Staff Directory

Arindam is an expert in wind and structural engineering and has co-authored more than 30 peer-reviewed journal publications. As a principal investigator, he has received more than $3.5 million in research funding from the National Science Foundation, NOAA, Florida Department of Emergency Management, Sea Grant Programs, Department of Energy, and the industry. Recipient of the National Science Foundation’s prestigious “Faculty Early Career Development Program Award (CAREER),” Florida Sea Grant’s “Research to Application Award,” and FIU President’s Council “Worlds Ahead Faculty Award.”

Peter is a renowned wind-engineering expert who comes to FIU with over 20 years of experience as a highly sought-after wind-engineering consultant. He spent 6 years with the National Research Council of Canada before moving into private engineering consulting with RWDI, Inc. He has done wind consulting for some of the most ambitious building projects on record, including the Petronas Towers (Malaysia), Taipei 101 (Taiwan) and Burj Khalifai (Dubai).

Ioannis has been studying wind effects on the built environment for the past 8 years. His research focus is structural and environmental wind engineering. He has been using advanced experimental methods, including wind tunnel and full-scale monitoring techniques, to examine how residential and other structures react to extreme wind events. The outcomes of his research efforts are aiming at the development and improvement of national and international wind standards and building codes of practice.

Amal’s academic background is in the field of structural and wind engineering. Her studies involve large-scale wind tunnel testing, wind effects analysis to examine structural response, and design of structures against extreme wind events. During the last few years, Amal was active in studying the response of power transmission infrastructure during downburst wind events. Her research aims at advancing the field of civil engineering for bettering structures' resiliency and sustainability against wind hazards

Seung Jae’s research interest is in computational engineering mechanics, and he works at the interface of multiple disciplines including structural, wind, geotechnical engineering, and scientific computing. His research aims to better understand the underlying mechanisms behind complex engineering scale phenomena through enhanced computational modeling and simulation capability. During the last few years, he has been active in studying the wind-induced dynamic effects on the façade performance.

Dejiang holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Texas Tech University. His background is in the field of structural and wind engineering. He worked at an wind engineering company for over 10 years prior to joining the Wall of Wind Experimental Facility. He has extensive experience in meteorological data analysis, structural dynamic analysis, cladding pressure, pedestrian comfort, etc. He has been involved in wind engineering studies for many well-known projects worldwide.

Steven holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology. His background includes extensive research experience the fields of fluid mechanics and Computational Fluid Dynamics. He has had broad experience in both the private and public sectors. Prior to joining the Wall of Wind Experimental Facility, his most recent position was as a hurricane researcher for NOAA. He is also Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Florida.

James has been involved with the Wall of Wind program in various capacities since 2005, when he first began as an undergraduate research assistant. His subsequent M.S. research project focused on determining full-scale rooftop equipment wind loads with the 6-fan system. Since that time, he has continued to gain unique wind engineering experience at the Wall of Wind facility through his efforts as a full-time researcher, and later as a project consultant. Additionally, he has many years of experience teaching courses in physics and mathematics at the high school level.

Manuel joined the Wall of Wind program in 2016 as an undergraduate research assistant. As he progressed in his career, he was involved as a graduate research assistant in various projects while pursuing his Master's degree which was focused on the assessment of span-wire traffic signals, and ongoing Doctoral degree. During that time, Manuel has gained broad experience in the design, construction, instrumentation and analysis of wind engineering-related projects. He was the lead in the design, construction and calibration of the new small-scale ABL wind tunnel in the Laboratory for Wind Engineering Research.