Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Civil Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, 2020
  • M.S., Civil Engineering, Southern Illinois University, 2017
  • B.S., Civil Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Iran, 2014
Licenses & Certifications
  • Professional Engineer Civil, California, #94829
  • Professional Engineer Civil, Texas, #137804
Academic Appointments
  • Adjunct Faculty, Construction, SIUE, 2017
  • Instructor, Civil Engineering, PSU, 2018
Professional Honors
  • 2020: Harry G. Miller Fellowship in college of engineering, University Park, PA.
  • 2019: International Association of Foundation Drilling (ADSC) Endowed Civil Engineering Award
  • 2019-2020: Itasca Education Partnership (IEP)
  • 2018-2019: CEE Mark E. and Claire L. Alpert Fellowship in Civil Engineering, University Park, PA.
  • 2018-2019: Leo P. Russell Graduate Fellowship in Civil Engineering, University Park, PA.
  • 2017-2018: The Pennsylvania State University Distinguished Graduate Fellowship, University Park, PA.
  • 2016: Outstanding Civil Engineering Graduate Student, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, IL.
Professional Affiliations
  • American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
  • Deep Foundation Institute (DFI)
Languages
  • English
  • Persian

Dr. Salam specializes in computational geomechanics , numerical analysis of the geosystems, and big data analysis. He has over 5 years of experience assessing civil and geotechnical engineering applications. He earned a minor in Statistics during his PhD and has used statistical and data science tools in his studies.

Dr. Salam has broad experience on the evaluation of sustainability and serviceability of geo-structures under extreme events such as earthquakes. His experience includes liquefaction assessment, failure probability analysis, risk assessment, seismic stability of tailings dams, underground mine stability, settlement analysis and mine subsidence, foundation assessment, slope stability, retaining wall design and performance, seepage analysis, soil erosion, and quality aggregate selection. Dr. Salam also has extensive experience with advanced laboratory testing and physical modeling of geotechnical materials under static and dynamic conditions.

Dr. Salam performed research on the effect of soil index properties on the strength of unbound aggregates. He also conducted research on the stability of slurry backfilled underground mines in the Illinois Basin. He was appointed as adjunct faculty at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) and taught an undergraduate engineering class. Dr. Salam worked on the evaluation of mine subsidence prediction, mine subsidence mitigation, and sheet pile stability analysis.

Dr. Salam's doctoral research focused on the cyclic behavior of tailings and seismic stability of tailings dams under extreme events such as earthquakes and blasts. He conducted shake table testing to study the cyclic behavior of tailings during a sequence of shaking events and adopted advanced and innovative numerical modeling tools in his research. Dr. Salam studies and research included a minor in statistics and use of big data and machine learning tools. Dr. Salam was appointed as the instructor of Civil Engineering Materials Laboratory during his doctoral study at Pennsylvania State University (PSU).