Hamdolah Behnam

Dr. Hamdolah Behnam (Hamid) is an Iranian-Australian. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from K.N.Toosi University of Technology, Iran oldest technological university. After completion of his undergraduate study, He was admitted into the Earthquake and Structural Engineering master of science program of University of Tehran, the most prestigious university in the Iran. His MSc subject was fully granted by Tehran Disaster Mitigation and Management Organisation. By the end of his MSc study, he started working as a structural engineer in a tier 1 consultant-construction company, where he soon he became a Chartered Engineer and promoted to a senior engineer and engaged in the design and construction of many different types of structures, including the bridges, underground tunnels, hospitals, multi-story towers, and the residential and commercial buildings. Due to his ambitious for learning and in order to expand his horizons, Dr. Behnam decided to travel to Hong Kong, where he wrote his thesis on the design of reinforced concrete buildings by emphasising the role of beam-column joints and slab. Dr. Behnam carried out his research at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with a full scholarship under the supervision of Prof. JS Kuang. His PhD research aimed at developing the design criteria and exploring the failure mechanisms of reinforced concrete beam-column joint. In addition, the topic of slab-column connections and beam-wall connections was more closely examined. During his PhD, he obtained an additional scholarship to carry out a chapter of his work in Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Behnam obtained his PhD degree with an excellent mark from all the committee members, including Prof. Tim Ibell (Sir Kirby Laing), the head of the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at the Cambridge University, president of the Institution of Structural Engineers. Thus far, Dr. Behnam has had more than 30 academic publications and conference presentations. He is the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including top instructor, best paper, best presentation, and award of Iran National Elites Foundation. Dr. Behnam is a reviewer of the high quality journals in the field of structural engineering, such as ACI Structural Journal, Journal of Earthquake Engineering, Engineering Structures and Structural Engineering. He has also made a contribution to write chapters in various structural engineering books. Currently, Dr. Behnam is an honorary research fellow at the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering at Western Sydney University. His research interests cover areas of modular structures, with a focus on the design and analysis. Meanwhile, he is also working as a senior structural engineer in Sydney, Australia with a focus on the design of the high-rise buildings.