Texas A&M at Qatar professor to receive prestigious award for asphalt concrete design

Dr. Eyad Masad, professor at Texas A&M University at Qatar and Texas A&M University, will receive the prestigious 2019 James Laurie Prize from the Transportation and Development Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

The award was established by the ASCE in 1912 in honor of the first president of the society. It is awarded each year to an ASCE member who has contributed to the advancement of transportation engineering in either research, planning, design or construction. Masad was selected to receive the honor for his definite and transformative contributions to the advancement of transportation engineering through his continuing innovative research on asphalt concrete micromechanical modeling. 

Masad is a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Program at Texas A&M at Qatar and is the Zachry Professor in Design and Construction Integration II in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M. He is also the executive director of global initiatives for the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station.

His research focuses on microstructure characterization, constitutive modeling, and micromechanics of pavement materials and systems. He has active research groups and programs in the United States and in Qatar, and has published more than 350 technical papers and reports. Masad is a fellow of ASCE and has served as associate editor of two major engineering journals. Through the years, he has received several prestigious academic and professional awards in recognition of his professional, academic, research and administrative contributions.

He will be recognized at the annual ASCE International Conference on Transportation and Development in Alexandria, Virginia, in June. The ASCE represents more than 150,000 members of the civil engineering profession in 177 countries. Founded in 1852, the ASCE is the oldest engineering society in the United States and stands at the forefront of the civil engineering profession, which plans, designs, constructs and operates society’s economic and social engine—the built environment—while protecting and restoring the natural environment.