Founder Professor of EngineeringDirector: Illinois Center for Transportation

Director: Advanced Transportation Research and Engineering Laboratory

Prof. Al-Qadi holds a B.S. (Yarmouk University 1984), and M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees (Penn State University 1986 and 1990, respectively) in civil engineering. He joined the University of Illinois faculty in 2004.

Prof. Al-Qadi served as an Instructor and a Research Engineer at Penn State from 1988 to 1990. He was a member of the faculty of the Charles E. Via Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech for 14 years, until 2004. By 1998, he had already been promoted to full professor; and by 2002 he was named the Charles E. Via Jr. Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. In addition, he was the leader of the Roadway Infrastructure Group, which he established.

Since his arrival at the University of Illinois in August 2004, Prof. Al-Qadi has served as the Director of the Advanced Transportation Research and Engineering Lab (ATREL) and the Founding Director of the Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT), which has become one of the largest centers at the University of Illinois within three years and one of the leading transportation centers in the world. The ICT facilitates the development and timely implementation of cost-effective technologies that improve the transportation system durability, safety and reliability, reduce congestion and impact on the environment, optimize the utilization of the state transportation infrastructure, and maximize the return from taxpayer dollars.

Prof. Al-Qadi's research has resulted in the authoring/coauthoring of more than 500 publications, of which more than 250 are refereed papers. He has delivered more than 425 presentations at international conferences and professional meetings including numerous keynote lectures. In addition, his research has resulted in new developments, including new tests, testing specifications, advanced modeling and simulation of pavement loading, and analysis of radar electromagnetic wave interactions with roads and bridges.

Prof. Al-Qadi established the pavement, bituminous, and nondestructive testing programs at Virginia Tech and led the efforts to secure the Virginia Tech-Association of the American Railroad Affiliated Laboratory, of which he was the director just before joining the University of Illinois. In addition, he and his students designed and instrumented the state-of-the-art, all-weather 1.6-mile Virginia Smart Road pavement testing facility. He has served as the principal/co-principal investigator of more than 85 projects sponsored by various federal and state agencies as well as international industry. He also managed an additional 120 projects sponsored by ICT. He has consulted for more than 50 federal, state, and major public agencies in the U.S. and abroad, such as FHWA, BP Amoco, Michelin, Bekaert, Maccaferri, DMJM+HARRIS, and Koch.

A registered professional engineer and ASCE fellow, Prof. Al-Qadi is an elected Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), “For his extraordinary research and technical contributions in pavement engineering, modeling, and rehabilitation technologies, pavement interlayer systems, and transportation infrastructure sensing such as ground penetrating radar, as well as his exemplary leadership in professional service and technology transfer.” This is an honor bestowed on less than 600 engineers since 1853. He is a member of TRB, AAPT, NAGS, RILEM, ISAP, IGS, ASNT, and ASTM. He is also an elected honorary member of the Societa Italiana Infrastructure Viarie. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Pavement Engineering, the Associate Editor of the Research in Nondestructive Evaluation Journal, and served as the Regional Editor of the Construction and Building Materials Journal. He was also the Guest Editor of ASNT Materials special edition on Nondestructive Evaluation of Pavements.

A member of more than 20 technical committees, task forces, and advisory boards, he is currently the Chair of the TRB Preservation and Maintenance Section, the Group Leader of the ISAP Technical Committee on Interlayer Systems, and the TRB subcommittee on Interlayer Systems to Control Reflective Cracking, that he founded. He is the past chair of the TRB Committee AHD25 on Sealants and Fillers for Joints and Cracks, the TRB Subcommittee AFS70-2 on Geosynthetics in Flexible Pavement Systems, which he founded, and the ASCE Highway Pavement Committee. He also served as the ASCE Design, Construction, and Maintenance Executive Council Chair and currently a member of the Board of Governors of the ASCE Transportation and Development Institute. Prof. Al-Qadi served as the Chair/Co-Chair of many international conferences including the 5th and 6th RILEM International Conference on Pavement Cracking, the 2006 International NDE Conference on Civil Engineering, the Advanced Characterization of Pavement and Soil Engineering Materials, and the first ASCE Transportation and Development Institute Congress.

He has received numerous awards including the 2007 ASCE Laurie Prize, “for advancing transportation engineering through his effective leadership, exceptional scholarly contribution, and research innovations on pavement materials, analysis and design; pavement instrumentation; ground penetrating radar; and pavement interlayer systems,” the 2006 TRR of the National Academies D. Grant Mickle Award, the Limoges Medal of Merit from France in 2004, the 2001 Dean’s Award for Research Excellence, the 1993 STS Award from UK, was named to the Virginia Tech College of Engineering Dean's List of Excellent Teachers nine times, The 2006 ASCE Outstanding Instructor Award, and the 2010 Engineering Council Award for Excellence in Advising. In addition, Prof. Al-Qadi is the only pavement engineer to receive the quadrennial International Geosynthetic Society Award (2002) and the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award (1994). His achievements were profiled in the TRNews of the National Academies, November-December 2006 issue.