CEE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Professor and Extension Specialist
Job Titles:
- Professor, Extension Specialist, and Director of the NJ Water Resources Research Institute
Job Titles:
- Professor, Graduate Program Director
Job Titles:
- Professor, Chair of Environmental Sciences
• Zhen, H.; Krumins, V.; Fennell, D.E.; and Mainelis G. 2015. Development of a dual-internal-reference technique to improve accuracy when determining bacterial 16S rRNA:16S rRNA gene ratio with application to Escherichia coli liquid and aerosol samples. Journal of Microbiological Methods, 117, 113-121.
• Zhen, H.; Du, S.; Rodenburg, L.A.; Mainelis, G.; and Fennell, D.E. 2014. Reductive dechlorination of 1,2,3,7,8-pentachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and Aroclor 1260, 1254 and 1242 by a mixed culture containing Dehalococcoides mccartyi strain 195. Water Research, 52, 51-62.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Director of the Rutgers Rail
Dr. Xiang Liu is the Director of the Rutgers Rail and Transit Program. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rutgers University. He is also affiliated with the Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) at Rutgers University. At Rutgers, he leads its rail-centric research, education, and workforce development initiatives. Dr. Liu's research focuses on the application of artificial intelligence, big data, and automation technologies to the improvement of rail operational safety and efficiency. Dr. Liu has published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and international conferences. Dr. Liu is currently the Executive Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Smart and Resilient Transportation and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Rail Transport Planning & Management. Dr. Liu has received five "Best Paper" awards from the Transportation Research Board (TRB), the "Educator of the Year 2017" Award, and the "Researcher of the Year 2018", both in New Jersey. In 2018, he received a "Rising Star" award from the Progressive Railroading magazine. In 2020, he received an "Outstanding Young Alumni Achievement" Award from the University of Illinois Civil and Environmental Department. Dr. Liu currently teaches several railroad courses at Rutgers University. Dr. Liu received a B.S. degree from Shanghai Jiaotong University in China, and an M.S. and Ph.D. both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Dr. Liu's former students work at the University of Houston (assistant professor), Shanghai Jiaotong University (associate professor), Amazon, JD.com, New Jersey Department of Transportation, and many other transportation agencies or companies.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental
Dr. Yalin Li is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rutgers University. The Li Group focuses on advancing the sustainability of water and energy infrastructure through integrated experimentation and modeling. Specifically, the group is interested in (i) experimental development of thermochemical and catalytic technologies for bioprocess engineering and resource recovery; and (ii) sustainable design and decision-making to prioritize the research, development, and deployment (RD&D) of technologies.
Dr. Li received her doctoral degree from Colorado School of Mines, M.S. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and B. Eng. from Tongji University. Prior to joining Rutgers, Yalin was a research scientist at the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment and the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation at UIUC.
Job Titles:
- Laboratory Manager
- Civil and Environmental Engineering / Staff
- Civil Engineering Laboratory / Instrument Maker / Repairer
- Civil Engineering Laboratory Manager
It was Maher's vision to develop a center that would promote advancements in heavily utilized intermodal corridors and he was instrumental in forming a service network for members of the transportation infrastructure community at Rutgers.
Maher is a widely recognized expert, often tapped as a resource by industry and government agencies. His expertise spans the areas of ground improvement, soil dynamics, infrastructure asset management, nondestructive testing, environmental geotechnology, and new technology vehicles. Maher's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, USDOT, NJDOT, FHWA, DOE, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and other federal sponsors. Since CAIT's inception, Maher has brought in more than $100 million of external research and technology transfer projects.
Maher has been a pioneer in promoting collaboration and building partnerships with other universities and public and private stakeholders to address our country's most pressing transportation challenges. The $40.5 million FHWA Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) program, which aims to improve bridge asset management, is just one example of such partnerships. Maher has been P.I. of LTBP since the project was competitively awarded to CAIT in 2008.
He is actively involved in a number of ASCE, ASTM, and International Society for Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure (ISHMII) committees. Maher serves as president of the U.S. Universities Council on Geotechnical Education and Research. He is a member of the editorial board of ASTM Geotechnical Testing Journal. He also received the TRB Executive Committee's K.B. Woods Best Paper Award in 2008 and 2011.
Maher is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where he received a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in 1978, 1983 and 1988 respectively.
Hani Nassif is currently working in the research area of structural health monitoring (SHM) of bridges and the use of advanced cementitious materials for infrastructure applications. Dr. Nassif is currently the Director of the "Bridge Resource Program (BRP)", sponsored by New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), designed to assist NJDOT in finding practical solutions for various challenges related to design, evaluation, load rating, SHM and Non-destructive testing (NDT), innovative materials, as well as on-call emergency responses. He is also serving as the Associate Director for Outreach and Technology Transfer, for the newly established Tier 1 Center (2017-2021), "Connected Cities for Smart Mobility toward Accessible and Resilient Transportation (C2SMART)" led by NYU. He also served as the associate Director for the Center on Research on Concrete Application for Sustainable Transportation (RE-CAST), another Tier 1 University Transportation Centers (UTCs) led by Missuori University for Science and Technology (MUST) (2013-2018) to address the U.S.DOT's strategic goal of State of Good Repair.
He is a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and past member of its Technical Activity Committee (TAC) and served as the President of the New Jersey ACI Chapter. He is active in various committees in ACI and TRB. He received various awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the NJACI Chapter and Concrete Aggregate Association, AASHTO's Research Activities Committee (2013) "Sweet Sixteen", Project Implementation Award from NJDOT (2013 and 2017), American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Educator of The Year Award (2006) and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Central New Jersey's Educator of The Year Award (2005) for excellence in education and his dedication to student learning. He also served as the President of the Rutgers' Chapter of the Scientific Research Society. He is a member of the Engineering Honor Societies Tau Beta Pi and Chi Epsilon. Dr. Nassif has several years of practical experience in the area of structural design and construction.
Job Titles:
- Civil & Environmental Engineering Graduate Program Director
- Professor and Graduate Program Director
- Professor and Undergraduate Director
Job Titles:
- Civil Engineering Undergraduate Program Director
- Professor and Undergraduate Director
Job Titles:
- Professor and Undergraduate Program Director
Husam Najm, Ph.D., P.E., is a registered professional engineer in Massachusetts, New York, and California.
Prior to joining Rutgers, he was a senior structural engineer and a technical manager with T.Y. Lin International in Boston, Massachusetts. At T.Y. Lin, Najm had several years of practical experience in prestressed concrete and steel bridge design, in particular, the $12 billion Central Artery/Tunnel Project in Boston. He was involved in all phases of bridge design, detailing, and construction. Recently, he served as a consultant with T.Y. Lin International in San Francisco, to conduct an independent review for design, detailing, and fabrication of a major double-deck truss structure for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
His work in concrete research, and his applied industry experience, has rendered Najm an expert in the use and understanding of various concrete admixtures. He also has extensive experience in designing, detailing, and construction of pre-tensioned and post-tensioned concrete bridges.
Najm has done computer modeling of bridge structures. He was heavily involved in the seismic design, detailing, and construction of abutments and deep foundations such as steel and concrete piles and larger diameter drilled shafts and worked on a project in which larger diameter drilled shafts were used in a transportation project for the first time in Massachusetts. In addition, Najm has significant experience in experimental work on the properties of high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete. He has authored and coauthored several publications on this subject.
Najm was the principal investigator on two NJDOT projects dealing with 1) evaluation of self-compacting concrete (SCC) for NJDOT construction projects, and 2) shrinkage of concrete in bridge decks. In the SCC project, a key element was field implementation of SCC in drilled shafts. He also was involved in two AASHTO Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) Specifications research projects with NJDOT: 1) evaluation of NCHRP 12-49 provisions for seismic design of bridges in New Jersey, and 2) the Doremus Avenue bridge project. He also worked with the FHWA-NJ Structures Bureau on producing the report "Seismic Analysis of Retaining Walls, Buried Structures, Embankments, and Integral Abutments" (FHWA-NJ-2005-002).
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor and Undergraduate Director / School of Engineering
- Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Director
Parth Oza earned his bachelor of science dgree (BS) in civil engineering in 2012, and later returned to Rutgers to earn his master's in business and science (MBS) degree in 2021. Since graduating, he has held various positions at the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJ DOT), assuming the senior leadership role of assistant commissioner, capital program management in 2022. He recently made the opening remarks on behalf of the DOT commissioner at the CAIT-sponsored FRA Grade Crossing Safety and Railroad Trespass Prevention Workshop that was attended by more than 190 people from 23 states and Canada. Currently serving a two-year term as president of Rutgers Engineering Alumni (REA), he is passionate about connecting students with a dynamic alumni network.
Job Titles:
- Associate Research Professor
Job Titles:
- Bioenvironmental Engineering Graduate Program Director
- Professor and Extension Specialist, Graduate Director
- Professor and Extension Specialist, Graduate Program Director
• Krogmann, U.: Kompostierung - Grundlagen zur Einsammlung und Kompostierung von Bioabfällen unterschiedlicher Zusammensetzung (Analysis of biowastes generated by separate collection and of composting various mixtures of biowaste fractions). 437 pages. Hamburger Berichte zur Abfallwirtschaft, Volume 7, Economica Verlag, Bonn/Germany, 1994.
Job Titles:
- Professor
- Professor / Environmental Sciences
Job Titles:
- Professor
- Registered Professional Engineer
Yook-Kong Yong is a registered Professional Engineer in New Jersey.
He serves as an associate editor for the journal IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control. At the IEEE Society, he serves as the chair of Technical Program Committee for the IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium 2011, and as a member of the Technical Program Committee for the IEEE Ultrasonics Symposia, and IEEE Frequency Control Symposia in the years 1989 to present. He is the recipient of the Carrol Phillips Bassett Civil Engineering Prize from Lafayette College.
His research interests are in the numerical modeling of bulk acoustic wave and surface acoustic wave piezoelectric resonators and filters; their frequency-temperature behavior, acceleration sensitivity, noise characteristics and thermal stress behavior.
He has thirteen patents on related quartz resonator technologies. He has also practiced as a consultant to the industry.
He also held a position as a Rutgers University Senator and a member of the New Brunswick Faculty Council.