On March 22, 2021 Hussam Mahmoud received the George T. Abell Outstanding Mid-Career Faculty Award from the Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering.  This award is given to a mid-career faculty for establishing national and international stature in the research frontier of sustainable and resilient infrastructure and communities, demonstrating excellence in teaching and service, and promoting the principles of community and inclusive excellence in his research, advising, mentorship, and service.

“I am lucky to be working with exceptional colleagues and to have had the opportunity to collaborate with many of them.  Special thanks to Bruce (Ellingwood) who is not only a dear colleague and friend but also an excellent mentor.” commented Mahmoud.

Mahmoud conducts fundamental, leading-edge research in the area of Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, which focuses on community recovery following natural disasters using innovative methods of integrating infrastructure and the social and economic fabrics of communities.  He has published over 100 journal papers in such highly esteemed journals as Nature Climate Change, Nature Communications, Nature-Palgrave Communication, and Nature-Scientific Report. 

Mahmoud has graduated 6 Ph.D. students and 32 M.S. students (27 M.S.-Plan A students with thesis). He also is currently the primary advisor of 8 Ph.D. students and 1 M.S.-Plan B student. One of his more notable graduates is Dr. Stephanie Pilkington, who received her M.S. and Ph.D. under his supervision and is currently on the faculty at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

Mahmoud has taught 25 courses during his tenure at CSU and his student evaluations are always excellent including comments from students taking courses remotely.

As for service and outreach both internal and external to CSU, Mahmoud has chaired the departmental Graduate Admissions Committee and the Awards Committee, and is currently a member of Graduate Instruction Committee and Tenure Committee. He also voluntarily served as the Academic Advisor for the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) from 2013 through 2017.  In terms of professional service, he has chaired the ASCE Committee on Fatigue and Fracture and the ASCE Committee on Steel Bridges, and he serves as an editorial board member of Data in Brief (Elsevier), Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure (Elsevier), and Frontiers in Built Environment (Frontiers Media).

Mahmoud’s research has profoundly impacted not only his profession but also society as a whole. Evidence of this impact is reflected by the continuous, extensive local, national, and international recognition his research has attracted.

Mahmoud has strived to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in his teaching, research, and service. His supervised graduate students have come from diverse backgrounds, representing different regions around the world, and 12 of his graduated students and six of his nine current graduate students are women. He also provided laboratory tours and shake-table testing demonstrations to students from local elementary and high schools to promote science, technology, engineering, and math.   He also is a member of the Graduate School’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate at CSU, an NSF funded program at CSU that is committed to providing an inclusive and supportive environment for all students. Finally, Mahmoud is an active participant in the CEE Department’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.

A much deserved recognition for Hussam Mahmoud!