Sherif Abdelaziz, associate professor in the geotechnical engineering group at the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been awarded the prestigious 2022 C. A. Hogentogler Award from the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) committee D18 on Soil and Rock for his research article “Modified Thermomechanical Triaxial Cell for Microscopic Assessment of Clay Fabric Using Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction” appearing in Volume 43 Number 4 of the ASTM Geotechnical Testing Journal. Abdelaziz will receive this award during the main D18 committee meeting on Monday, June 13, 2022 in Seattle, WA. Providing in-person meetings are allowed.

C. A. Hogentogler Award is given by ASTM Committee D18 on Soil and Rock to the author(s) of an ASTM paper of outstanding merit on soil or rock. It recognizes meritorious effort and it is the most prestigious technical award given by ASTM Committee D18.

Abdelaziz joined the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Virginia Tech as an associate professor in 2020. Before that, he served as an assistant professor at Stony Brook University and as a geotechnical engineer at CH2M Hill (now Jacobs).

Abdelaziz’s research focuses on multi-scale coupled phenomenon in geotechnical engineering with emphases on thermo-hydro-bio-mechanical properties of soils and rocks. The awarded article provides a new experimental approach to observe changes in the fabric of cohesive soils due to changes in temperature and degree of saturation.