Dr. Halil Ceylan is a Pitt-Des Moines, Inc. Endowed Professor of Civil Engineering and the founding Director of the Program for Sustainable Pavement Engineering and Research (
PROSPER), Institute for Transportation (InTrans) at Iowa State University (ISU) where he has been teaching and conducting research as a faculty member for 20 years after receiving his PhD in Civil (Transportation Facilities) Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2002. He is also serving as the ISU Site Director of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Partnership to Enhance General Aviation Safety, Accessibility and Sustainability (
PEGASAS) Center of Excellence (COE) for General Aviation. He is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Dr. Ceylan has extensive experience in the area of transportation infrastructure and geotechnical engineering with his research focusing of smart, sustainable, durable, and resilient geosystems and transportation infrastructure systems and a long-standing interest in developing ways from innovative research outcomes to entrepreneurial business development. His research group has two US patent applications (published and pending), participated in the National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) and National I-Corps Training Program and founded a startup company by using the license of intellectual property from Iowa State University Research Foundation (ISURF). Dr. Ceylan’s innovative research work has been recognized as the 2022 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Innovation Initiative Focus Technology, and he is the recipient of 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) James Laurie Prize, 2019 FAA PEGASAS Jimenez Faculty-Researcher Award, among many other awards and honors that he has received. Dr. Ceylan has actively taken leadership roles in several national/international level professional organizations and societies, including the ASCE Geo-Institute Pavements Committee (Chair), the ASCE Transportation and Development Institute (T&DI) Uncrewed (Unpersonned) Aerial Vehicles/Systems (UAS) Impacts Task Force Committee (Chair), and the Transportation Engineering and Road Research Alliance (Lead Research Coordinator). He has also served as a member of over 30 national and international committees and subcommittees of professional organizations including ASCE, Transportation Research Board (TRB) of National Research Council, American Concrete Institute (ACI), and International Society for Concrete Pavements (ISCP).