results from Instrumentation Measurements and Modeling Analysis,” “Performance Characterization of Asphalt Mixtures at High Asphalt Binder Replacement with Recycled Asphalt Shingles,” “Characterization and Stabilization of Quarry Byproducts for Sustainable Pavement Applications,” “Development of Present and Baseline Scenarios to Assess Sustainability Improvements of Illinois Tollway Pavements Using a Life-Cycle Assessment Approach,” “Field Evaluation of Geocell Use in Flexible Pavements,” “Steel Reinforcing Netting Mechanism to Reduce Reflective Cracking in Asphalt Concrete Overlays,” “Successful Application of GPR for Quality Assurance/Quality Control of New Pavements,” “Quantification of Pavement Damage Due to Dual and Wide-Base Tires,” and “Comparison between Resilient Modulus and Dynamic Modulus of Hot-Mix Asphalt as Material Properties for Flexible Pavement.”
  • Several of Professor Al-Qadi’s students received Best Poster Awards at several conferences, including International Transportation PhD Symposiums.
  • Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) Lifetime Achievement Award, University Transportation Education and Research, Dec 2024.
  • Emeritus Member of Highway Pavement Committee (HPC), American Society of Civil Engineers, Jan 2024.
  • K. B. Woods Paper Award Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meetings, 103rd Annual Meetings, Jan 7-11, 2024 (w/ A. Jayme and E. Okte).
  • TRB Best Paper Award ACP15 Committee on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meetings, 103rd Annual Meetings, Jan 7-11, 2024 (w/ A. Jayme and B. Usta).
  • Roy W. Crum Distinguished Service Award, Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting, 103rd Annual Meetings, Jan 7-11, 2024.
  • Academy of Pavement Science and Engineering (APSE) Distinguished Lecture Award, May 5, 2023.
  • TRB Dialogue with Transportation Infrastructure Leaders (onsite Inaugural), 2023.
  • Carl L. Monismith Lecture, 2023.
  • Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering, 2022.
  • The ASCE Robert Honorjeff Airfield Award, 2021
  • Al-Qadi has the highest number of coauthor connections and is the most published author in the pavement field in the Transportation Research Record as of 2019.
  • Poster Award, The Sweet Sixteen High Value Research Poster Session in Transportation Research Board, Washington “Testing Protocols to Ensure Performance of High Asphalt Binder Replacement Mixes Using RAP & RAS,” DC, 2017.
  • 3rd Poster Award, International Pavement Life Cycle Assessment Symposium, Champaign, April 12-13, 2017 (w/ S. Kang).
  • 1st Poster Award, International Pavement Life Cycle Assessment Symposium, Champaign, April 12-13, 2017(w/ A. Gomez).
  • Research Award, 57th Illinois Bituminous Paving Conference, 2016.
  • The Principal Investigator of the AASHTO Sweet 16 High Value Research project "Testing Protocols to Ensure Performance of High Asphalt Binder Replacement Mixes Using RAP & RAS," 2016.
  • The ASCE T&DI’s Francis C. Turner Award, 2014.
  • 2013 S. S. Steinberg Award in Education and Research, American Road and Transportation Builders Association, 2014.
  • 1st Place Poster, Pavement Life Cycle Assessment Symposium, Davis, CA, Oct 14-16 (with R. Yang and H. Ozer).
  • Gene Skoke Award for Outstanding Paper by a Young Author, AFD70 Committee on Rehabilitation, TRB (Q. Aurangzeb, the first Author) .
  • ICT Research Award, 99th Transportation and Highway Engineering Conference, 2013.
  • The Principal Investigator of the AASHTO Sweet 16 High Value Research project "Best Practices for Implementation of Tack Coat: PART I - Laboratory Study and PART 2 - Field Study," 2013 (the top project in the Midwest).
  • T&DI/ASCE Best Paper Award by a Young Author, Airfield and Highway Pavement Conference, Los Angeles, CA, Jun 2013 (J. Hernandez, the first Author).
  • Recipient of the 2009 Advisor of FAA Design Competition for Universities on Airport and Operation and Maintenance,” 2nd place, FAA.
  • The 2009 Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists Emmons Award Runner-up for Best Paper “The Truth and Myth of Fatigue Cracking Potential in Hot-Mix Asphalt: Numerical Analysis and Validation.”
  • Runner-up for the K. B. Wood Award for the outstanding paper in the field of design and construction of transportation facilities, “Dynamic Analysis and In-Situ Validation of Perpetual Pavement Response to Vehicular Loading,” Transportation Research Board (TRB), National Academy of Engineering, Washington, DC (2009).
  • The paper “Eight-Years of Field Performance of a Secondary Road Incorporating Geosynthetics at The Subgrade-Base Interface,” was selected as one of the best published papers by TRR on geosynthetics in pavements in the past 10 years (2008).
  • Recipient of the 2008 Advisor of FAA Design Competition for Universities on Airport and Operation and Maintenance,” 1st and 3rd place, FAA.
  • Recipient of the 2007 ASCE James Laurie Prize “for advancing transportation engineering through his effective leadership, exceptional scholarly contribution, and research innovations on pavement materials, analysis and design; pavement instrumentation; ground penetrating radar; and pavement interlayer systems.”
  • Recipient of the 2006 D. Grant Mickle Award for the outstanding paper in the field of operation, safety and maintenance of transportation facilities, “Viscoelastic Model to Describe Mechanical Response of Bituminous Sealants at Low Temperature,” Transportation Research Board (TRB), National Academy of Engineering, Washington, DC (2007).
  • Dr. Al-Qadi's Achievements were profiled in the TRNews of the National Academies, November-December 2006, Number 247 (2006).
  • Named the Founder Professor of Engineering, UIUC, Urbana, IL (2004).
  • Recipient of the Limoges Medal of Merit, Limoges, France (2004).
  • Selected Researcher of the Week, Virginia Tech and WVTF, Blacksburg, VA, May 2003.
  • Recipient of the 2002 Quadrennial International Geosynthetic Society Award, Nice, France.
  • Named the Charles E. Via, Jr. Professor of CEE, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA (2002).
  • Runner-up for the K. B. Wood Award for the outstanding paper in the field of design and construction of transportation facilities, “Measurement of Vertical Compressive Stress Pulse in Flexible Pavements and Its Representation for Dynamic Loading Tests," Transportation Research Board (TRB), National Academy of Engineering, Washington, DC (2002).
  • Recipient of the 2001 Virginia Tech College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Research Excellence, Blacksburg, VA.
  • Virginia Tech Nominee to the National Science Foundation 1994 & 1996 Presidential Faculty Fellow Award.
  • Recipient of the 1994 National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, Washington, DC.
  • 1994 Conference of Southern States Young Scholar Award (Top Three).
  • Recipient of STS Research Award, Best Paper by an Academic Researcher, 5th International Conference on Structural Faults and Repair, Edinburgh, Scotland, June 1993.
  • Dr. Al-Qadi's paper "Using Microwave Measurements to Detect Moisture in Hot-Mix Asphalt" was selected by the Virginia Tech College of Engineering for the 1992 Outstanding Contribution in Research Award sponsored by Southeastern Section of ASEE
  • Keynote Speaker and Distinguished Lectures: Eighth International Conference on Structural Faults and Repair, London, UK, Jul 1999. Thirteenth GRI Conference, Philadelphia, PA, Dec 1999. Tenth International Conference on Structural Faults and Repair, London, UK, Jul 2003. Fifth International Symposium on Nondestructive Testing in Civil Engineering, Berlin, Germany, Sep 2003. Seventh International Conference on Concrete Technology for Developing Countries, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Oct 2004. First Middle East International Conference on Advances in Civil, Mechanical and Material Engineering, Amman, Jordan, May 2005. Third Gulf Conference on Roads, Muscat, Oman, Mar 2006. New Materials and Construction Techniques Workshop, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, Jun 2006. Geo-Shanghai International Conference 2006, Shanghai, China, Jun 2006. Pavement Material Characterization and Modeling, Olbia, Italy, Sep 2006. The Third International Conference on Advances on Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Hammamet, Tunisia, Dec 2006. The Fifth International Conference on Maintenance and Rehabilitation of Pavements and Technological Control, Park City, Utah, USA, Aug 2007. Workshop on Pavement Engineering, Seoul, Korea, Mar 2008. The 4th International Gulf Conference on Roads, Doha, Qatar, Nov 2008. IV SINAPPRE, 2009 ABPV Conference, Fortaleza, Brazil, Oct 2009. II Controllo ad alto Rendimento Delle Infrastrutture Stradali ed Aeroportuali, Messina, Italy, Jan 2010. Seventeenth Great Lakes Geotechnical & Geo-environmental Conference, Milwaukee, WI, May 2010. GeoShanghai 2010, Shanghai, China, Jun 2010. First International GSI-Asia Conference, Taichung, Taiwan, Nov 2010. Transportation Infrastructure and Traffic of the Future Workshop, Ahsaa, Saudi Arabia, Apr 2011. Falling Weight Deflectometer Users Group Annual Meeting, Champaign, IL, USA, Oct 2011. The First Conference of Transportation Research Group of India (CTRG 2011), Bangalore, India, Dec 2011. GeoAmerica 2012: Second PanAmerican Congress on Geosynthetics, Lima, Peru, May 2012. Tenth International Congress on Advances in Civil Engineering, Ankara, Turkey, Oct 2012. AAAEA Annual Meeting Keynote Lecture, Chicago, USA, Nov 1, 2012. First China-USA Doctoral Annual Symposium on Transportation Engineering, Harbin, China, Dec 16, 2012. II CITRANS Conference, The University of Costa Rica, San Jos�, Costa Rica, May 22-24, 2013. First International Conference in Civil Engineering, Al Bireh, Palestine, Oct 28-29, 2013. The Warren Lecture, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, Sep 5, 2003. Kirlin Distinguished Lecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, Apr 28, 2010. Distinguished Lecture, University of Texas at Austin, TX, Oct 8, 2010. Distinguished Lecture, University of Illinois-Chicago, Chicago, IL, Oct 29, 2010. First Seed Distinguished Lecture, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX, Mar 29, 2012. Distinguished Lecture, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, Mar 30, 2013. First Rasmus S. Nordal Distinguished Lecture, Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Ninth International Conference on the Bearing Capacity of Roads, Railways, and Airfields, Trondheim, Norway, Jun 25, 2013. The Fourth Jordan International Conference and Exhibition for Roads and Transport, Amman, Jordan, Mar 12-14, 2014. Turner Lecture, 2nd T&DI Congress, ASCE, Orlando, FL, Jun 8-11, 2014. Workshop on New Generation Wide Based Tires, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, Oct 20, 2014. The 19th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies, Hong Kong, China, Dec 13-15, 2014. 7th Jordan Traffic Safety Conference, Amman, Jordan, May 11-13, 2015. COST Action TU 1208, Athens, Greece, Oct 19-20, 2015. iFRAE2015 Conference, Shanghai, China Oct 26-28, 2015. Transportation Research Congress, Beijing, China, Jun 6-8, 2016 Sustainability in Pavement Maintenance, 12th International PROVIAL Conference, Vina del Mar, Chile, Aug 8-9, 2016. International Symposium on Safe and Sustainable Pavement Systems in the Gulf Region, Alhofuf, Saudi Arabia, Nov 6-7, 2016. GeoMEast 2017 International Congress, Sharm El Sheik, Egypt, Jul 15-19, 2017. International ASCMCES-17 Conference, Sharjah, UAE, Apr 18-20, 2017 The 7th Jordanian International Civil Engineering Conference, Amman, Jordan, May 9-11, 2017. The 2nd Transportation Research Congress, Beijing, China, May 23-25, 2017. Pavement/ Materials Conference, Tempe, AZ, No. 15-16, 2017. Advances in Materials and�Pavement Performance Prediction, Doha, Qatar, Apr 16-19, 2018. 5th Chinese European Workshop, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, China, Oct 27-28, 2018. 2nd International Conference on Civil Engineering, Bethlehem, Palestine, Nov 25-27, 2019. 9th International Conference on Maintenance and Rehabilitation of Pavements, Zurich, Switzerland, Jul 1-3, 2020. 2020 International Conference on Sustainable and Innovative Infrastructure, Tainan, Taiwan, Oct 21, 2020 through Zoom. 5th International Conference on Transportation Infrastructure and Materials (TIM2021), IACIP, Changsha, China, Oct 20, 2021 (through zoom). Sustainable, Transport Infrastructures International Conference, Caligari, Italy, Dec 13, 2021. Illinois Asphalt Paving Association, Springfield, IL Mar 14, 2022 International Conference of Accelerated Pavement Testing, Nantes, France, Apr 4, 2022 SURF 2022, the 9th Symposium on Pavement Surface Characteristics, Sep 12-14, 2022, Milano, Italy. 85th Annual Convention of Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association, Springfield, IL, Mar 15, 2022. The 102nd Transportation Research Board Annual Meetings, Dialogue with Transportation Infrastructure Leaders, Washington, DC, Jan 9, 2023. 109th Annual Illinois Transportation and Highway Engineering Conference, Champaign, IL, Mar 9, 2023. The Mobility of Electrification Revolution, National Academy of Engineering, Champaign, IL, Apr 3-5, 2023. The T&DI ASCE Airfield and Highway Pavement Conference, Austin, TX, Jun 14-17, 2023. XII Mexican Asphalt Congress (XII CMA), The Asphalt Route towards the Circular Economy, Quintana Roo, Mexico, Aug 24, 2023. ARRA Pavement Recycling Summit, Indianapolis, IN, Oct. 2-5, 2023. 13th Conference on Asphalt Pavements for Southern Africa, South Africa, Oct. 15-18, 2023 14th International Society for Asphalt Pavements (ISAP) Conference, Montreal, Canada, Jun 2-7, 2024. 10th International Conference on Maintenance and Rehabilitation of Pavements, Guimar�es, Portugal, Jul 24-26, 2024. 13th Asia-Pacific Conference on Transportation and the Environment, Singapore, Jul 8-10, 2024. Illinois Society of Professional Engineers Annual Conference, Champaign, IL Jul 18, 2024. The 15th IACIP Annual Workshop, Washington, DC, Jan 5, 2025.

Public Service Honors

  • University of Illinois 2024-25 President’s Executive Leadership Program Fellow, Chicago, Urbana-Champaign, Springfield, and Washington, D.C., 2024-2025.
  • Executive Officer Distinguished Leadership Award, Office of the Provost, May 2024.

Recent Courses Taught

  • CEE 406 - Pavement Design I
  • CEE 508 - Pavement Evaluation and Rehab
  • CEE 595 T - Transportation Seminar

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