Mehrabi, Armin

Mehrabi, Armin Graduate Faculty

Positions

Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering , College of Engineering and Computing

amehrabi@fiu.edu

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biography

Dr. Armin Mehrabi joined the Civil and Environmental Department of the College of Engineering and Computing in January of 2017. He brings four decades of experience in academia and industry in a variety of bridge and building engineering including inspection and evaluation, finite element analysis, non-destructive testing, application of new materials like FRP and UHPC, and innovative solutions to structural connections and accelerated bridge construction for resilient and sustainable infrastructure.
Dr. Mehrabi’s experience spans four decades in engineering and research. Graduated among top 2 percent of his class from the University of Tehran, he entered industry as a designer and field engineer in 1984. He also taught civil engineering courses in various universities for five years. In 1990, he moved to the US to pursue his Ph.D. with a full scholarship from the University of Colorado at Boulder. His thesis on Seismic Behavior of Masonry Infilled RC Frames won the Most Outstanding Thesis Award by The Masonry Society. He then moved to the Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, for his post-doctoral studies. In 1996, Dr. Mehrabi was recruited by Construction Technology Laboratories, Inc., where he managed the largest privately-owned structures lab in the US and its long-span bridge group. For development of a condition assessment method for bridges, he was awarded by ENR as One of Top 25 Newsmakers of the Year, 1997. In 2004, he established the Bridge Engineering Solutions and served as its president and chief technical engineer. He earned his MBA from Niagara University in 2010. In addition to working on some monumental bridges worldwide, before joining FIU in 2017, Dr. Mehrabi served as PI, co-PI, or consultant for several federally funded and other research projects. Dr. Mehrabi is currently serving as associate professor in the Civil & Env. Enrg. Dept. at FIU where he has contributed significantly to progress in research, academic, and service activities. He took over as research director of ABC-UTC in 2017 until 2023 and helped enhance its organization and operation. He was also instrumental in securing the new IBT/ABC-UTC Grant from USDOT in 2023. To date, Dr. Mehrabi has secured 7 research projects under this program, secured and completed 1 international project and 5 research projects from FDOT as PI. The impactful research he just completed for FHWA will soon modify the national inspection manuals as it has been already approved to be added to the AASHTO Manual for Bridge Element Inspection for FRP. He also has one ongoing project with FDOT. This amounts to $2.1 M grants as PI and more than $14 M as Co-PI. He has served as major professor for 11 PhD students (graduated 6) and 48 master’s students (graduated 34), dissertation committees of 27 PhD and 2 MS students, managed the graduate programs with more than 130 graduate students when he was GPD, mentors two student chapters, and more. Under his NDT Lab at FIU, he mentors research affiliates, courtesy post-docs and an undergraduate student.
On the academic side, Dr. Mehrabi has taught 2 upper-level undergraduate design courses and 2 graduate courses. He has also conducted several Directed Independent Study courses, Supervised Research, and Dissertation. He has consistently exceeded expectations with a five-year average SPOT rating of 4.73 for his graduate course and 4.43 for undergraduate course. He has developed a new course for Inspection and Maintenance Decision Making for Bridges which he is offering starting in Spring 2026 based on the books he has and is publishing. Dr. Mehrabi served in several departmental committees including two faculty search, diversity, differential assignment, institutional effectiveness, evaluating teaching, and graduate and undergraduate program advisory. From 2019 to 2023, he served as Graduate Program Director providing exemplary service in promoting the program and student recruiting and advising. He received the CEC College Service Award in 2022 and Tenure in 2023. He is currently the Vice Chair of the college Faculty Council. He is also involved in national and international professional organizations and technical committees.
Dr. Mehrabi has published 55 journal papers, 72 conference proceddings and several magazine articles on his topics of interest related to bridge engineering, inspection and non-destructive testing, bridge rehabilitation, seismic behavior of reinforced concrete frames infilled with masonry, application of new materials including fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) and ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC), finite elements analysis of strctures, and more. As of 11th of November 2025, his Google Scholar citation total is 4841 (h-29, i10-74). He has served as Co-Guest Editor for three Special Issue Journal and Guest Editor for four other Special Issues, published two books and edited another in 2024, and have one book coming out by the year’s end. As a result of his research, Dr. Mehrabi has filed 12 disclosures, from which seven patents have already been awarded, and the rest should be awarded shortly. In recognition of contribution to the profession and his innovations, Dr. Mehrabi was elevated to ASCE Fellow status in 2024, inducted as senior member of the National Academy of Inventors in 2025, and was honored as FIU Top Scholar awardee for the academic year 2024-25 for Research and Creative activities.