Civil Engineering - Faculty & Staff

Civil Engineering - Faculty & StaffThe faculty is the heart of our educational program. Four of the five faculty membershold doctorate degree in Civil Engineering or related areas. The fifth faculty memberholds a masters degree in Civil Engineering, complimented by thirty years of industryexperience. Three faculty members are registered professional engineers in the state ofAlabama and other states. The majority of the design courses are taught by registeredfaculty. The faculty members are actively involved in research and/or professionalactivities. The following is a brief biographic sketch of each faculty member.Dr. Pabitra K. SahaProfessor and ChairStructural EngineeringEmail: pabitra.saha@aamu.eduPh: (256) 372-4145Home PageDr. Pabitra K. Saha, P.E., professor and chair of the department joined in 1982. Heteaches mostly structural engineering and foundation engineering courses. He has a Ph.D.in structural engineering with specialization in Finite Element Analysis and soil-structureinteraction. His areas of interest include Structural Analysis and Design - Concrete, Steeland Timber, Structural Composites; Tunnel Linings; Underground Storage Structures. Hehas about 29 years of experience in teaching and research and 6 years of experience fromthe industry. He has sucessfully won and completed several research contracts and grants.He has been instrumental in the development of the civil engineering laboratoriesespecially through the NSF and Title III grants.Home PageDr. Sudip BhattacharjeeAssistant ProfessorTransportation (Pavement) EngineeringEmail: sudip.bhattacharjee@aamu.eduPh: (256) 372-4148Dr. Sudip Bhattacharjee joined the department in Fall 2006. He obtained his PhD in civilengineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2005. His main area of research isthe characterization of pavement materials, such as the virgin and recycled Hot MixAsphalt (HMA), through laboratory tests and theoretical modeling. Before joiningAAMU, he was a research associate at the University of New Hampshire and workedunder National Cooperative Highway Research Program funded project. He hasperformed research under externally funded projects in the area of accelerated pavementtesting, material characterization, analysis and design of flexible pavements and

application of finite element and continuum damage mechanics. Currently he is involvedin a NSF funded project to implement Superpave design principles in the civilengineering curriculum using sophisticated laboratory equipment. His main areas ofteaching include aspects transportation engineering, general engineering courses, finiteelement analysis techniques and solid mechanics.Dr. Goang S. LiawProfessorEnvironmental EngineeringEmail: goang.liaw@aamu.eduPh: (256) 372-5566Dr. Goang S. Liaw, Professor of Department of Civil Engineering, joined the departmentin 1980. He is specialized in environmental engineering and water resources. His mainteaching responsibilities are in the areas of Environmental Engineering, engineeringmechanics, hydrogeology, and fluid mechanics. Dr. Liaw has approximate twenty-sixyears of college teaching experience, and has more than twenty years of research andmanagement experience in university, government, and military research projects. He hasbeen successful in proposal writing and publications. He has planned, directed andexecuted several research projects at AAMU with contract values in excess of twomillion dollars, and has authored over 40 technical articles, reports, and papers based onhis research work. His current environmental research interests include applyingnanotechnology in water and air purifications, spatial database of contaminants,numerical modeling of surface and groundwater contamination, and environmentaleducation. Dr. Liaw has been heavily involved in Computational Fluid Dynamics formany years. He has a strong background in the numerical modeling and analyses of fluidflow. He has received many research projects in the areas of low density viscous nozzleflow, hypersonic viscous flow, and crystal growth modeling through NASA, US AirForce, US Army and NSF. Dr. Liaw is the recipient of the 2006 NASA Administrator'sFellowship Program (NAFP) award.Dr. Nesar AhmedProfessorGeotechnical EngineeringEmail: nesar.ahmed@aamu.eduPh: (256) 372-4149Dr. Nesar U. Ahmed, P.E., Professor of Civil Engineering, joined thedepartment in 1988. He is specialized in geotechnical engineering, reinforced concretedesign, and structural steel design. His main teaching responsibilities are in soilmechanics and foundation design. He has taught graduate courses part-time at theUniversity of Alabama in Huntsville for the past seven years. Dr. Ahmed has been aconsultant to industry for the past eight years. Dr. Ahmed has the Professional Engineerlicense from several states.

Mr. James ForemanAssistant ProfessorEmail: james.foreman@aamu.eduPh: (256) 372-4147Mr. James W. Foreman, P.E., Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering,joined the department in 1991. He has four years full time and fiveyears part time in Highway Engineering and Surveying. His experience includes bothoffice engineering and fieldwork. He has taught Surveying for nine years and wasinvolved in a Surveying project for the Bureau of Mines for one and one half years. Mr.Foreman has a minor in Hydraulics. He has taught Fluid Mechanics, Hydraulic Design,and Hydrogeology for four years. He has approximately fifteen years working in the fieldof hydraulics. This experience was mainly in the design and use of hydraulic shakersystems for earthquake simulation.Mrs. Lisa BalaySenior SecretaryB.A. in Business AdministrationEmail: lisa.balay@aamu.eduPh: (256) 372-5577