Iman Mehdipour, a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in civil engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, was awarded the 2016-17 American Concrete Institute (ACI) Charles Pankow Student Fellowship.

As part of the award, Mehdipour will receive an educational stipend for tuition, residence, books, materials and paid travel to the next two ACI conventions. Fellowships are offered to high-potential and outstanding graduate students whose research studies relate to concrete engineering and are identified by ACI member faculty.

Applicants are evaluated based on their resumes and an essay highlighting research areas and all accomplishments. All finalists chosen for consideration of ACI Foundation Fellowships were interviewed at the ACI Spring Convention in April in Milwaukee.

“This award is not only a great honor for Mr. Mehdipour, but also for the department of civil engineering and the entire university as it recognizes the quality of education our students receive at Missouri S&T,” says Dr. Kamal H. Khayat, the Vernon and Maralee Jones Professor of Civil Engineering at Missouri S&T and Mehdipour’s advisor and nominator. Khayat is a Fellow of the ACI and the director of the Center for Infrastructure Engineering Studies and RE-CAST (Research on Concrete Applications for Sustainable Transportation) Tier-1 University Transportation Center at Missouri S&T.

Mehdipour’s research area has focused on developing and designing advanced cement-based materials, such as environmentally friendly and crack-free cement-based materials and fiber-reinforced composites with adapted rheology. He also performed an interdisciplinary collaborative research project, in conjunction with Dr. Reza Zoughi and Dr. Kristen Donnell of the Missouri S&T electrical engineering department, to evaluate fiber distribution in concrete and self-healing capability of cement-based materials using microwave and thermography nondestructive testing techniques.

Through his academic career, Mehdipour has authored and co-authored two books (“Soil Mechanics” and “Guidelines for Hot Weather Concreting,” both published in Persian), 10 peer-reviewed journal articles and 25 conference papers. He has received the ACI Missouri Chapter Honorary Abdeldjelil “DJ” Belarbi Scholarship for 2015-16 and a travel grant award for the 25th ASNT (American Society of Nondestructive Testing) research symposium in spring 2016. The Charles Pankow Student fellowship will enable him to further pursue his interests and realize his goals for future career in academia.

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