People

Dr Orhan Yapici

Assistant Professor in Structural Engineering, Heriot-Watt University

Orhan Yapici completed his undergraduate studies in Civil Engineering at the Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey in 2013. After obtaining an MSc (with high honours) in Structural Engineering and Steel Design from Istanbul Technical University in 2016, he worked as a research and teaching associate in Istanbul. Subsequently, he commenced his doctoral studies on the ultimate response of stainless steel bolted connections at the University of Birmingham. Upon obtaining his PhD in 2021, he joined the School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society at Heriot-Watt University as an assistant professor in 2021.

Dr Jun He

Marie-Curie Experienced Researcher. Project: "REUSE: Reusable steel-concrete composite floors". Funded by the EC-Horizon 2020 Programme.

PhD in Bridge and Tunnel Engineering, Tongji University, China.

MEng in Bridge and Tunnel Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, China.

BEng in Civil Engineering, Changsha University of Science & Technology, China.

Dr Guido Bregoli

Marie-Curie Experienced Researcher. Project: "CBF-EQRES: Novel concentrically braced frame for seismic resilience". Funded by the EC-Horizon 2020 Programme.

PhD in Structural Rehabilitation of historical and modern buildings, University of Brescia, Italy. Thesis title: "Study of steel systems for seismic upgrading of existing R.C. buildings".

MSc in Civil-Architectural Engineering, University of Brescia, Italy. Thesis title: "Structural design and landscaping of over-bridge crossing Vacchelli river and Crema (Italy) railway: feasibility study".

Dr Ahmed Suwaed

Project: "Steel concrete composite beams using precast hollow core slabs and a demountable shear connection mechanism". Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK).

PhD in Structural Engineering, University of Warwick, UK. Thesis: "Development of demountable shear connectors for precast steel-concrete composite bridges".

MSc in Structural Engineering, University of Al-Nahrain, Iraq. Thesis: "Analysis of sunken tube tunnels under various loading conditions".

Chuandong Xie

PhD thesis: "Seismic design of self-centering steel plate shear wall system"

Visiting scholar, funded under a Chinese Scholarship Council scheme, from the Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology, China.

Mahmoud M. Hassan

PhD thesis: "Computational simulation and seismic collapse assessment of braced steel frames".

MSc in Structural and Foundation Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, UK. MSc thesis title: "Seismic design and analysis of self-centering moment resisting frames".

Dr Marco Baiguera

PhD thesis: "An Innovative Dual Concentrically-Braced Moment-Resisting Steel Frame for Increased Seismic Resilience" (2017).

Current position: Research Associate, University College London.

Benyamin Ghorbanzadeh

PhD thesis: "Novel steel beam-column connection for progressive collapse mitigation"

MSc in Structural Engineering, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran. M.Sc. thesis title: "Strengthening of RC columns with Near Surface Mounted FRP bars".

BSc in Civil Engineering, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran.

Dr Eliza Feidaki

PhD thesis: A High-Strength Ductile Demountable Shear Connector for Composite Floors with Precast Hollow-Core Slab Units (2018).

Current position: Structural Engineer, Atkins Global.