Awais Zahid

Biography

Awais Zahid is a Ph.D. candidate in Civil Engineering with a specialization in Transportation and Pavement Engineering at Arizona State University, where he serves as a Graduate Research Associate in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan, and a Master of Science in Transportation Engineering from the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Pakistan. His academic and professional experience spans research, teaching, pavement engineering, and highway construction, with expertise in both laboratory and field applications of transportation infrastructure.

His research focuses on developing durable, sustainable, and performance-based pavement systems through advanced asphalt materials characterization, pavement aging studies, and field validation. His work encompasses asphalt binder rheology, oxidative aging mechanisms, balanced mix design, asphalt mixture optimization, reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), pavement preservation and rehabilitation, airfield pavement engineering, thermal and durability cracking, fracture mechanics, viscoelasticity, mechanistic-empirical pavement design, pavement temperature modeling, long-term aging simulation, and performance-based specifications. He conducts laboratory experimentation, field validation, computational modeling, finite element analysis, pavement performance simulation, and data-driven research using statistical methods and artificial intelligence to improve long-term pavement performance under extreme climatic conditions.

Awais actively collaborates with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Southwest Pavement Technology Consortium (SWPT), transportation agencies, and industry partners on research related to pavement durability, balanced mix design, airfield pavements, and sustainable infrastructure. He has authored multiple peer-reviewed journal publications and technical reports in leading transportation engineering journals. His long-term goal is to bridge the gap between academic research and engineering practice by developing innovative pavement materials, performance-based design methodologies, and resilient infrastructure solutions that extend pavement service life, reduce lifecycle maintenance costs, and improve the sustainability and safety of transportation systems.