Plenary speakers for BEI-2019 (alphabetical order)


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Riadh Al-Mahaidi

Dr Riadh Al-Mahaidi is a Professor of Structural Engineering and Director of the Smart Structures Laboratory at Swinburne University of Technology. He also holds the position Vice President (International Engagement) at Swinburne. Prior to joining Swinburne in January 2010, he was the Head of the Structures Group at Monash University. Over the past 20 years, he focused his research and practice on life time integrity of bridges, particularly in the area of structural strength assessment and retrofitting using advanced composite materials. He currently leads a number of research projects on strengthening of bridges using fiber reinforced polymers combined cement-based bonding agents, fatigue life improvement of metallic structures using advanced composite systems and shape memory alloys. He recently started some projects on hybrid testing of structures. He received a BSc (Hon 1) degree in civil engineering from the University of Baghdad and MSc and PhD degrees in structural engineering from Cornell University in the United States. To date, Professor Al-Mahaidi published over 180 journal and 230 conference papers and authored/edited 10 books and conference proceedings. He was awarded the 2012 Vice Chancellor's Internationalization Award, the RW Chapman Medals in 2005 and 2010 for best journal publication in Engineers Australia Structural Journal, best paper awards at ACUN-4 (2002) and ACUN-6 (2012) Composites conferences. Prof Al-Mahaidi and his research group won the 2016 Engineers Australia Excellence Award for Innovation, Research and Development (High Commendation) for the Multi-Axis Substructure Testing (MAST) System they built at Swinburne. He was recently awarded the 2017 WH Warren Medal by Board of the College of Civil Engineers of Engineers Australia. He was recently awarded the 2018 ARRB Research Impact Award. This prize is awarded to an individual researcher or research team, whose research, development and implementation efforts have made a significant improvement to operational quality and/or cost in the last 24 months and has therefore achieved considerable impact within the community and industry.


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Steve C.S. Cai

Dr. Steve C.S. Cai,a PE since 1995, is the Edwin B. and Norm S. McNeil Distinguished Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Louisiana State University (LSU). He is serving as the coordinator of Structures Group and director of Bridge Innovative Research and Dynamics of Structures laboratory. Dr. Cai was elected Fellow of ASCE in 2010. Dr. Cai received his Ph.D. degree in 1993 from the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland; M.S. degree in 1987 from the Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China; and B.S. degree in 1983 from the Department of Civil Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. Dr. Cai began his employment at LSU as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in August, 2001, was appointed as a tenured associate professor in Aug. 2006, and was promoted to full professor in Aug. 2010. Prior to his arrival at LSU, Dr. Cai had one year of experience as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Kansas State University (2000-2001); four years of experience as a structural researcher and development senior engineer at the Florida Department of Transportation (1996-2000); and three years of experience as a consulting engineer at Michael Baker Jr., Inc. (1993-1996). Since he joined LSU in 2001, Dr. Cai served as Principal Investigator for more than 50 federal, state government, and university funded projects. His research interests include bridge performance evaluation/instrumentation/testing, traditional and new material applications in infrastructures, performance and hazard mitigation of costal structures under wave/wind actions, and long-span bridge aerodynamics. Dr. Cai has published over 390 technical papers in journals (over 200) and conference proceedings in these research areas. He has graduated 16 Ph.D. students at LSU as the major professor. His students are well placed including a few on the faculty of universities in US and abroad such as University of Connecticut, Colorado State University, Hunan University, Nanyang Institute of Technology, etc. Dr. Cai is currently serving on many national and international committees including former chair of Experimental Analysis and Instrumentation Committee, ASCE. He served and has been serving on many editorial boards including as Associate Editor of Journal of Bridge Engineering, and Journal of Engineering Mechanics, and an editoring board member of Engineering Structures and Winf & Structures, etc. He also served as advisor for ASCE and other student organizations. Other major professional services include served as Secretary and Treasurer of American Association for Wind Engineering, and served Engineering Project Selection committee, East Baton Rouge Parish, representing LSU.


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Zhengqing Chen

Prof. Zheng-qing Chen (1947.10.28-), renowned expert in bridge engineering and engineering mechanics, member of Chinese Academy of Engineering. Dr. Chen obtain ed his bachelor degree and master degree in solid mechanics from the Hunan University in 1981 and 1984, and his PhD degree in applied mechanics from the Xian Jiaotong University in 1987. Before joining the Hunan University, he was a professor and dean of Civil Engineering at the Central South University. Currently, he is a professor of Department of Bridge Engineering and founding director of Wind Engineering Research Center at Hunan University. He was elected as member of Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2015. Prof Chen has been involved in many researches on engineering mechanics problem related to civil engineering structures with emphasis on long and flexible bridges. He is a pioneer in analysis of nonlinear behaviors of cable-supported bridges in mainland China, and his development has been applied to nonlinear-based design of the first several modern suspension bridges built in China. He also made significant contribution to wind engineering in both theoretical and experimental aspects. He developed vibration control technologies of MR dampers and eddy current dampers what have been the first to apply in civil engineering worldwide. His research outcome have been applied a number of civil engineering structures.


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Nabil F. Grace

Dr. Grace is the Dean of Engineering and University Distinguished Professor at Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, MI. He is also the Director of the Center for Innovative Materials Research (CIMR). The CIMR is the largest and most comprehensive testing facility in the state of Michigan. Dr. Grace innovative research and unique deployment projects are funded by the United Stated Army Research Laboratory, US-DOT, the state of Michigan, National Science Foundation, and several State DOTs. In the last few years, Dr. Grace received fourteen national awards for the deployment of his research findings in various infrastructures. This deployment includes the corrosion-free first highway bridge in the United States that used carbon fiber reinforced polymer - Bridge Street Bridges, Michigan -, the Penobscot cable-stayed long span bridge, Maine, and M-102 Highway Bridges over the Plum Creek, MI. In 2017, Dr. Grace was in charge of the design, construction, instrumentation, and monitoring of the longest CFRP prestressed concrete bridge span in the USA that was constructed over HWY I-75 in the state of Michigan. Most recently, Dr. Grace has been awarded a research contract from MDOT to develop the Design Guidelines for the use of CFRP prestressed Strands in Prestressed Concrete Bridges. Furthermore, in 2018 Dr. Grace was awarded a pool-fund research contract from MDOT, NCDOT, MEDOT, and OHDOT to address the use of 0.7 in. CFRP strands in prestressed concrete highway bridges. Dr. Grace was awarded four US patents for his development of the unique Ductile Hybrid Fabric, Armor Structure, and New Innovative Bridge Systems. He has published over a 200 technical papers and articles in national and international journals such the PCI, ACI, ASCE, and CSCE Journals, and delivered several keynote presentations in national and international conferences.


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Wei-Xin Ren

Dr Wei-Xin Ren is currently the Dean of School of Civil Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, China. He is also a Changjiang Distinguished Professor of Bridge Engineering heading the Bridge Stability and Dynamics Lab with more than 10 faculty members and 40 post-graduated students. He received his Ph.D. in bridge engineering from Central South University, China in 1993 and followed two-year post-doctoral research in Tsinghua University, China. He was promoted to be a full professor in 1995. He was a visiting professor in Japan, Belgium, USA and Australia. His research interests include the broad areas of bridge and structural engineering: structural stability and dynamics, long span cable-supported bridge, damage detection, finite element model updating, structural condition assessment and heath monitoring. Dr. Ren has published 5 books and more than 350 publications including 130 referred international journal papers. He is listed in Most Cited Chinese Researchers in Civil and Structural Engineering area by Elsevier in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. He is also listed in Most Cited World Researchers in Civil Engineering area by Elsevier in 2016.