Professor Bassem Andrawes has been named a fellow by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
ASCE cited Andrawes for “his pioneering work in the emerging application of shape memory alloys (SMAs) in civil infrastructure” and his more than 27 years of experience as an engineer, educator and researcher in the area of infrastructure resilience and durability.
Andrawes joined the department in 2006. He teaches classes on the design and behavior of reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete structures as well as the design of highway bridges. He served for five years as the organizer and chair of the Annual Illinois Structural Engineering Conference, which attracts practitioners from across the Midwest region. He also served as director of the Newmark Structural Engineering Laboratory, where he led many large-scale experimental projects.
Andrawes received a National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2011 for his work on developing innovative SMA-based technologies for seismic retrofitting of civil infrastructure. In 2023, he received a $10 million award from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to establish and lead a new University Transportation Center that focuses on advancing the durability and extending the life of transportation infrastructure. The center is a consortium of five universities working closely with industry partners and state DOTs on projects related to promoting the durability of transportation infrastructure built with precast concrete.
Since his early career, Andrawes has been engaged in ASCE committee and journal activities. In 2012, he received a Best Reviewer award for his role as a reviewer for the ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering. He was later appointed as an associate editor for the same journal. He also served as the founding chair of the ASCE committee on Retrofit of Structures Under Dynamic Loads. He organized and chaired several technical sessions at the ASCE Structures Congress.
Andrawes received his doctoral degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology. After completing his Ph.D. and before joining the University of Illinois as an assistant professor in 2006, he worked as a design engineer at Englekirk Partners Consulting Structural Engineers in Santa Ana, California.