5/27/2010
Imad L. Al-Qadi, the Founder Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was recently named a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). ASCE’s highest accolade, distinguished membership recognizes eminence in a branch of engineering, and is currently comprised of only 192 of the Society’s 144,000 members worldwide.
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Imad L. Al-Qadi, the Founder Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was recently named a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). ASCE’s highest accolade, distinguished membership recognizes eminence in a branch of engineering, and is currently comprised of only 192 of the Society’s 144,000 members worldwide.
Al-Qadi, who is also the director of the Illinois Center for Transportation, is being recognized for his extraordinary research and technical contributions in pavement engineering, modeling and rehabilitation technologies, pavement interlayer systems and transportation infrastructure sensing, such as ground penetrating radar, as well as his exemplary leadership in professional service and technology transfer.
His research and contributions to scholarly work in his field have been diverse and far reaching. He was one of the first researchers to develop ground-penetrating radar for measuring dielectric properties of construction materials as well as a variety of transportation infrastructure applications and analysis techniques.
Al-Qadi is also a leader in full-scale testing, instrumentation, 3-D modeling of pavements, pavement-tire interaction modeling, preservation, sustainability and material characterization. His innovative research has resulted in more than 475 publications, of which more than 240 are refereed papers, and he has delivered more than 400 presentations at various conferences, including numerous keynote lectures.
Beginning his career in academia at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Al-Qadi eventually became the Charles E. Via, Jr., Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. In 2004, he joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Illinois. Al-Qadi is the founding director of the Illinois Center for Transportation, which has conducted more than 120 transportation research projects.
Among Al-Qadi’s accolades are the James Laurie Prize, the C. Grant Mickel Award, the International Geosynthetic Society Award and the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award. He is currently the Transportation Research Board’s Preservation Section Chair. Al-Qadi is also a member of ASCE’s Transportation Development Institute Board of Governors and is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Pavement Engineering.
Al-Qadi received his bachelor’s degree from Yarmouk University in Jordan, and his master’s and doctoral degrees in civil engineering from Penn State University. He is a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) represents more than 144,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America’s oldest national engineering society. Al-Qadi's achievements will be honored at the Celebration of Leaders luncheon during ASCE’s 140th Annual Civil Engineering Conference in Las Vegas, Nev. in October, 2010.
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Contact: Imad L. Al-Qadi, ICT/Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 217/265-0427.
Leikny Johnson, American Society of Civil Engineers, 703/295-6413.
If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, Engineering Communications Office, 217/244-7716, editor.