Ramez M. Hajj

Ramez M. Hajj is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He holds affiliations with the Grainger College of Engineering and has served in multiple academic and professional roles, including editorial board memberships and leadership in organizations like the Transportation Research Board. His research focuses on asphalt materials and flexible pavements, spanning molecular-level investigations to large-scale infrastructure applications, with particular emphasis on viscoelasticity, composites, and machine learning.

Education:

• Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering with a minor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, Virginia Tech (2014)
• Master of Science in Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Austin (2016)
• Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Austin (2019)

Research Interests:

• Asphalt binder rheology and chemistry
• Computational modeling of infrastructure materials
• Pavement design, maintenance, and recycling
• Application of AI and machine learning in materials engineering
• Self-healing asphalt technologies
• Sustainable infrastructure solutions

Publications: His work spans over 50 peer-reviewed articles, emphasizing innovations in asphalt material science and infrastructure resilience. Recent research highlights include AI-driven predictive models for asphalt properties and novel methods for evaluating pavement performance using ultrasonic techniques.

Awards and Honors:

• Outstanding Reviewer awards from leading journals (2021–2022)
• Teaching excellence recognitions from the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning
• Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Faculty Fellowship

Grants and Funding: Research is supported by agencies such as IDOT, USDA, MnDOT, and industry partners. Projects include developing self-healing asphalt capsules and optimizing pavement design algorithms.

Labs and Teams: Leads research initiatives in advanced material characterization and AI-driven infrastructure solutions within UIUC’s Civil and Environmental Engineering department.