Thought Leadership
Anand Puppala
Professor
Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Director of the CIR, Texas A&M University
[email protected]
Dr Puppala's research areas of interest include expansive and unsaturated soils, pavement geomaterials, ground improvement studies using chemical additives and geosynthetics, dam safety and highway embankment studies, site characterization, UAV studies and visualization, infrastructure resilience studies and asset management.
Edith Arámbula-Mercado
Research Engineer and Program Manager of the Recyclable Pavement Materials Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI)
Deputy Director of the Center for Infrastructure Renewal (CIR)
[email protected]
Dr. Edith Arámbula-Mercado specializes in the design, production, and construction of sustainable pavement base and surface layers. Her research focuses on incorporating reclaimed asphalt pavement and other waste and by-products in flexible pavements to achieve balanced cracking and rutting performance, along with enhanced durability against moisture-induced damage.
Jeffrey Bullard
Professor, Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University
Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University
[email protected]
Dr. Bullard’s research focuses on ceramic and cementitious materials for Earth and space construction. He studies phase transformations and their impact on long-term performance and durability using modeling and experimental methods. His work supports applications such as self-healing composites, expeditionary construction, near-net-shape manufacturing, and engineering solutions for Lunar and Martian environments.
Homero Castaneda-Lopez
Professor
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University
[email protected]
Dr. Homero Castaneda-Lopez's research areas include cathodic protection, protective coatings, corrosion mechanisms, and batteries.
Amy Epps Martin
A.P. & Florence Wiley Professor II, Zachry Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
[email protected]
Dr. Epps Martin has over 27 years of experience teaching civil engineering materials and researching safe, sustainable asphalt technologies. Her recent work emphasizes engineering balanced asphalt mixtures with high recycled content to achieve economic and environmental benefits. She focuses on both binders and mixtures through integrated research and service efforts aimed at improving pavement performance and sustainability.
Darlene Goehl
Research Engineer and Associate Agency Director for the Infrastructure Group
Texas A&M Transportation Institute
[email protected]
Ms. Goehl’s research areas include pavement design, pavement materials, pavement management, pavement forensics, non-destructive testing and roadway rehabilitation techniques.
Zach Grasley
Professor & Department Head
Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University
[email protected]
Dr. Zachary Grasley's research areas include behavior and modeling of porous materials, durability and sustainability of cementitious materials, and the mechanics and thermodynamics of concrete.
Julie Ann Hartell
Assistant Professor
Department of Construction Science, School of Architecture, Texas A&M University
[email protected]
Dr. Hartell's research interests are construction materials, recycling strategies and sustainable material design, testing methods and characterization of material performance, nondestructive condition assessment, and affordable and sustainable construction solutions.
Mary Beth Hueste
Associate Department Head for Undergraduate Programs
Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University
[email protected]
Dr. Mary Beth Hueste's research areas include earthquake resistant design of reinforced concrete structures, structural rehabilitation and repair including seismic retrofitting, performance-based seismic design, probabilistic assessment of structural performance and design and evaluation of prestressed concrete bridge structures.
Stefan Hurlebaus
Professor, Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Division Head of Construction, Geotechnical and Structural Engineering Division, Texas A&M University
High Bay Lab Director, Center for Infrastructure Renewal (CIR)
[email protected]
Dr. Stefan Hurlebaus's areas of research are smart structures, structural health monitoring, nondestructive testing, laser ultrasonics, active vibration control, semi-active damping, active vibration isolation, wave propagation in elastic solids, and vibrations.
Yong-Rak Kim
A.P. and Florence Wiley Professor I, Zachry Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
[email protected]
Dr. Kim’s research enhances materials and systems supporting critical infrastructure such as roads, railways, airfields, and flood protection. He applies multiscale modeling and testing to develop multifunctional construction materials and improve safety, durability, and sustainability. His expertise includes nonlinear mechanics, viscoelasticity, fracture, and coupled physical phenomena in materials engineering.
Thomas E. Lacy Jr.
Director and Principal Investigator, Materials for Extreme Environments (MEE)
Professor, J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering
[email protected]
Dr. Thomas Lacy is a professor of mechanical engineering whose research focuses on multifunctional composite materials for extreme environments, multiscale modeling, hypervelocity impacts, and aerospace structures.
Anol Mukhopadhyay
Senior Research Scientist and Program Manager
Rigid Pavements Division, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, Adjunct Professor, Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Leader, Concrete Innovation Lab, CIR
[email protected]
Dr. Anol Mukhopadhyay's research areas include concrete durability, recycled and waste materials, high-performance concrete, ultra-high-performance concrete, cement chemistry, coal combustion by-products, cement paste rheology, nano-materials and concrete microstructures and petrography.
Tom Overbye
Professor
Director, Smart Grid Center
[email protected]
Dr. Overbye’s research areas include power system analysis and simulations; Visualization of power system information; big data and cyber security applied to power systems; and power system aspects of geomagnetic disturbances and EMP.
Stephen Sebesta
Research Scientist and Flexible Pavements Program Manager at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI)
Division Head of the Materials and Pavement Division at TTI
[email protected]
Mr. Sebesta specializes in rapid pavement renewal, stabilization, and full-depth reclamation (FDR). His research focuses on improving current practices in project selection, mixture and pavement design, construction, and performance of flexible pavements using stabilization or FDR techniques to enhance efficiency, durability, and long-term value.
Petros Sideris
Associate Professor
Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University
[email protected]
Dr. Sideris' research areas include structural resilience and sustainability to natural hazards in the context of advanced construction methods - particularly construction 3D printing - and novel sustainable materials, such as hempcrete, bio/geo-polymers and low carbon concrete. His research work combines computational mechanics, topology optimization, large-scale structural testing, and performance-based engineering.
Kinsey Skillen
Assistant Professor, Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University
[email protected]
Dr. Skillen’s research focuses on large-scale testing of reinforced concrete bridge structures, including shear, torsion, and Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UHPC). He uses advanced tools like distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) and LiDAR to assess structural performance. His work emphasizes practical solutions that improve real-world design and construction practices.
Chenglin Wu
Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University
Research Engineer, Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI)
[email protected]
Dr. Wu specializes in nanomaterials and nanodevices to improve performance in infrastructure, robotics, and biomedical applications. Her research focuses on low-dimensional nanomaterials for additive manufacturing of advanced devices and structures across civil, environmental, mechanical, aerospace, and biomedical engineering, particularly for use in extreme environments.
Fujie Zhou
Senior Research Engineer and Program Manager of Asphalt Materials and Automation, Texas A&M Transportation Institute
[email protected]
Dr. Zhou's research areas include infrastructure tests automation, innovative asphalt binders and mixtures, balanced mix design and pavement ME design, pavement materials characterization and model development.
