Professor from the College of Engineering was awarded the President’s Meritorious Faculty Service Award
FABIOLA TERRAZAS DUARTE | May 15, 2019
Civil Engineering professor and graduate advisor, Soheil Nazarian, Ph.D., was recently awarded the President’s Meritorious Faculty Service Award for his commitment and long trajectory as a faculty member at the University of Texas at El Paso.
This award is given to faculty members who have performed outstanding institutional service to students, colleagues, and/or other University stakeholders, transcending job expectations. Faculty members, who have completed upon nomination, at least seven years of service in a faculty role at UTEP are eligible. The winner of the award receives a $1000 cash prize and a commemorative plaque.
Nazarian has been a faculty member at UTEP for more than 30 years. He is well-known in the transportation and geotechnical engineering community for his pioneering work in implementation of geophysical methods for evaluation of geotechnical and transportation infrastructure. He has been a contributor in over 100 research projects focused on laboratory and field testing, mix design, and evaluation and quality management of geomaterials. He has coauthored more than 300 industry-related articles and publications and has directed more than 100 theses and dissertations during his tenure at UTEP. He also co-founded the Center for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (CTIS) that has been a hub for students, staff and faculty for more than 20 years to conduct basic and applied research in transportation.
“The reason the center has been sustained for so long it’s because of his efforts. He has built a huge collaboration within the university. He’s built an international collaboration based on his expertise with non-destructive testing,” said Imad Abdallah, Ph.D., executive director of CTIS and research associate professor of the Civil Engineering Department.
Abdallah was the person responsible for the nomination of Nazarian. He believes that thanks to Nazarian’s work, the Civil Engineering Department and CTIS have grown and become important additions to the university.
“ [It] was a big surprise, I didn’t know that I would be getting such recognition,” said Nazarian. “I’ve worked long enough to retire but I enjoy working with the students. You learn from them, you see their enthusiasm, you see them grow and some of them now are managers and big shots, so I enjoy seeing their success.”
Nazarian decided to donate the thousand-dollars he received to the Transportation Leadership Council. The council is a student organization; its purpose is to promote the collaboration of professionals and UTEP students by developing different skills through various activities conducted by the chapter.
“He has contributed a lot in terms of how many Ph.D. students he has graduated over the years, how many faculty, young faculty, that come in into the college he has supported,” said Abdallah.
