Khaled A El-Rayes

Khaled A El-Rayes is a Professor and Associate Head for Administration in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He holds a B.Sc. from Ain Shams University (1987), M.Eng. and Ph.D. from Concordia University (1993, 1998). His expertise spans Construction Engineering and Management, with a focus on optimizing resource utilization, sustainability, and safety in civil infrastructure projects. He has held academic positions at UIUC since 2000, progressing from Assistant Professor to Professor, and previously at Concordia University and the University of Newfoundland.

• Research Interests: Multi-objective optimization, sustainable construction, construction productivity, disaster recovery, and nighttime work zone safety.
• Awards: NSF CAREER Award (2003), ASCE Thomas Fitch Rowland Prize (2008), and numerous best paper awards.
• Service: Leadership roles in ASCE committees, including Chair of the Construction Research Council and Specialty Editor for the ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management.

His teaching excellence is recognized repeatedly via student rankings. He has advised 36 Ph.D. students, many now in academic and industry leadership roles. His research has been funded by NSF, Illinois Center for Transportation, and others, yielding over 200 publications.