Eyad A. Masad, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, Texas A&M’s Zachry professor of design and construction, and director of the Global Partnerships Program at the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, has been honored with inclusion by ASCE in its 2024 class of distinguished members for being a true leader, mentor, innovator, prolific author, and educator, with excellent achievements in the civil/transportation/pavement engineering field.
Masad also teaches in the mechanical engineering program at Texas A&M at Qatar. He is an eminent and gifted researcher in pavement engineering, a true pioneer in the field. His particular focus is on the use of micromechanical techniques in analyzing geomaterials and asphalt concretes, and his work has fundamentally altered the way asphaltic materials are characterized and analyzed.
He has published over 400 technical papers, reports, and journal papers, several of which have received best-paper awards. He is the co-author of the highly influential book Pavement Design and Materials. He has established more than a few research laboratories and chaired/co-chaired many conferences, symposia, and workshops sponsored by professional organizations all over the world.
Masad spearheaded the use of imaging techniques such as x-ray tomography, and he holds two U.S. patents. His pioneering work in analyzing the micromechanical behavior of asphalt concretes using FEM and DEM introduced a digital twin approach in studying these complex composite materials. Recently, his work using atomic force microscopy has provided unique insights into the chemical composition of asphalt binders and its relationship to their mechanical behavior.
Pedagogically, Masad encourages discussion through guided questions, uses a variety of visual aids that relate the course material to real-life examples, and emphasizes the understanding of the fundamentals behind the development of equations and problem-solving methodologies. Thirty-four doctoral students he has mentored as well as 30 master students have become leaders in industry and academia.
Along with his status within ASCE, he has also served as associate editor of the Society’s Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering. Masad is currently associate editor of the International Journal of Pavement Engineering and the Journal of the Transportation Research Board.
Masad’s recognitions are numerous. Among them are ASCE/T&DI’s Francis C. Turner Award (2022), the ASCE Geo-Institute’s Monismith Lecture Award (2022), and ASCE’s James Laurie Prize (2019). He has received the Eisenhower Graduate Research Fellowship and Eisenhower Faculty Fellowship in Transportation Engineering from FWHA, the W. J. Emmons Award for best paper from the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists, and many university honors.
