Thomas Bennert, Ph.D., has more than 13 years of research and practical experience in asphalt materials and flexible pavement engineering. He is program director for CAIT’s Pavement Resource Program (PRP). Under his supervision, the Rutgers Asphalt Pavement Laboratory (RAPL)—the main testing facility of PRP—has grown to be one of the country’s leading asphalt research labs. The lab is an AASHTO-accredited Asphalt Material Research Lab (AMRL)—the only university-based accredited lab in New Jersey and one of only a handful in the whole country.

P.N. Balaguru, Ph.D., is a distinguished professor of civil engineering at Rutgers. He served as graduate director for six years and undergraduate director for 15 years and has directed 30 Ph.D. and M.S. candidates dissertations. Prior to joining Rutgers, he served for four years as a program director for Infrastructure Materials and Structural Mechanics at the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Sophia Hassiotis, an Associate Engineering Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology and an expert on finding the location and extent of damage in structures such as bridges, buildings, space frames and airplanes.

Teaching Interests 

Dr. Minnetyan is the faculty advisor for the Steel Bridge and the ASCE Student Chapter. Courses taught include CE320-Structural Analysis and CE442-Steel Design.

Research Interests

Dr. Minnetyan's primary research is directed toward quantification of damage and degradation in composite structures, assessment of structural durability and damage tolerance.

Pier Marzocca received the Ph.D. degree in Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering in 2001 from Politecnico di Torino in Italy. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Clarkson University, USA. Prior joining Clarkson he worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher and Visiting Assistant Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech.

Research Interests

Professor Aboutaha is an associate professor of civil engineering at Syracuse University. After graduating from Beirut Arab University in 1981, he worked for over seven years in the construction industry. He then went on to receiving both his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1991 & 1994, respectively. He began his teaching career at Georgia Tech, and joined the faculty at Syracuse University in 1998. In 2002, he was elected Fellow of the American Concrete Institute (ACI). Dr.