School of Civil Engineering

David Airey graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1979 with a BA in Engineering and stayed on to complete Masters and PhD degrees in Soil Mechanics. He took up a position as a research fellow at the University of Western Australia in 1987, and moved to the University of Sydney in 1989. Professor Airey was Acting Head of School of Civil Engineering during 2016.

David Airey is on the editorial board of the Geotechnical Testing Journal, is a core member of TC29 a technical committee of the International Society for Geotechnical and Foundation Engineering concerned with pre-failure behaviour of geomaterials, and is a committee member of the Australian Geomechanics Society.

Dr Nawshad Akther is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney (USYD). She received her PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Before joining the USYD in 2025, she worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at UTS. She has more than ten years of research experience across Australia, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.

Her multidisciplinary background spans environmental and chemical engineering. Her research focuses on advanced water treatment, particularly the formation and control of disinfection by-products, as well as emerging contaminants and membrane fouling. She also develops advanced membranes for desalination, selective separation and the recovery of critical minerals from complex water and waste streams. She has published more than 30 peer-reviewed journal articles in leading international journals, including the Journal of Membrane Science, Chemical Engineering Journal and Desalination. Her research has involved collaborations with universities, research organisations and industry partners in Australia and internationally.

Dr Akther was awarded the 2024 UTS Blue Sky Research Grant to develop membranes for critical-mineral recovery and was invited to deliver a keynote presentation on membrane-based resource recovery. She has received numerous awards and distinctions for her research and science communication, including:

• Membrane Society of Australasia Early Career Researcher Award, 2024
• Excellent Researcher Award, ARC Research Hub for Energy-efficient Separation, 2022
• Best Short Talk Award, MSA Annual Meeting and Conference, 2020 
• Winner, UTS Three Minute Thesis Competition, 2020
• UTS Higher Degree by Research Director’s Commendation for Research Excellence, 2019
• Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology Higher Degree by Research Collaboration Experience Award, UTS, 2019
• Best Thesis Award, Khalifa University, 2016
• British Petroleum Student Research Award – The Respect Award, American University of Sharjah, 2015
• Chancellor’s Award, American University of Sharjah, 2014

She contributes to the membrane research community as Secretary of the Membrane Society of Australasia.

BE (Hons. 1) PhD MIEAust CPEng

Dr Ali Amin is an Associate Professor, ARC Industry Fellow and Associate Head (Research) in the School of Civil Engineering. He has held academic roles at ETH Zurich and The University of Toronto and consulting roles at Pells Sullivan Meynink. Ali graduated with a Bachelor in Civil Engineering with Honours Class 1 and the University Medal in 2011, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering in 2015, both from UNSW. He was awarded the 2017 Concrete Institute of Australia National Bursary Award for the best Australian PhD dissertation in concrete and cement based products and processes (in the preceding two years). He is a chartered professional engineer. His teaching has won a UNSW Vice Chancellors Award for Teaching Excellence in the Early Career Category in 2016. Ali's research interests are in the structural analysis and design of high performance and fibre reinforced concrete structures, and he was a substantial contributor to the new section on Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete in AS5100.5-2017 & AS3600-2018. Ali is also an Associate Editor of the Journal Materials and Structures. 

Dr Chen Cai is an experienced leader in AI and data analytics with a strong background in both research and industry. He is the co-founder of Neucore.ai, an Australian startup focused on creating practical AI tools to help businesses work smarter. He also holds an honorary professor position at the University of Sydney, where he supports research and works with postgraduate students.

Before starting Neucore.ai, Chen led the Transport Analytics team at CSIRO’s Data61. There, he grew the team and worked on projects that used data to improve transport and infrastructure planning. His work helped governments and companies make better decisions by turning complex data into clear insights.

At Ernst & Young, he built the company’s first AI and digital twin (virtual model) capabilities in the Oceania region. He led projects such as developing an AI tool that automatically writes business documents and creating a digital model to help manage freight operations using real-time vehicle data.

Throughout his career, Chen has focused on applying AI and data in ways that solve real problems. He is passionate about making new technology easy to use and valuable for businesses, especially in transport, smart cities, and digital innovation.

Associate Professor Daniel Dias-da-Costa received a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Porto and an MSc and PhD in Civil Engineering, from the University of Coimbra in Portugal.

His current research interests include both numerical and experimental topics of structural engineering and material mechanics. In the first case, he addresses the development of finite element enrichment techniques and solution finding algorithms for highly non-linear problems in the simulation of fracture. The experimental research is focused on image processing techniques for structural assessment and monitoring, including the identification of strain localisation and cracking propagation.

Daniel joined the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney in 2013.

Professor of Geomechanics | Pioneer of Breakage Mechanics and Heterarchical Granular Dynamics | Director, Sydney Centre in Geomechanics and Mining Materials

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

• Founder of Breakage Mechanics Theory (2007)
• Discovered major, yet previously ignored convective heat transfer in granular media (2010)
• Developer of Hydrodynamics Principles for saturated and unsaturated soils (2018-)
• Pioneer of X-ray rheography for granular systems (2018-)
• Founder of Heterarchical Granular Dynamics (2025)

MAJOR AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

• George Stephenson Medal (ICE, UK)
• ALERT Medal, inagular Australian awardee (ALERT Geomaterials)
• Spring-Nature recognition of "groundbreaking scientific finding that could change humanity"
• Fellow, Royal Society of NSW (FRSN)
• Fellow, Engineers Australia (FIAust)

IMPACT AND INDUSTRY TRANSLATION

• Adoption by Rio Tinto, BlueScope Steel and Molycop
• Industrial-scale predictive modelling in minerals processing
• Applications in comminution, bulk handling, materials processing

BE Civil Engineering, MSc in Structural Engineering, MSc in Environmental Science and Technology (DEA), PhD in Computational Mechanics

Professor Abbas El-Zein leads the Geoenvironmental Engineering Research Group and runs the Geoenvironmental Laboratory (GEL) at the University of Sydney. His research interests are in soil hydrology, groundwater contamination, flooding and sea level rise. His research has been funded by ARC Discovery and Linkage grants. Abbas has a BE in Civil Engineering from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, an MS (with distinction) from the University of Southampton in the UK, an MS in Environmental Science from the ENPC in Paris, France, and a PhD in Computational Mechanics from the University of Southampton. Abbas has advised governmental, non-governmental and international organisations on problems of water resources and environmental sustainability.

(Abbas is not currently accepting new MPhil or PhD research students).

Andres Fielbaum is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Civil Engineering, in the group of Transport Engineering. He is a Mathematical Engineer and Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from Universidad de Chile, and did a postdoc at TU Delft in the Netherlands. He has worked as a researcher at Universidad de O'Higgins and as an external lecturer at Universidad de Chile and Universidad Federico Santa María, in Chile.

Dr. Yixiang Gan received the Dr.-Ing degree (with summa cum laude) from the University of Karlsruhe (now Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Germany. He received the BE/BBA and ME degrees from the Xi'an Jiaotong University, China. He joined USYD in 2010, first as a Postdoctoral fellow, then Lecturer and Senior Lecturer. His research areas include mechanics of granular and porous media, multiphase flow, mechanics of interfaces, heat and electrical conduction, and carbon geo-sequestration.

Granular materials include everything from sand and rocks to flour and salt, and can display some of the characteristics of gases, liquids and solids. They are of interest not only to children playing on the beach but to mining and pharmaceutical engineers as well as a range of other industries. Dr Yixiang Gan studies how they can affect the efficiency and reliability of our energy systems.

Dr Hadigheh is an Associate Professor and Associate Head of School (Research Education) in the School of Civil Engineering. He is leading the Smart Materials and Sustainable Structures (SMS2) group, which focuses on multidisciplinary themes aimed at developing and implementing innovative materials and systems for sustainable, durable, and resource-efficient infrastructure. He is also the Circular Economy Pillar Lead at the Net Zero Institute (NZI).

Ali Hadigheh’s research drives the development of sustainable and resilient infrastructure through the design of multifunctional, circular materials that combine structural integrity, energy functionality, and fundamental materials science.

His work explores the physical, chemical, and electrochemical properties of composite materials, with a strong focus on microstructural engineering and interface optimisation. Ali’s expertise spans recycling and upcycling composite wastes and industrial by-products, cementitious composites, performance-based material characterisation, structural health monitoring, and additive manufacturing of multifunctional materials. These efforts are underpinned by advanced experimental methods, computational modelling, and machine learning techniques.

He has led high-impact research across polymer composites, cementitious composites, electrochemical energy systems, microbial–material interfaces, and multiscale modelling, resulting in a strong record of influential publications, patents, and translational outcomes. His achievements have been recognised through prestigious awards, including the ARC DECRA Fellowship and the Standards Australia Young Leaders Award. His international standing is reflected in over 16 keynote and plenary invitations at leading forums over the past five years (e.g., IStructE UK, Coastal Protection and Flood Resilience Institute-Singapore, the International Institute for FRP in Construction (IIFC), the Composites Association of New Zealand, CAMS 2024, APFIS 2024, Australasian Corrosion Association, and Concrete Institute of Australia). He has secured over $4.8 million in competitive funding from ARC, various Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) of the Department of Industry, Science & Resources, international agencies, and government or industry partnerships. He holds leadership roles with the IIFC and the Net Zero Institute, and serves on the editorial boards of several major journals.

He has contributed his expertise as an assessor for leading national and international funding bodies and industry awards. These include the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany’s central public research funding organisation), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany), the National Agency for Research and Development (Chile), the Australian Research Council (ARC), the National Industry PhD Program of the Australian Department of Education (2024–present), the Australasian Concrete Repair and Remedial Building Association (ACRA) Remedial Building Industry Excellence Awards (2025), and the Australian Timber Design Awards (2024).

A/Prof Hadigheh is actively engaged in various industry-based research projects and the development of standards. He has collaborated with state government organisations and industry on several research projects, resulting in commercial outcomes and benefits for the partners. He is a committee member of SB-000 Sustainable Buildings and MT-007 Non-destructive Testing of Metals and Materials of Standards Australia and the NSW Concrete Institute of Australia (CIA).

Dr. Michael Heisel joined the University of Sydney as a lecturer in 2023. His role includes teaching and research in the general areas of fluid mechanics and the environment. His research seeks to better understand the effects of turbulence on the atmosphere and in other geophysical flow applications. Prior to moving to Sydney, Michael worked and studied in the United States.

Michael received a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University in 2012, where his interest in fluid mechanics was sparked by an enthusiastic and engaging undergraduate instructor. Michael then worked professionally at an engineering consulting firm for three years before deciding to pursue a higher degree. He developed a fondness for scientific research and boundary layer turbulence at the University of Minnesota, where he earned a PhD in Civil Engineering and a minor in Aerospace Engineering in 2020. Following his PhD, Michael spent three years extending his graduate research to atmospheric flow applications as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California in Los Angeles until he joined the University of Sydney.

Dr. Viraj Herath is a Research Fellow in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney. His research integrates physics-based modelling with advanced machine learning to improve flood prediction, hydrodynamic simulation, rainfall forecasting, and rainfall–runoff modelling.

Viraj earned his PhD in Civil Engineering from the National University of Singapore in 2021, supported by the prestigious President’s Graduate Fellowship. Prior to that, he completed his BSc in Engineering at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, where he received the Ceylon Development Engineering Prize for Best Performance in Civil Engineering. He later contributed to academia as a temporary lecturer in the same institution.

Before joining the University of Sydney, Viraj worked as a Research Fellow at Macquarie University and a Senior Hydraulic and Hydrological Modeller at the Hydroinformatics Institute, Singapore. His work has a strong focus on developing fast, reliable, and physically consistent AI-driven tools to support real-world water management and disaster resilience.

FTSE FAICD

Professor Archie Johnston served as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies from 2009 until 2017.

As Dean, his career followed a natural progression from active researcher to academic leader, setting the agenda for engineering and technical education and policy at one of Australia's leading engineering faculties.

Arpit Kapoor is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Civil Engineering within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sydney. He specializes in the integration of physics with modern machine learning and deep learning approaches for water resource modeling and related environmental applications. Arpit was awarded his PhD in Environmental Data Science from the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) in May 2026 for his thesis, "Process-aware hybrid deep learning for environmental systems and extremes."

During his doctoral studies, Arpit was part of the ARC Training Centre in Data Analytics for Resources and Environment (DARE Centre) HDR training program, where he completed rigorous training in statistical data science tools for environmental modeling. Supervised by Dr. Rohitash Chandra, Dr. Sahani Pathiraja, and Professor Lucy Marshall, his research focused on the synergy between process-based hydrological models and machine learning to advance environmental process modeling. His work led to the development of hybrid and Bayesian deep learning approaches for rainfall–runoff modeling, flood forecasting, cyclone prediction, and groundwater flow emulation.

Beyond academia, Arpit has significant industry experience, including a tenure with the Bureau of Meteorology where he implemented multivariate bias correction methods for climate datasets within the Australian Climate Service. He has also worked across multiple sectors solving business-critical data intelligence and computer vision problems through machine learning and data science.

Stuart Khan is Professor and Head of School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney. He has received funding for over 40 major competitive research projects from Australian, US and European funding agencies. He has published over 200 peer reviewed journal articles on issues relating to water quality and treatment, including drinking water, wastewater, recreational water, environmental water systems, water recycling and desalination.

Major teaching subjects during the last two decades have included water & wastewater treatment, water quality & analysis, sustainability assessment, and risk assessment. He has supervised over 20 PhD students and over 30 Masters research projects.

Stuart is a Fellow of scientific and engineering institutions, including Engineers Australia (FIEAust), The Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE), The Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), The Royal Society of NSW (FRSN), and is also an International Water Association IWA Fellow.

Ph.D. Structural Engineering, The University of New South Wales (UNSW)

M.Sc. Structural Engineering, Sharif University of Technology (SUT)

B.Sc. Civil Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology (IUT)

Dr. Sooyeol (Suzy) Kim is a Lecturer in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney. Her research has focused on developing and optimizing methods for wastewater monitoring of clinically relevant pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes. Suzy holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Harvey Mudd College and earned both her M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. Her doctoral research focused on optimization of monitoring SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater at various scales of operation, which played a key role in developing methods that informed the U.S. national wastewater monitoring program for SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic. During her postdoctoral position at University of California, Berkeley, Suzy expanded on her research by investigating how wastewater monitoring could be applied to other targets of clinical interest to gain interesting insights on community health. Suzy is primarily interested in interdisciplinary research that leverages environmental monitoring to generate actionable findings to protect and improve public health. 

BE (HUST) ME (HUST) PhD (UWA)

Professor Chengwang Lei obtained his Bachelor and Master of Engineering degrees in Mechanical Engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China and PhD degree in Civil and Resource Engineering at The University of Western Australia. He joined The University of Sydney in 2009 after 10 years service in the School of Engineering at James Cook University, where he held a number of research and teaching positions across multiple disciplines.

Prof. David M. Levinson joined the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney in 2017. He also serves as an adjunct faculty in the. Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering at the University of Minnesota, where from 1999 to 2016, he served on the faculty. He was Managing Director of the Accessibility Observatory , and directed the Networks, Economics, and Urban Systems ( NEXUS ) research group. He held the Richard P. Braun/CTS Chair in Transportation (2006-2016). He also served on the graduate faculty of the Applied Economics and Urban and Regional Planning programs at the University of Minnesota. In academic year 2006-2007 he was a visiting academic at Imperial College in London.

In January 2005 he was awarded the CUTC/ARTBA New Faculty Award . He earned a Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley in 1998. His dissertation “ On Whom the Toll Falls “, argues that local decision making about managing and financing roads will most likely lead to direct road pricing, which will allow the efficient allocation of scarce road resources (and thus reduce congestion). He has also conducted research into travel behavior.

Professor Levinson received the 1995 Tiebout Prize in Regional Science for the paper “Location, Relocation, and the Journey to Work”. From 1989 to 1994, he worked as a transportation planner, developing integrated transportation and land-use models for Montgomery County, Maryland. He then applied those models for multimodal network planning and growth management.

Professor Levinson has authored or edited several books , including Spontaneous Access, The End of Traffic and the Future of Transport , The Transportation Experience , and Planning for Place and Plexus , as well as numerous peer reviewed articles . He is the founding editor of the Journal of Transport and Land Use and ofFindings .

Follow Professor Levinson onMastodon and his blog.

Jiaying Li is a tenured-track Sydney Horizon Fellow, Lecturer, and ARC DECRA Fellow at the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney (USYD). She is also the Head of the Environmental Laboratory at the School of Civil Engineering. She received her PhD in Environmental Engineering at The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia in 2020, and continued her early academic career as a Postdoc and Research Fellow at UQ. In 2024, she joined USYD as a Sydney Horizon Fellow.

Jiaying is a leading researcher in wastewater-based epidemiology for environmental and public health, covering a broad range of chemical and biological markers including illicit drugs, pharmaceutical and personal care products, pesticides, oxidative stress, PFAS, as well as pathogenic viruses in domestic and industrial wastewater. Her research aims to identify, monitor, and control contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) , contributing to clean water, sustainable environment, and healthy community. Her research is highly multi-disciplinary, integrating wastewater treatment, trace chemical analysis, genomic sequencing, environmental sensing, geospatial analysis, socioeconomic metadata analysis and modelling. She has published over 40 high-quality papers in Nature Water, The Lancet Global Health, Environmental Science & Technology, and Water Research.

As an internationally recognized early-career researcher, she has received prestigious awards such as from the Australian Academy of Science and MIT (US). She has secured more than $4.75M AUD in research funding as lead-CI or CI, including ARC DECRA, ARC Linkage Projects, and many research projects in collaboration with industry and government bodies including water utilities, environmental agencies, health authorities, and councils across Australia, fostering numerous proof-of-concept studies and applications with real-world impacts.

Dr Xu Li is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney. Dr Li completed his doctoral studies at The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), graduating with a PhD in mining geomechanics in 2024, following a Bachelor degree in mining engineering from the same institution. His research is motivated by the application of theoretically sound and physically grounded models to real-world engineering challenges, with particular interests spanning solid mechanics, rock mechanics, and seismicity accidents.

Beginning his research career only five years ago, Dr Li has made significant scholarly contributions, including as first author on 12+ high-quality (Q1) journal articles in leading international publications. His work integrates advanced modelling techniques with field and laboratory observations to enhance understanding of rock fracture, damage evolution, and induced seismic hazards.

At the University of Sydney, Dr Li collaborates on several inspiring research projects under the supervision of Professor Luming Shen and Associate Professor Daniel Dias-da-Costa, where he contributes to multidisciplinary investigations at the dynamic fracturing, geotechnical engineering, and seismic risk.

Dr Fengji Luo develops intelligent energy management solutions. He joined the University of Sydney in 2016.

Federico Maggi joined the School of Civil Engineering in July 2009 as a Lecturer in Fluids and Environment.

He obtained his ME in 1999 from the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, with a thesis on nonlinear prediction of complex signals such as from deterministic chaos and turbulence. He received his PhD in 2005 from the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, with a comprehensive experimental and modelling work on turbulence-induced flocculation of suspended cohesive sediment.

In 2005, Federico moved to Duke University, North Carolina, USA, where he became involved in advanced mathematical modelling of soil fluid mechanics.

In 2006, Federico joined the University of California, Berkeley, USA, where his interests widened to soils physics and biogeochemistry. That same year he joined the Earth Science Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley USA, where he remains a guest scientist.