If you are interested in serving on the IAAP Scholarship Committee, please email Dr. Yazdani at hessam[dot]yazdani[at]howard[dot]edu.
Dr. Ahmadpoor is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology. Dr. Ahmadpoor earned her Ph.D. from the University of Houston in 2016. She was a postdoc associate at Brown University during 2017-2019. She is the recipient of several awards including the Cullen College of Engineering Best Dissertation Award and Future Faculty Program Certificate. Her research interests include enhanced electromechanical properties of soft materials, entropic effects, and finite temperature properties of 2D materials as well as the interaction of 2D materials with biological systems.
Dr. Azari is an Associate Professor and the founding director of RE2 Lab at the Penn State Department of Architecture. He is also a co-funded faculty at the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment. Prior to Penn State, Dr. Azari served as an assistant professor (2017-2020) and the interim director (2018-2019) of the Architecture Ph.D. program at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago, and an assistant professor (2013-2017) at the University of Texas-San Antonio. Dr. Azari’s research focuses on life cycle environmental impacts of built environments, innovative construction materials for energy production and carbon sequestration, and building energy and carbon efficiency. Azari is a recipient of the American Institute of Architects’ Upjohn Research Grant in 2019 and 2020, and faculty sponsor to winning entries to ACSA+AIA COTE Top Ten competitions in 2016 and 2017. In 2019, Azari was recognized as a ‘Researcher to Know’ by the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition. In 2018, Azari co-edited the Energy and Buildings’ Special Issue on Embodied Energy and Carbon Efficiency. Azari’s research has been widely published in various journal venues such as Energy and Buildings and Building and Environment. Dr. Azari holds a Ph.D. in Built Environment from the University of Washington in Seattle.
Dr. Behnam did a medical (MD) degree at Iran University of Medical Sciences (1997) followed by an MSc in Molecular Medicine at Sheffield University and a PhD in Human Genetics at University College London (2005). Then he awarded an NIH-based (NRSA) postdoctoral fellowship in medical genetics at U Michigan and moved to the United States. He also did some translational neuroscience research as adjunct faculty at the University of Central Florida (2007-2009). Then he joined back to IUMS and served as a faculty member, clinical geneticist, and director of the diagnostic genetic laboratory at the Department of Medical Genetics Children Hospital (2009-2015). In 2016, Dr. Behnam came back to the US and did an additional board-accredited fellowship in Clinical Biochemical Genetics at NIH. At the same time and in parallel, he has done some translational research in the Undiagnosed Disease Program (UDP) at NHGRI, and published about 25 scientific articles including some reports of Iranian patients with rare genetic diseases as well as the patients registered in UDP. As a scientist in clinical and laboratory medicine, and also based on his medical education, his main interest is in genomic medicine and molecular mechanisms of the diseases. He has contributions and authorship in more than 60 scientific papers.
Dr. Dehzangi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rutgers University. Before joining Rutgers, Dr. Dehzangi served as an assistant professor and MS in Bioinformatics program director at the Department of Computer Science at Morgan State University (MSU), Baltimore, MD, USA. Before joining MSU, he was a Postdoctoral research scholar at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa (UIOWA), Iowa City, IA, USA. Dr. Dehzangi received his Ph.D. in computer science (majoring in Machine Learning, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology) from Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, his master’s degree in computer science and information technology from MultiMedia University (Cyberjaya, Malaysia), and bachelor’s degree in computer science and Engineering (CSE) from Shiraz University (Shiraz, Iran). His research is focused on machine learning, artificial intelligence, and bioinformatics & computational biology in general.
Dr. Neda Forouzani is a research faculty at the University of Maryland. She received her Ph.D. in physics from Shiraz University on quantum entanglement in photonic systems. She then moved to the US to join the Department of Physics at Washington University in St. Louis as a postdoctoral fellow working on superconductivity and magnetism under extreme conditions. She later switched her research field to quantum measurement with experiments on superconducting circuits. Dr. Forouzani joined UMD’s Department of Physics in 2016 and is currently pursuing her research on designing quantum devices, cryogenic microwave measurement, and material defects for quantum computing applications. Dr. Forouzani has published over 20 papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings and served as a referee for the American Physical Society journals. She is also a member of the scientific review committee of the Iranian American Physicist Network Group and Association for Women in Science.
Dr. Hamidi is a safety physician with extensive clinical experience, research, and medical education who has served in the clinic, academia, and industry. His fields of interest and expertise include pharmacovigilance and drug development especially in targeted therapy using Immuno-Oncology medicines, Antibody-Drug Conjugates, as well as novel radioactive agents. Dr. Hamidi received his MD degree from Azad University, Tabriz, Iran.
Dr. Somayeh Hooshmand is a postdoctoral fellow at NICHD/NIH. Her current research is focused on molecular, biochemical, and cellular processes that underlie genetic syndromes. Dr. Hooshmand received her Ph.D. in Human Genetics from University Putra Malaysia following the completion of her Master’s degree in Genetic Engineering. While her research focused on breast cancer metastasis, she also developed her love for science policy and health issues related to genetics. Her active research work in the lab created a desire to learn more effective ways to both plan research projects and to improve outcomes from any research lab. This desire led her to complete her second Ph.D. in Public Administration and Public Policy with a focus on Health Outcome/Health Policy at Old Dominion University. Her dissertation focused on factors influencing health outcomes across the least, average, and healthiest states in America. Her main research interests include the integration of knowledge of human genetics into effective and ethical public health actions toward the goal of eliminating health disparities.
Professor Jamshidi is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at The George Washington University. She is a graphic designer and art director with an MA in visual communication from the Royal College of Art. She is a research-based designer with a practice that spans between the realms of archives and special collections, museums, and education, with an editorial design approach.
Dr. Khaloo is a Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University’s elite Runway program at the Cornell Tech campus in New York City. Cornell’s prestigious Runway program is designed to make the best academic research available and accessible to the public. Dr. Khaloo’s research focuses on autonomous sensing, data interpretation, and intelligent condition assessment of structures. He has extensive experience in the field of computer vision and machine learning to develop robust systems for quantitative health monitoring of civil infrastructures. Dr. Khaloo is the author of 17 papers in international high-impact journals and conference proceedings and the co-inventor of a patent-pending method for generating 3D models of large civil infrastructure systems. He is also an active member of a variety of technical committees devoted to the monitoring and assessment of civil infrastructure, as well as computing in civil engineering. Dr. Khaloo received his Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from George Mason University in 2018.
Dr. Yazdani is an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and the director of the Sustainable Infrastructure, Geotechnics, and Materials (SIGMa) Lab at Howard University, Washington, DC. He specializes in geotechnical engineering, experimental and computational materials science, risk and reliability analysis, machine learning, and evolutionary optimization. His interdisciplinary research centers on enhancing the sustainability and climate resilience of civil infrastructure. Dr. Yazdani has authored/co-authored over 50 publications in books, peer-reviewed journals, and conference proceedings. He also has over 10 years of experience in teaching civil and materials engineering courses. Dr. Yazdani is a member of several organizations including the American Society of Civil Engineers, Deep Foundations Institute (DFI – Honorary Member), and North American Geosynthetics Society, and the recipient of several awards including the AFOSR DURIP award, the Best Faculty Awards of the Howard University ASCE Student Chapter in 2017 and 2019 and the DFI Best Student Paper Award in 2013.
Dr. Yazdani received his BSc and MSc in civil/geotechnical engineering from the University of Kerman, Iran, and his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma in 2015.