Ahmet H. Aydilek, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Maryland College Park, has been named a fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
Aydilek is actively involved in geotechnical and
geoenvironmental engineering research with a focus on sustainable
infrastructure technologies, geotechnics of stormwater management, flow through
porous geomedia, remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater, and image-based
techniques to characterize geomaterials. He has directed or co-directed several
research and consulting projects for industry and government, advised more than 35 graduate
students and 16 postdoctoral associates, and
co-authored over 180 technical publications in geoengineering for prestigious journals such as
ASCE’s Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Journal
of Computing in Civil Engineering, Journal of Environmental Engineering,
and Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering as well as the Journal
of Hazardous Materials, Biosystems Engineering, Geotechnique, and Geosynthetics
International.
His research has laboratory, field, and numerical
components. One of Aydilek's completed works involved
study of the capping of high-water-content wastes in a U.S. EPA Superfund site
and investigating their interaction with geosynthetics. This project site
was included within the boundaries of the Capital Springs Centennial State Park,
in Wisconsin, because of its enhanced recreational and aesthetic value. Aydilek
has also completed field projects in the Mid-Atlantic region to demonstrate the
beneficial reuse of compost in stormwater systems and on highway slopes, the
use of coal combustion byproducts to abate acid mine drainage from the
Appalachian region, and innovative use of scrap tires in construction of
landfill leachate collection systems.
Aydilek has been an associate
editor for the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
since 2006, and has assumed leadership roles in organizing several ASCE
Conferences. He has served on ASCE’s Geoenvironmental Engineering and
Geosyntherics Committees and was chair of the Transportation Research Board
(TRB) Committee on Soils Geoenvironmental Processes.
His contributions to geotechnical, geoenvironmental, and geosynthetics engineering have been recognized by the Walter Huber Prize (2011), Arthur M. Wellington Prize (2009), Arthur Casagrande Award, and Collingwood Prize(2006) from ASCE, the Honorable Mention Award(2013) and IGS Research Award (2006) from the International Geosynthetics Society, the International Outstanding Achievement Award(2003) from the Industrial Fabrics Association International, the Engineering Achievement Award (2002) from ASCE’s Wisconsin Section, and the Severson Geotechnical Engineering Award (2000) from the University of Wisconsin.
Aydilek teaches courses in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. He received
the Best Teacher Award from the
University of Maryland Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
(2011), the ExCEED Teaching Award(2006) from ASCE, the Outstanding Civil Engineering Educator Award (2004)
from the ASCE Maryland Section, and the Lilly-Teaching
of Excellence Fellowship (2002-03) from the University of
Maryland.
He earned his bachelor of science degree from Istanbul Technical University in 1993, and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1996 and 2000, respectively.
