UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Farshad Rajabipour, associate professor of civil engineering at Penn State, has been elected as a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute (ACI).
The award, which will be formally announced at ACI's spring 2017 Concrete Convention and Exposition in Detroit on March 26, 2017, is given to those who have been members of the institute for at least 10 years and have made “outstanding contributions to the production or use of concrete materials, products and structures in the areas of education, research, development, design, construction or management.” In addition, fellows should also have made significant contributions to the institute through committees and/or local chapters.
Rajabipour, a Penn State faculty member since August 2009, received his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Iran and both his master’s degree and doctorate in civil engineering with an emphasis in materials from Purdue University.
Prior to joining Penn State, Rajabipour was an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii and a postdoctoral scholar at Purdue University.
Rajabipour teaches undergraduate courses in materials science and construction materials, as well as graduate courses in concrete materials and properties and experimental methods in geotechnical and materials engineering.
His research emphasizes sustainable buildings and civil infrastructure that are safe, reliable, cost effective and environmentally positive. Specifically, he and his students perform research on concrete durability, alkali-silica reaction, unconventional pozzolans, high performance and highly recycled materials, and mitigation of cracking and assessing the effects of cracks on concrete durability.
Rajabipour has authored or co-authored more than 90 technical papers and reports that have been cited more than 1,100 times to date. He is an associate editor of the American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering and an editorial board member for Frontiers Materials Journal. He was also the recipient of the National Science Foundation’s CAREER award, the ACI Wason Medal, and the Bryant Mather Award from the Transportation Research Board of the U.S. National Academies.