] Halil Ceylan, Ph.D., C.Eng., Dist.M.ASCE, the Pitt–Des Moines Inc. Endowed Professor of Civil Engineering at Iowa State University, has been honored with inclusion by ASCE in its 2022 class of distinguished members for his pioneering innovations and servant leadership role in transportation/geo-infrastructure engineering through significant advancements in infrastructure system design and construction for smart, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure systems, and for generously sharing his knowledge through education, service, and mentoring.
Ceylan has distinguished himself in connection with nondestructive testing and evaluation of transportation infrastructure and mechanistic-based pavement design by conducting both fundamental and applied research. He is one of the most active researchers on these subjects in the transportation infrastructure, geotechnical, and materials engineering fields. He has effectively identified various emerging technologies and conducted research on topics such as the use of artificial intelligence on geosystems and pavement system performance modeling and design optimization, development and use of microelectromechanical sensors and systems “MEMS” for infrastructure health monitoring and management, biofuel by-products for sustainable pavements, and conductive concrete and asphalt-based heated pavement systems for sustainable and resilient winter maintenance solutions.
He founded and established the PROSPER program at ISU’s Institute for Transportation and has served as the Iowa State University site director for PEGASAS: FAA Center of Excellence for General Aviation. One of the innovative and creative accomplishments coming from this center is the planning, analysis, design, development, and successful construction of the world’s first electrically conductive concrete (ECON) heated pavement full-scale test site, built at Des Moines International Airport.
Ceylan has pioneered interdisciplinary and innovative research and techniques for achieving smart, sustainable infrastructure systems ranging from biofuel coproduct geomaterial stabilization to bioinspired superhydrophobic coatings and continuous real-time health monitoring of infrastructure systems using smart sensors and systems as well as uncrewed aircraft systems/drones and use of AI.
He has generated over $22.6 million in project funds from over 120 research studies since 2002, these being related to transportation infrastructure systems and pavement/geotechnical/engineering materials. Research sponsors include the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, National Science Foundation, and others.
In addition to his research impact, Ceylan has been an excellent mentor to students. This is evident in his supervision of the work of more than 75 graduate students, postdoctoral research associates, and research staff. Many of his students have leading positions in the profession and are faculty members in academic institutions.
Ceylan has two patents and has authored/co-authored some 375 peer-reviewed articles, garnering two best-paper awards. He has given over 400 presentations with 135+ invited talks, including several keynote lectures.
He is chair of the ASCE Geo-Institute Pavement and Transportation and Development Institute Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Committees and a member of 30-plus national and international committees and organizations, and has received more than 20 prestigious awards and honors. Two of the more recent ones are the highly competitive FAA PEGASAS 2019 Jimenez Faculty/Researcher Award and ASCE’s 2021 James Laurie Prize.
He earned his doctoral degree in civil engineering (transportation) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2002.
ASCE will honor the 2022 class of distinguished members during the ASCE 2022 Convention, Oct. 24, in Anaheim, California.
