Rafi A. Tarefder

Rafiqul A. Tarefder, Ph.D., P.E.

Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, UNM
Director, NMTC, nmtc.unm.edu
Associate Director, SPTC, www.sptc.org
Associate Director, SOLARIS, www.unr.edu/solaris

Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, University of Oklahoma
M.S. in Geotechnical Engineering
B.S. in Civil Engineering

PI/Co-PI of total external funding = $17.0M (as PI = $15.1M)
Authored 444 peer-reviewed journal and conference articles (193J, 251C) including two best paper awards
Published 1 textbook and 6 book chapters; Edited 6 books and journal special issues; published 48 major research reports
Supporting/supported 92 students (24 Ph.D., 29 M.S., 4 Postdocs, 1 Editorial Assistant, 35 undergraduate students); Graduated 18 PhDs and 26 MS students
Established a strong externally funded research and scholarly program at UNM, essentially from scratch, principally in the area of pavement materials and design
Led the New Mexico DOT in the calibration and implementation of a newly developed mechanistic-empirical ME pavement design guide
Contributed significant new knowledge and engineering tools in the state of New Mexico's airfield pavement evaluation and rehabilitation design procedure
Delivered speeches/presented at more than 100 national/international conferences & symposia

Developed Pavement Engineering, a graduate multidisciplinary program/concentration within the geotechnical engineering unit, which did not exist prior to my joining at UNM. This program is unique in the entire state of New Mexico.
Developed 5 new graduate courses and restructured 2 exiting courses, which have substantially strengthened the graduate course offerings in pavement engineering program.
Developed and equipped 3 state-of-the-art laboratories from scratch. These laboratories are now used to teach graduate and undegraded classes in civil/geotech/pavement engineering
Played a key role in increasing the enrollment in geotechnical engineering graduate program. The number of graduate students in geotechnical program increased from 5 (in 2006) to over 25 (in 2016, peak) - a growth of about 400% over a period of 10 years
Strong track-record of recruiting underrepresented students (8 women in M.S., 4 women in Ph.D., 3 Hispanic origin men in M.S., 10 minority undergrad, 4 high school students) in research
Taught (at UNM) a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate classes in geotechnical and pavement engineering topics (10 different courses) with an average teaching evaluation of above 90% out of maximum possible evaluation (max. 100%)
Experienced as a university professor (23 yrs., since 2003) and a licensed professional engineer, which is preferred for teaching senior (year) design courses in civil engineering discipline

General Secretary (2023- ) International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics
Chair, annual Paving and Transportation Conference, Albuquerque, 2012-
Rocky Mountain District Councilor, Chi Epsilon, 2014-
Chair, Curriculum Fee Committee, Civil Engineering, 2011-; Chair, Dept. P&T Committee
Faculty Advisor, BSAUNM Student Organization, 2009-
Associate Editor, ASCE's International Journal of Geomechanics, 2019-
Editorial Board member of multiple journals