Professor Xianming Shi has been named as interim chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He replaces Professor Balasingam Muhunthan who passed away in June. Professors Tim Ginn and Dave Pollock will also be taking on support administrative roles in the department, managing graduate and undergraduate curricula, faculty affairs, and ABET accreditation.
With WSU since 2014, Shi is known around the world for his research in the area of infrastructure durability and sustainability. He directs the National Center for Transportation Infrastructure Durability & Life-Extension, a U.S. Department of Transportation national university transportation center focused on infrastructure durability that includes researchers from 11 universities around the U.S. He also serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Infrastructure Preservation & Resilience.
He has received more than $20 million in research funding as principal investigator, including from the National Science Foundation, National Academies, the U.S. Department of Transportation, state departments of transportation, and from the private sector. His research contributions include more than 150 scholarly journal articles, several books, an international patent and numerous other publications, with more than 7,000 citations by peers. His research has led to better understanding of how both nano-science and nano-engineering can benefit infrastructure durability and enable sustainability.
Shi is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). In addition to awards by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and from ASCE, he has received several Department of Civil and Environmental awards, including the Outstanding Researcher Award and the Leon Luck Most Effective Professor Award.
Shi holds a Ph.D. in polymer chemistry from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing as well as a master’s degree in industrial and management engineering from Montana State University. He also holds a master’s degree from Tianjin University and a bachelor’s degree from Beijing Institute of Chemical Technology in China. He is a licensed engineer in the State of Montana.
