Universite Gustave Eiffel
France
Dr. Karim Benzarti is a Research Director at Gustave Eiffel University in Paris (formerly IFSTTAR). He obtained his PhD in 1997 from Lyon University, specializing in macromolecular and composite materials. After a postdoctoral position at the French Institute of Petroleum, he joined IFSTTAR as a researcher in 1999. His research primarily focuses on the durability of bonded assemblies and FRP composite reinforcements in construction, as well as the mechanical and hygrothermal properties of bio-based building materials (polymer- and cement-matrix composites with natural fibers). He has contributed to numerous national and European projects and supervised around 15 PhD theses. Dr. Benzarti has co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and guest-edited special issues of Construction and Building Materials in 2011 and 2019. He served on the Executive Committee of the International Institute for FRP Composites (IFFC) for five years and co-chaired the CICE 2018 Conference in Paris. More recently, he contributed to the establishment of French guidelines for the use of FRP rebars in concrete structures.
Central South University
China
Dr. Xuhui He is a Professor of Civil Engineering in the School of Civil Engineering, Central South University (CSU), Changsha, Hunan, China. He serves as Dean of Undergraduate School and Director of the Wind Engineering Research Center at CSU. He was selected as the NSFC Distinguished Young Scholar and Excellent Young Scientist, and leading personnel of the national "Ten-thousand talents program". He is also Director of the Executive Committee of the Bridge Engineering Institute (BEI), An International Technical Society, and member of the Board of Directors, Branch of Bridge and Structural Engineering, Civil Engineering Society of China, and Bridge Engineering Branch of China Railway Society Professional Committee. In addition, he is the Editor-in-Chief of Advances in Wind Engineering (AWE), Associate Editor of the Journal of Central South University, and Editorial Board Member of the Transportation Safety and Environment and Advances in Bridge Engineering. His research interests include bridge wind engineering, wind-vehicle-bridge coupling vibration, and bridge intelligent monitoring and assessment. For many years, Dr. He conducted over 80 research projects of the national, provincial, and ministerial level. He won the National Technology Invention Award, National Science and Technology Progress Award, National Innovation Excellence Award, the Xplorer Prize funded by Tencent, Jeme Tianyou Railway Science and Technology Award (achievement award), and Mao Yisheng Railway Science and Technology Award
University of Galway
Ireland
Dr Myra Lydon is a Civil Engineer and holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from Queens University Belfast (UK). Her work focuses on infrastructure resilience and maintenance decision making for climate adaptation, with a focus on bridges. She held a Royal Academy of Engineering 5 year Research Fellowship titled SMART Infrastructure which was focused enhancing the resilience of road networks. The research was supported by the Northern Ireland Department for Infrastructure who provided the platform for the development and demonstration of a bridge maintenance decision support tool. Her research also explores the integration of Structural Health Monitoring data for infrastructure management to which can inform on the true condition of assets and provide an early warning of damage or climate risks. She is also a visiting research fellow at Queens University Belfast. has been PI/Co-I on grants in excess of 10m focused on various aspects of transportation. She is a member of the ROI Committee for The Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT), and regional member of CIHT UK Council. She consults The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) and Translink on their infrastructure asset management and digital strategies. Her research has been ranked by the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) in a 2021 Impact Case Study.
Queen's University Belfast
Northern Ireland, UK
Dr. Taylor is currently the Dean of Research for the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, a Professor of Structural Engineering and lead the Intelligent infastructure group at Queen's. She has accumulated over twenty years' experience in researching, developing and lecturing on issues associated with the built environment. Dr. Taylor has a track record in attracting research funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, USA-Ireland (thoguh DfE/SFI/NSF tripartite agreement), InnovateUK, EU FP7, and Knowledge Transfer Partnership. She has current funding with EPSRC leading the Intelligent Infrastructure WP of the Prosperity Partnership devleoping Near zero energy public trnasport. A prioritisation of her research is to safeguard the integrity of our built environment; the components and the end users and her research activity aims to promote this. She intends to advance the area of intelligent sensing technologies with the use of advanced concretes and composites in, and for, the built environment through collaborative research and to foster her external links both nationally and internationally.