About the Author: 1. Dr. Rishi Gupta is a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Victoria. He leads the Facility for Innovative Materials and Infrastructure Monitoring (FIMIM) at UVic. He received both a masters and a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of British Columbia. His current research is focused on studying smart self healing cement-based composites containing supplementary cementitious materials and fiber reinforcement. His areas of interest include development of sustainable construction technologies, structural health monitoring, and non-destructive evaluation of infrastructure. He has more than 20 years of combined academic and industry experience. His industry experience includes working as the Director of Research of Octaform Systems Inc in Vancouver.
Rishi is a Fellow of Engineers Canada, the Canadian Society of Senior Engineers, and a past chair of the EGBC's Burnaby/New West branch. He is the past Chair of the international affairs committee of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering (CSCE). He is a long standing member of the American Concrete Institute and is also a voting member of several subcommittees of ASTM C 09.
2. Dr. Min Sun is an Associate Professor and the Director of Undergraduate Program in the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Victoria (UVic). His research interests lie primarily in the field of structural engineering. His past research activity has included the development of design rules for hollow structural section connections and fillet welds, which have been incorporated into Canadian and American national steel design standards. From 2018 to 2020, he was the Western Region VP of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE). In 2019, he received the Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching at UVic. Before joining UVic, he worked as a structural designer at Read Jones Christoffersen.
3. Dr. Svetlana Brzev is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of British Columbia. She has more than 35 years of consulting and research experience related to structural and seismic design and retrofitting of masonry structures in Canada and several other countries. Her research has been focused on seismic behaviour and practical design and construction issues related to masonry structures. She has served as a member of the Technical Committee responsible for developing current Canadian masonry design standard CSA S304 since 2009 and is a member of the Technical Committee 250/SC8/WG1 responsible for developing Eurocode 8 provisions for seismic design of masonry buildings. She has been actively involved in several international initiatives related to promoting safe housing in seismically active regions, such as the EERI-sponsored World Housing Encyclopedia and Confined Masonry Network. Dr. Brzev served as a Director and Vice-President of EERI, a Director of the Masonry Society, and is currently a Director of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering. Dr. Brzev has co-authored two books related to design of masonry structures and a textbook on design of reinforced concrete structures and numerous papers and publications.
4. Dr. Shahria Alam is a Professor of Civil Engineering and the Tier 1 Principal's Research Chair in Resilient & Green Infrastructure in the School of Engineering at The University of British Columbia (UBC)'s Okanagan campus. He is serving as the founding Director of the Green Construction Research & Training Center (GCRTC) at UBC. Dr. Alam is the Vice President (Technical Program) of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) and Chair of the Engineering Mechanics and Materials Division of CSCE. He received his PhD in Civil/Structural Engineering from Western University in 2008. His research interests include smart and recycled materials and their structural engineering applications. He has published more than 350 peer-reviewed articles in these areas. He is the recipient of more than forty national and international awards including three best paper awards. Currently, Dr. Alam is serving as an Associate Editor of ASCE's Journal of Bridge Engineering and Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering.
5. Dr. Ng's major fields of interest are in sustainable waste management system, disposal facility design, and data-driven waste policy. Kelvin has over 120 publications, and his projects have been supported by NSERC, Mitacs, CFI, Innovation Saskatchewan, Ministry of Environment, and other national and provincial sponsors. Kelvin has received both research and teaching awards, including six RCE Education for Sustainability Recognition Awards (2018-2022), Elsevier's Top Reviewer Award - Waste Management (2021), Saskatchewan Innovation Challenge (2019), McMaster Engineering Top 150 Alumni for Canada's Sesquicentennial (2017), and the University of Regina President's Award for Teaching Excellence (2017). Provincially, he has been appointed by the Ministry of Environment in Saskatchewan to serve on the Solid Waste Management Advisory Committee. Kelvin has been serving on the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan (APEGS) Award Committee since 2017. Currently, he is chairing the APEGS Awards Committee. Kelvin is the Environmental Division Chair for Canadian Society for Civil Engineering and has organized and chaired/co-chaired a number of conferences, including the CSCE General Conference in 2015, and four CSCE Environmental Specialty Conferences in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. Currently, he is organizing the 2023 CSCE Environmental Specialty Conference at Moncton.
6. Dr. Jianbing Li is a professor and professional engineer in the Environmental Engineering program at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). He received his PhD degree in environmental systems engineering from the University of Regina. He has research interests in environmental pollution control, petroleum waste management, contaminated soil and groundwater remediation, environmental modelling and decision analysis, environmental risk assessment, and oil spill response. He has produced more than 300 publications in international journals and conferences, including over 200 refereed journal publications, with an h-index of 45 (Google Scholar). His research has been supported by various organizations, including Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), BC Ministry of Forests, and Geoscience BC. He obtained the 2013 Northern BC Business and Technology Award (Collaborative Research Award with Husky Energy), the 2010, 2014 and 2019 UNBC Research Excellence Award, and the 2013 UNBC Achievement Award in Professional Practice and Mentorship. Dr. Li was nominated for the 2022 and 2023 CUFA BC Ehor Boyanowsky Academic of the Year Award. He served as a member of NSERC's Research Tool and Instruments Selection Committee for Civil, Industrial and Systems Engineering in 2016-2021, and the Committee Chair for the 2021 competition. He is also a member of NSERC's Discovery Grant Evaluation Group for Civil, Industrial & Systems Engineering (EG1509) (2022-2025). He has been a member of the Academic Examiners Subcommittee with Engineers & Geoscientists BC since 2017. He has served as the co-director of the UNBC/UBC environmental engineering program for 4 years (2013-2017). He served as a guest editor for seven international journals, and is currently an Associate Editor or Editorial Board member of seven journals. He is the inaugural Chair of the Northern British Columbia Section of Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE). Dr. Li was named a CSCE Fellow in 2022.
7. Dr. Ashraf El Damatty, Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Western University. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the Engineering Institute of Canada, and the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering (CSCE). He is a Research Director at the WindEEE Research Institute and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Wind and Structures. He holds honorary Professorship titles at four international universities. He obtained BSc and MSc from Cairo University, Egypt, PhD from McMaster University, and MBA from University College London, UK. He is the founder of the CSCE Steel Structures Committee and served for five years as the Chair of the CSCE Structures Division. He has written more than 250 publications, supervised more than 60 graduate students and has been invited as keynote speaker in 14 countries. He received several awards including the Alan Yorkdale Award by ASTM, Best Paper Award at the Canadian Conference on Effective Design, Honourable Mention in 2014 Casimir Gzowski Medal, 2015 CSCE Whitman Wright Award, 2016 CSCE Horst Leipholz Medal, Western University Faculty Scholar Award, 2018 Professional Engineers of Ontario Medal of Research and Development, 2021 Pratley Award for Best Paper on Bridges, and the 2021 Western Engineering Award for Excellence in Research, Western University. He is an international leader in the interdisciplinary field of Wind and Structural Engineering. His research has influenced the international codes and the Engineering practice worldwide. It resulted in the first specifications in the world for downburst and tornado loading on transmission line structures that was recently incorporated into the guidelines of the ASCE.
8. Clark Lim has over three decades of experience in public, private, and academic sectors, specializing in analytical methods and information systems for transportation applications. As a consultant, he advises senior officials on policy, technology, and governance matters, where he utilizes an evidence-based and technically progressive approach to establish sound policy frameworks. In the mid-1990's, he was part of the team that established TransLink, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority, where he was also the Project Manager of the Evergreen Rapid Transit Line planning and consultation process. At UBC Clark is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering where he has taught transportation engineering and planning to senior undergraduate and graduate students since 2006. His previous research at UBC focused on intelligent transportation systems for freight, and the impact quantification of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Currently he is researching the effects of hybrid working on transportation policies, the impacts of ride-hailing trips through big data methods, and developing tools to measure sustainability and diversity-equity-inclusion indices for corporate boards.
