Rate My Professor John Ma

Z. John Ma, commonly referred to as John Ma, is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, specializing in structural engineering within the Engineering discipline. He joined the faculty in August 2005 following the completion of his PhD from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in 1998. As a registered professional engineer in Nebraska, Ma has dedicated his career to advancing knowledge in concrete structures and bridge engineering.

Ma's research interests focus on the evaluation of alkali-silica reaction (ASR)-affected structures, 3D printing of concrete, bond behavior between rebar and concrete, mechanics and applications of high-performance fiber-reinforced cementitious composites, behavior and design of prestressed concrete bridges, and accelerated bridge construction for durability. His contributions have practical implications for safer infrastructure, including materials for nuclear energy applications and sustainable construction methods. Key publications demonstrate his prolific output and influence in the field. Notable works include "Development of high-early-strength fiber-reinforced self-compacting concrete" by Ghosh et al. (2021, Construction and Building Materials); "Effect of alkali-silica reaction expansion rate and confinement on concrete degradation" by Abd-Elssamd et al. (2020, ACI Materials Journal); "Shear strength of reinforced concrete simple and continuous deep beams" by Chen et al. (2019, ACI Structural Journal); "Pretensioned pullout test of 18 mm (0.7 in.) diameter strand with different embedment lengths" by Gui and Ma (2020, Structural Concrete); "Shear Strength of UHPFRC Beams: Mesoscale Fiber-Matrix Discrete Model" by Qi et al. (2017, ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering); "Full-Scale Lateral Impact Testing of Prestressed Concrete Girder" by Jing et al. (2016, Structural Concrete); "Transfer Length and Splitting Force Calculation for Pretensioned Concrete Girders with High-capacity Strands" by Song et al. (2014, ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering); and earlier papers such as "Longitudinal Joint Details with Tight Bend Diameter U-Bars" by Ma et al. (2012, ACI Structural Journal) and "Crack Detection from the Slope of the Mode Shape Using Complex Continuous Wavelet" by Jiang et al. (2012, Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering).

Throughout his career, Ma has received major awards and honors recognizing his excellence, including the Moses E. and Mayme Brooks Distinguished Professor Award (2019), University of Tennessee Tickle College of Engineering Research Achievement Award (2018), ASCE Tennessee Section’s Daniel B. Barge, Jr. Award (2018), ASCE’s Raymond C. Reese Research Prize (2013), Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (2011), NSF CAREER Award (2004), ASCE’s T.Y. Lin Award (2002), and PCI’s Martin P. Korn Award (2001). These accolades underscore his impact on structural engineering research and education.