Shahin Hajilar, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, has been selected by the Iowa State Graduate College to be student marshal for the fall 2017 graduate student commencement. Hajilar will lead his peers into the ceremony on Dec. 15.
Student marshal is just one of the many honors and awards Hajilar has received while at Iowa State. He has won both the Research Excellence Award and the Teaching Excellence Award, the Best Poster Presentation Award at the CCEE Graduate Student Research Showcase and Poster Competition. He was also in the top-10 finalists for 3-Minutes Thesis (3MT) competition at Iowa State’s Graduate and Professional Student’s Research Conference.
Hajilar’s dissertation, “Cementitious materials subjected to mechanical and environmental stressors: A computational framework,” focuses on characterization of the mechanical properties and diffusion characteristics of cementitious composite materials at the atomic scale. The outcome of his dissertation contributed to improving the strength and durability of concrete materials commonly used for infrastructure projects.
Hajilar plans to pursue his passion for research and teaching in an academic career. He will continue at Iowa State as a postdoctoral research associate in CCEE assistant professor Behrouz Shafei’s research group.