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Biography

Academic Appointments

Professor, December 2023 – present
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Director, Structures and Materials Research Laboratory, December 2018 – present
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Associate Professor, May 2019 – December 2023
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Assistant Professor, August 2016 – May 2019
Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Assistant Professor, September 2011 – August 2016
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Houston, Houston, Texas


Education

Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, August 2011
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

M.S. in Civil Engineering, December 2007
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

B.S. Summa cum Laude in Civil Engineering, June 2006
Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey


Awards & Recognitions

  • 2021 Materials Guest Editor Award for exceptional contribution to Journal Materials as the Guest Editor of the Special Issue “Advances in Construction and Building Materials”.
  • Paper listed as Editor’s Choice article: Hanifehzadeh, M., Aryan, H., Gencturk, B., and Akyniyazov, D. (2021). “Structural Response of Steel Jacket-UHPC Retrofitted Reinforced Concrete Columns under Blast Loading,” Materials (MDPI), 14(6), 1521.
  • Paper listed as Editor’s Choice article: Jain, A. and Gencturk, B. (2021). “Multiphysics and Multiscale Modeling of Coupled Transport of Chloride Ions in Concrete,” Materials (MDPI), 14(4), 885.
  • Paper cited by United States Senators Edward J. Markey and Elizabeth Warren letter to U.S. NRC Chairman Honorable Christopher T. Hanson: Aryan, H., Gencturk, B., Hanifehzadeh, M., and Wei, J. (2020). “ASR Degradation and Expansion of Plain and Reinforced Concrete,” 2020 ASCE Structures Congress, St. Louis, MO, April 5-8.
  • Selected as a participant for the sixth Arab-American Frontiers of Science, Engineering and Medicine Symposium by the United States National Academy of Sciences in partnership with the Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Sciences, Kuwait City, November 4-6, 2018.
  • University of Houston, Provost’s Travel Award to attend 2015 ACI Fall Convention, Denver, CO, November 7-11, 2015.
  • Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, National Science Foundation, January 2015.
  • NSF Fellowship to attend US-Israel Workshop on Industrial Ecology in Multi-Scale Design and Construction of Sustainable Built Environments, Tel Aviv, Israel, March 9-11, 2014.
  • Broadening Participation Research Initiation Grants in Engineering (BRIGE) Award, National Science Foundation, September 2013.
  • University of Houston, Provost’s Travel Award to attend 2013 Quake Summit, Reno, NV, August 7-8, 2013.
  • NSF Fellowship to attend NSF Summer Institute Short Course on Materiomics—Merging Biology and Engineering in Multiscale Structures and Materials, Boston, MA, May 30 – June 1, 2012.
  • Best presentation, Elnashai, Kuchma, Spencer (EKS) 7th Annual Retreat, Allerton Park, IL, February 5-6, 2011.
  • 3rd place presentation, Elnashai, Kuchma, Spencer (EKS) 6th Annual Retreat, Allerton Park, IL, February 6-7, 2010.
  • Best presentation, Elnashai, Kuchma, Spencer (EKS) 5th Annual Retreat, Allerton Park, IL, February 7-8, 2009.
  • Travel grant to attend 14th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Beijing, China, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, October 2008.
  • Scholarship, exchange student to European School for Advanced Studies in Reduction of Seismic Risk (ROSE), Pavia, Italy, July 2008.
  • Fellowship to attend field mission to Japan, Mid-America Earthquake Center, July 2007.
  • Graduated 1st (CGPA: 3.98), Department of Civil Engineering, Bogazici University, 2006.
  • Scholarship to attend TNO DIANA Course on Analysis of Concrete and Masonry Structures, European Centre for Training and Research in Earthquake Engineering, Pavia, Italy, September 2005.
  • Scholarship to participate in research project: Assessment of Masonry Arch Bridges under Static and Dynamic Loading Conditions, European Centre for Training and Research in Earthquake Engineering, Pavia, Italy, June 2005.