Ph.D. Student Position in Transportation (Pavement) Engineering Position
A fully funded Ph.D. student starting in the Spring or Fall of 2024. The successful candidate will participate in interdisciplinary research related to flexible pavement engineering.
Required Qualifications
B.Sc. in Civil Engineering or closely related areas.
Self-motivated
English
Preferred Qualifications
M.Sc. in Civil Engineering or closely related areas.
Experience in flexible pavement (asphalt mixture) research.
Experience with industry or government (Flexible Pavements)
Advantageous Qualifications
Programming skills (e.g., MATLAB, etc.)
Numerical simulation skills (e.g., ABAQUS, etc.)
Writing and presenting research work.
About the Advisor
Dr. Pawel Polaczyk is an Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering and a Civil Engineering practitioner in pavement engineering. Dr. Polaczyk is originally from Warsaw, Poland, where he received his B.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering with a concentration in Transportation from Warsaw University of Technology. His Master's and Doctorate degrees in Civil Engineering with a concentration in Geotechnology and Materials Engineering are from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His professional career includes over 15 years of experience in transportation and pavement engineering with academia, industry, and government agencies. Before joining Texas Tech, Dr. Polaczyk oversaw the Research Office at the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) as a supervisor. During his career, he worked as a road and pavement designer, resident engineer, and superintendent in the road construction field and as a Postdoc and a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research is focused on infrastructural materials and pavement engineering (asphalt, asphalt mixtures, pavement design, testing and evaluation, and pavement maintenance), and he worked on research projects sponsored by the US Department of Energy (DOE), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and the Tennessee Department of Transportation (DOT). He has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles on infrastructure materials and has served as a reviewer for over 400 articles in different journals. Dr. Polaczyk is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (AAPT), the Transportation Research Board (TRB) AKC 60 Standing Committee on Asphalt Pavement Construction and Rehabilitation, and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) D0972 project panel member.
About Texas Tech University
Texas Tech was founded in 1923 and focuses on advancing higher education, health care, research, and outreach; the TTU is a part of the TTU System headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, and provides its universities with the resources needed to meet the global challenges of today and the future. Texas Tech University provides the highest standards of excellence in higher education, fosters intellectual and personal development, and stimulates meaningful research and service to humankind. TTU is classified as an R1 Doctoral University with very high research activity.
Application Process
Email Dr. Polaczyk at pawel.polaczyk@ttu.edu with your research background and interests, unofficial transcripts, and CV. GRE and TOEFL scores will be highly appreciated.
