Rate My Professor Vistasp Karbhari

Vistasp M. Karbhari is a Professor in the Departments of Civil Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he served as the eighth President from June 2013 to August 2020. He earned his B.E. in Civil Engineering in 1984 and M.E. in Civil Engineering (Structures) in 1985 from the University of Poona, India, followed by a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on composite materials from the University of Delaware in 1991. Karbhari's distinguished career includes roles as Scientist and Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Delaware (1991-1995), Professor, Associate Professor, and Chair of the Department of Structural Engineering at the University of California, San Diego (1995-2008), and Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, along with professorships in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (2008-2013).

A leading authority in fiber-reinforced polymer composites for civil infrastructure, Karbhari specializes in processing and mechanics of composites, durability of materials, infrastructure rehabilitation, structural health monitoring, damage prognosis, and multi-threat mitigation. His seminal contributions include editing books such as Rehabilitation of Pipelines using Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Composites (2015), Structural Health Monitoring of Civil Infrastructure Systems (2009), Durability of Composites for Civil Structural Applications (2007), and Service Life Estimation and Extension of Civil Engineering Structures (2011). Highly cited papers feature "Durability gap analysis for fiber-reinforced polymer composites in civil infrastructure" (Journal of Composites for Construction, 2003), "Composite jacketed concrete under uniaxial compression—Verification of simple design equations" (Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, 1997), and "Use of composites for 21st century civil infrastructure" (Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 2000). Karbhari has received prestigious honors including Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2020) for composites in civil infrastructure, Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (2014) and its Structural Engineering Institute (2015), Elected Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (2019), NSF CAREER Award (1997), and ASCE Charles Pankow Award (1996). His work has profoundly impacted sustainable infrastructure renewal and resilience.