Research/Areas of Interest:
- Resilient and equitable infrastructure
- Impacts of extreme events (e.g., drought, flood, wildfire) in a changing climate on infrastructure and communities
- Climate adaptation of infrastructure
- Slopes, dams, and levees
- Unsaturated soil mechanics
- Multi-physics (e.g., hydro-mechanical, thermo-hydro-mechanical) processes in soils
- Analytical and numerical methods in geotechnical engineering
Education
- Doctor of Philosophy, University of Delaware, USA, 2011
- Graduate Certificate, University of Delaware, Newark, United States, 2011
- Master of Civil Engineering, University of Delaware, USA, 2009
- Master of Science, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran, 2005
- Bachelor of Science, K.N.Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, 2001
Biography
Farshid Vahedifard's goal has been to develop transformative solutions for emerging issues related to climate-resilient communities and infrastructure systems while incorporating environmental justice. Though he has continued to work on core disciplinary areas of geotechnical engineering (e.g., slopes, unsaturated soils), his scholarly publications and funded research projects demonstrate his successful efforts to integrate fundamental research in civil and geotechnical engineering into a transdisciplinary research environment for tackling grand challenges at the intersection of Climate Change, Resilient Infrastructure, and Environmental Justice. The transdisciplinary nature of his research has enabled him to successfully establish collaborative efforts with various engineering and science fields, including climate science, hydrology, data science, geosciences, and social science. His work has centered around studying the resilience and adaptation of critical infrastructure, including levees and dams, in the face of extreme events (e.g., droughts, floods, wildfires, and cascading hazards) in a changing climate. A key emphasis of his research has been addressing the needs and challenges historically underserved and socially vulnerable communities face. He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles in journals and conference proceedings and has supervised over 50 postdocs, PhD, and MS students. Further, Dr. Vahedifard is the Lead, Resilient and Equitable Infrastructure with the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH). He is leading UNU-INWEH's efforts to develop new research initiatives on resilient and equitable infrastructure, covering topics such as aging infrastructure, climate change, extreme events, cascading hazards, environmental justice, and inclusive adaptation. In this capacity, he also explores the opportunities for formalizing collaborations between UNU-INWEH and Tufts University for furthering national and international visibility and impact. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the recipient of several awards, including the Norman Medal, MSU Annual Research Award, MS ASCE Engineer of the Year Award, the Best Paper award from the ASTM Geotechnical Testing Journal, and the Federal Laboratory Consortium Interagency Partnership award. He is an Associate Editor of the AGU Journal of Earth's Future, ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, and ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering.