Prof. Dr Kemal Önder Cetin: What happened to us before, during and after the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes on 6 February 2023? Geotechnical Engineering Evaluations.
As part of his Ph. D. studies at University of California at Berkeley, Prof. Cetin has researched on seismic soil liquefaction triggering response of fully saturated cohesionless soils. The manuscript, which presents the proposed triggering relationship, received the “Thomas A. Middlebrooks Outstanding Professional Accomplishment Award” offered by ASCE Geo-Institute in 2006. The resulting seismic soil liquefaction triggering methodology has been widely accepted and used in engineering practice, as well as, established the basis of engineering design for a number of engineering codes of practice including but not limited to AASHTO 2010. He was invited to give the Ord. Prof. Dr. Hamdi Peynircioglu honorary lecture with his presentation entitled “Granular Soil Mechanics: Grain to Soil…” as part of the 18th National Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering Conference in 2022, Kayseri.
In addition to his involvement in research projects in the areas of experimental and theoretical soil mechanics, foundation and earthquake engineering, Prof. Cetin has served as a geotechnical and earthquake engineering consultant in a number of national and international mega projects including Istanbul Marmaray Submerged Tunnel, Istanbul Canal, Gebze-İzmir Motorway Project, Ankara-Istanbul Rapid Rail Project, Istanbul-Ankara-Izmir Metro Lines, Warsaw-Poland Metro Line, Efeler Geo-thermal Power Plant, Yemen-Sayhut Nishtun Highway Tunnel, Kazan Soda Facility, Alpaslan II HEPP, Oman-Duqm Port, Turkmenbashi International Seaport, Akkuyu and Sinop Nuclear Power Plants. He has served (and been serving) as an external expert and consultant to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a number of missions and workshops, which were (and will be) held in Eqypt (2017), Malaysia (2017), Philippines (2018), Poland (September, 2019) and Uzbekistan (November, 2019, January 2023) on seismic hazard, geotechnical aspects and hazards in site evaluation, and safety requirements for Nuclear Power Plants.
His geotechnical engineering expertise includes the design and performance assessment of soil and structural systems, with emphasis on the design and performance assessment of i) shallow foundations, ii) piled foundations, iii) deep excavations, iv) underground structures (i.e.: TBM, NATM, cut and cover tunnels), v) retaining structures, vi) hydraulic structures (earthfill, rockfill, concrete faced rockfill, roller compacted concrete dams), vii) port structures and nuclear facilities, viii) slope stability assessments, ix) ground improvement, x) dewatering, xi) site investigations, health and performance monitoring. Similarly, his earthquake engineering expertise includes the assessments for i) seismic soil liquefaction triggering, post liquefaction shear strength and stiffness response, lateral spreading, ii) soil site response, iii) seismic hazard, iv) 2-D and 3-D static and seismic numerical modeling of soil-structure systems, v) microzonation, vi) siting for hydraulic and nuclear facilities.
Prof. Cetin continues to serve the engineering community happily and enthusiastically as a lecturer, consultant, researcher and referee.
Prof Geoffrey Levermore, BSc, ARCS, PhD, DIC, CEng, FCIBSE, MASHRAE, MEI
Emeritus Professor, Dept of Mechanical, Aerospace & Civil Engineering, The University of Manchester, UK. (2011 to present)
Adjunct Professor, Chinese Agricultural University (CAU), College of lnformation and Electrical Engineering, Beijing, China.(2019 to present)
Author of about 110 refereed journal papers, 49 invited papers and lectures and 25 book chapters and books. Investigator on grants worth £14.53m, 17 with UK Research Councils worth £12.75m, PI on 12 worth £2.27m. Chair of the Task Group and editor of CIBSE Guide A Environmental Design, Chapter A2 External Design Data 1999, 2006 and 2013.
In 2007 one of the Lead Authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) contributing to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC with Al Gore.
From 2002 to 2009 Co-ordinator of Working Commission W108: ‘Impact of climate change on the built environment’ of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB).
In 2009 awarded a CIBSE Silver Medal.
PI for EPSRC Scorchio grant (EP/E017398/1) which investigated the impact of climate change on vulnerable people and buildings.
PI for EPSRC COPSE grant (EP/F038178/1) which developed future weather years, based on the UKCP09 climate projections, for building simulation. COPSE also analysed the urban heat island effect for Manchester.
Still researching, analysing the urban heat island and its effects. Published 31 papers since 2011.
Dr. Ahmed F. Zobaa, DSc, CEng, EUR.ING., IntPE(UK), FIET, FEI, FCIBSE, FIMechE, FAAS, SFHEA, SMIEEE
Dr. Zobaa’s journey started at Cairo University, Egypt, where he received his BSc (Hons), MSc, and PhD degrees in Electrical Power & Machines in 1992, 1997, and 2002, respectively. His pursuit of academic excellence continued as he received his Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice from the University of Exeter, UK, in 2010 and his Doctor of Science from Brunel University London, UK, in 2017.
His career has taken him across various roles, from serving as an Instructor, Teaching Assistant, and Assistant Professor at Cairo University from 1992 to 2007, to becoming a Senior Lecturer in renewable energy at the University of Exeter, UK, from 2007 to 2010. His journey in academia continued at Brunel University London, where he served as a Senior Lecturer in power systems from 2010 to 2019. He is a Reader in electrical and power engineering and a Member of the Brunel Interdisciplinary Power Systems Research Centre at Brunel University London, UK.
Dr. Ahmed Faheem Zobaa is known for his extensive contributions to power engineering and renewable energy, Dr. Zobaa’s expertise encompasses a broad spectrum of areas, including power quality, marine renewable energy, smart grids, energy efficiency, and lighting applications.
Beyond his academic contributions, Dr. Zobaa holds key roles in several professional publications, serving as the Executive Editor-in-Chief for Smart Grids and Sustainable Energy Journal and an Editorial Board member, Editor, Associate Editor, and Editorial Advisory Board member for various international journals.
His recognitions and memberships span across several esteemed institutions. He is a registered Chartered Engineer, Chartered Energy Engineer, European Engineer, and International Professional Engineer. He is also a registered member of the Engineering Council, UK; the Egypt Syndicate of Engineers; and the Egyptian Society of Engineers. Moreover, Dr. Zobaa holds fellowships with the Higher Education Academy, UK; the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Energy Institute, UK; the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, UK; the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK; the Royal Society of Arts, UK, The African Academy of Sciences, and Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors, UK. He is also a senior member of the IEEE.
Prof. Dr. Gürkan ÖZDEN: Marginal Soil Behavior During 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes
He was born on 8 July 1965 in Istanbul. Gürkan Özden completed his primary education in Konya and then in Izmir and received his secondary and high school education in Izmir. He graduated from Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering in 1988. On 3 July 1992, he graduated from Dokuz Eylül University, Institute of Marine Sciences, Marine Structures Programme and was awarded the title of Master Engineer and on 16 December 1999, he was awarded the title of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) by Wayne State University. Gürkan Özden has been working as a faculty member at Dokuz Eylül University, Department of Civil Engineering, Department of Geotechnics since 2000. His main academic research interests are soil dynamics, pile-soil interaction, but he has international and national publications, papers and engineering designs in the sub-branches of Geotechnical Engineering discipline such as deep foundation systems, shoring structures, ground improvement methods. He has worked as an executive and researcher in many scientific research projects and has supervised five PhD and more than twenty master students.
Prof. Dr. Nihat Sinan IŞIK: Site-Specific Ground Response Analysis and Effects of Basins on Earthquake Ground Motion
Nihat Sinan Işık graduated from Middle East Technical University, Department of Geological Engineering in 1997. He started his master’s education in the same year in the field of Applied Geology at the Department of Geological Engineering at METU, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Vedat DOYURAN. In 1998, he started to work as a Research Assistant at Gazi University, Faculty of Technical Education, Department of Building Education. He took part in the establishment of the Soil Mechanics Laboratory at Gazi University. After completing his Master’s Education, he started his PhD in Applied Geology at METU Geological Engineering Department. He completed his doctoral thesis named Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Pressuremeter Experiment in 2006; In the same year, he was appointed as Assistant Professor to Gazi University Technical Education Faculty Building Education Department. He received the Erguvanlı award given by the Turkish Engineering Geology Society with his doctoral thesis. In 2011, he received the title of Associate Professor in the Field of Applied Geology, in the same year he was appointed as an Associate Professor at the Gazi University Faculty of Technology, Department of Civil Engineering. He has been working as a professor in the same department since 2017. His areas of expertise are Engineering Geology, Soil and Rock Mechanics.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mufti Mahmud: Towards an Inclusive Society: Artificial Intelligence in Provisioning Personalised Learning for Education 5.0
Mufti Mahmud received his PhD degree in information engineering from the University of Padova, Italy, in 2011. He is currently serving as an Associate Professor of Cognitive Computation at the Computer Science Department of Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK. He has been listed among the top 2% cited scientists worldwide in computer science since 2020 and was the recipient of the NTU VC Outstanding Research Award 2021 and the Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellowship. Dr Mahmud is the coordinator of the Computer Science and Informatics unit of assessment for the UK government’s research excellence framework at NTU and the group leader of the Cognitive Computing and Brain Informatics research group. With over 18 years of experience in the industry and academia in India, Bangladesh, Italy, Belgium, and the UK, Dr Mahmud is an expert in computational intelligence, applied data analysis, and big data technologies with a keen focus on healthcare applications. As of August 2023, he has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles and papers in leading journals and conferences and (co-)edited 18 volumes and many journal special issues on those domains. As per Scopus, Dr Mahmud holds the highest number of publications among the academics from universities in Nottinghamshire, UK, in the computer science domain between 01/2018 and 03/2022, and he has been ranked as the third top during the same period among computer science academics from universities in the East Midlands region of the UK. As an active researcher, Dr Mahmud has secured grants totalling > £4.0 million and supervised over 50 research students (PhD, Master and Bachelor). He is a Senior Member of IEEE and ACM, a Professional Member of the British Computer Society, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK. During the year 2022-2023, he has been serving as Chair of the Intelligent System Application and Brain Informatics Technical Committees of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS), a member of the IEEE CIS Task Force on Intelligence Systems for Health, an advisor of the IEEE R8 Humanitarian Activities Subcommittee, the Publications Chair of the IEEE UK and Ireland Industry Applications Chapter, and the Project Liaison Officer of the IEEE UK and Ireland SIGHT Committee. He has also served as the coordinating chair of the local organization of the IEEE-WCCI2020; the General Chair of the Brain Informatics conference in 2020, 2021, and 2022; the founding chair of the Applied Intelligence and Informatics conference series; and the Symposium Chair of IEEE-CICARE 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. He serves as a Section Editor (Big Data Analytics) for the Cognitive Computation journal, an Associate Editor of the Frontiers in Neuroscience, and a Regional Editor (Europe) for the Brain Informatics journal. He also serves as lead editor-in-chief of Applied Intelligence and Informatics (Springer Nature) and Smart Healthcare Systems: From Data to Knowledge (Taylor & Francis) book series.