It was an honor to receive 2018 Young Engineer Award for Professional Achievement. ASCE St. Louis Newsletter covered the professional and academic background of me as the award winner. The reference for the following article is the newsletter issue of October 2018. Sincerely, -Siavash Zamiran

The Young Engineer Award recognizes professional contributions of younger members to the Society and to the St. Louis Section and is presented annually to a Member of the St. Louis Section of ASCE who is judged to have attained significant professional achievement, and who is less than 35 years of age. This year’s Professional Recognition Award goes to Dr. Siavash Zamiran.

Dr. Zamiran earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 2009 from Azad University, followed by a Master’s of Science in Civil-Geotechnical in 2012. He then went on to earn his PhD in Engineering Science – Civil/Geotechnical Engineering from SIU-Carbondale in 2017.

Since 2017, Dr. Zamiran has worked with Marino Engineering Associates, where he performs stability analyses of reinforced slopes and retaining walls, subsidence investigations, and computational structural analysis of high-pressure natural gas and petroleum pipelines affected by ground subsidence. He is also teaching as an adjunct professor at SIU-Edwardsville.

Academically, Dr. Zamiran has worked as a Research Assistant and collaborative researcher at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and Edwardsville and Azad University, with research topics including Seismic investigation of cantilever retaining walls, investigation of deep foundations in swelling weathered rock, subsidence investigation of Illinois coal mines, investigation of the behavior of soil nail walls in seismic and static conditions and liquefaction studying of monopile foundation in wind turbines.

Dr. Zamiran has been active with ASCE including: Key Contacts; committee member with Geo-Institute Rock Mechanics Committee, Deep Foundations Committee, and Geophysical Committee; head of judges at ASCE Mid-Continent Student Conference, Geo Wall Competition, and founder and former president of SIUE Geo-Institute Graduate Student Organization where he was the instructor of 4 free public workshops in geotechnical engineering.
Other highlights include:

• Author and co/author of more than 30 conference and journal articles, one book, and reviewer of more than five journals.
• Notable awards received: International Association of Foundation Drilling Award, GeoConfluence Research Scholarship, and Itasca Education Partnership Award.
• Upon his graduation with a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, he was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student award

The news of GeoConfluence Research Scholarship earned by Siavash Zamiran is reflected in SIUE news webpage. 
The content of the news is provided in the following:
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SIUE’s Zamiran Earns Inaugural Geoconfluence Research Scholarship
14 November 2016, 1:18 PM
​Southern Illinois University Edwardsville research assistant Siavash Zamiran has been awarded the inaugural GeoConfluence Research Scholarship from the St. Louis Chapter of the Geo-Institute of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He was recognized during GeoConfluence, the association’s annual conference, on Friday, Nov. 4 in St. Charles, Mo.
Zamiran is a doctoral candidate in the SIUE School of Engineering’s Cooperative PhD Program in Engineering Science with Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The scholarship will support his dissertation research, “Seismic Investigations of Retaining Wall Structures.”
“This scholarship funding will be used for developing a program that assists engineers through the nation to design retaining walls based on earthquake characteristics in their specific seismic zone” said Zamiran. “My future professional goal is to continue engineering research with experimental and numerical studies, and increase my publications in conferences and scientific journals. I would like to be active in different areas of geotechnical engineering in both academic and industrial environments.”
The GeoConfluence Research Scholarship promotes research in the field of geotechnical/geoenvironmental engineering, particularly that which will benefit the state of practice in the Midwest and can be implemented by regional engineers.
Zamiran’s extensive research activity during his doctoral studies includes the study of retaining walls’ behavior during earthquakes, subsidence and stability evaluation of Illinois coal mines, and the study of levees due to flooding and soil erosion, among other projects.
The scholarship includes up to $3,000 to be used for specific educational tools and equipment, materials and travel needed to fulfill a thesis/dissertation. As part of the award, Zamiran will present his research results at a future GeoConfluence conference.
Photo: (L-R) Siavash Zamiran, doctoral candidate and GeoConfluence Research Scholarship recipient, Pravin Jha, chairman of the GeoConfluence Research Scholarship Subcommittee, Kord Wissmann, president of Geo-Institute, and Sandeep Goud Burra, scholarship recipient.

The news of ADSCE Award earned by Siavash Zamiran is reflected in SIUE news webpage. The list of winners of 2016-2017 ADSC award is presented here.
The content of the news is provided in the following:
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"13 October 2016, 9:40 AM
​The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Engineering Cooperative PhD Program in Engineering Science is training the next generation of creative thinkers and innovators who will continue the advancement of the engineering industry.
Graduates of the program receive a doctor of philosophy degree from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The program’s memorandum of understanding designates SIUE as an approved residence center where coursework can be completed using the SIUE School of Engineering’s state-of-the-art laboratories for research and instruction.
“The goals of this program are to expand the high-quality educational opportunities in the doctoral level to students at SIUE by utilizing the educational resources available at both SIUE and SIUC,” said Keqin Gu, PhD, program director and distinguished research professor in the School of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering.
“Students are especially pleased with the opportunity to work closely with outstanding faculty on the frontiers of engineering and science topics,” he added. “All past graduates of this program are employed as senior level engineers or faculty members at universities.”
Among the 18 students currently enrolled in the program, research assistant Siavash Zamiran has received multiple accolades for his research projects conducted in the SIUE soil laboratory. Zamiran is the 2016 recipient of the International Association of Foundation Drilling’s (ADSC) internationally acclaimed Endowed Civil Engineering Graduate Study Scholarship.
“The receipt of this scholarship is incredibly motivating, as it is well-known in the geotechnical and civil engineering communities,” Zamiran said. “My future professional goal is to continue engineering research with experimental and numerical studies. I would like to be active in different areas of geotechnical engineering in both academic and industrial environments.”
Zamiran’s extensive research activity during his doctoral studies includes the study of retaining walls’ behavior during earthquakes, subsidence and stability evaluation of Illinois coal mines, and the study of levees due to flooding and soil erosion, among other projects.
Abdolreza Osouli, PhD, P.E., assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, serves as Zamiran’s faculty advisor through the cooperative PhD program.
“With Siavash’s motivation, I have been able to direct him to excellent performance in all capacities of teaching, research and professional service,” Osouli said. “Students in this program have opportunities to engage with a multitude of educational and scholarly activities that can be helpful for their future professional careers.
“This program enhances critical thinking and helps the students be self-driven. Consequently, it trains students to be developers of creative ideas in the engineering industry.”
Zamiran will be acknowledged for his receipt of the coveted scholarship during the ADSC annual meeting in February 2017 in Palm Springs, Calif.
Students enrolled in the SIUE and SIUC Cooperative PhD Program may pursue a broad spectrum of engineering disciplines, including civil engineering, computer science, electrical and computer engineering, industrial engineering, and mechanical engineering.
For more information on the program, visit siue.edu/engineering/phd/index.
Photo: (L-R) Abdolreza Osouli, PhD, assistant professor of civil engineering, research assistant Siavash Zamiran, and Keqin Gu, PhD, cooperative PhD program director and distinguished research professor in the SIUE School of Engineering."

​Geo-Institute Chapter Leaders Summit was held last summer on 15th July 2016 at Colorado Convention Center, Denver, Colorado. The purpose of this summit was to engage chapter leaders, get alignment between chapter leaders and board on strategic and operational direction, and strengthen strategy to bring better quality content directly to Geo-Institute chapters.
Siavash Zamiran has participated in the summit as the representative of St. Louis Geo-Institute and SIU Geo-Institute and enrolled in summit activities to increase partnership between St. Louis and SIU chapters with the national organization and other regional chapters. 

From June 26 to 29, 2016, the 50th US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium was held in Houston, Texas with several attendees from academia and industry. The areas of concentration in the conference were including petroleum engineering, civil engineering, geology and geophysics, mining engineering, and underground construction.
 
It was my honor to be the chair of two different sessions including “Civil Engineering” and “Underground Storage and Structures”. Moreover, as a member of ASCE Rock Mechanics Committee, I have been active in the committee meeting and agenda.

A total number of 650 papers were presented in the symposium including “Modeling of Swelling Rocks for Group Pier Foundation Applications” presented by me, Siavash Zamiran.  In this investigation, the behavior of a pier group system is studied based on the swelling pressure of expansive claystone layers through a series of computational three-dimensional numerical analyses. This paper is now available in Researchgate (in the following link) and Academia databases for interested audiences.

Link to the paper: Modeling of Swelling Rocks for Group Pier Foundation Applications