The UCA Outstanding Educator Award is presented to professors and teachers who have had an exceptional career in academia and education in the area of underground design and construction. These individuals also have made significant contributions to the industry through their academic interests, as well as the introduction of many student graduates into the industry. These individuals are nominated by their industry peers and bestowed the award by the UCA Executive Committee.
Professor Hashash joined the CEE department at Illinois 1998. He teaches courses in Geotechnical Engineering, Numerical Modeling in Geomechanics, Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, Tunneling in Soil and Rock, and Excavation and Support Systems. His research focus includes deep excavations and tunneling in urban areas, earthquake engineering, continuum and discrete element modeling and soil-structure interaction as well as resiliency and sustainability of the built infrastructure. He also works on geotechnical engineering applications of deep learning, artificial intelligence, visualization, augmented reality, imaging and drone technologies.
He was recently selected as part of the joint hurricane reconnaissance team from Nearshore Extreme Events Reconnaissance (NEER) Association and from the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association, supported by the National Science Foundation to investigate the impacts of storm surge and waves and resulting sediment erosion and deposition, debris transport and accumulation from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Among other accolades, Hashash was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering in 2022.