People

PhD Students

Marc-Ansy Laguerre

Marc-Ansy is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil Engineering at Rice University. He is dedicated to mitigating earthquake hazards in Haiti. Marc-Ansy pursued his Master’s degree in Civil Engineering and a Graduate Certificate in Latin American Social and Public Policy at the University of Pittsburgh as a Fulbright scholar. Prior to his Fulbright grant, he worked as Assistant Teacher in Mechanics at the State University of Haiti.

Marc-Ansy’s research focuses on seismic retrofit of flat plate reinforced concrete buildings. He is also interested in Seismic Risk Assessment, Finite Element modeling, non-linear analysis, and ductile RC structures.

During his spare time, Marc-Ansy enjoys reading on effective teaching methodology and creating videos to explain civil engineering concepts.

Research: Analysis and evaluation of seismic retrofitting methods for flat plate RC buildings

ml96@rice.edu

laguerremarc.com

Former Post-doctoral Scholar

Mohammad Salehi

Mohammad joined the DesRoches group in March 2020.

He received his Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2020. Before joining TAMU in 2017, he was a Ph.D. student in Structural Engineering & Structural Mechanics at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He received an M.S. in Earthquake Engineering (2013) and a B.S. in Civil Engineering (2011) at Sharif University of Technology (SUT), Iran.

His research interests are toward the development of hazard mitigating structures for resilient communities. His technical expertise is in computational modeling, experimental testing, and design of seismically resilient reinforced concrete buildings and bridges. For more information, visit his website.

Research: Development of hazard mitigating structures for resilient communities through computational modeling and experiment

mohammad.salehi@tamu.edu

https://resilient-structures.com

Recently Graduated Post-doctoral Scholars

Yazhou (Tim) Xie, Ph.D.

Dr. Tim Xie recently joined the Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics at McGill University (Montreal) as an Assistant Professor.

Dr. Xie received his Ph.D. (2017) in Civil Engineering from UCLA, and his M.S. in Bridge Engineering (2011) and B.S. in Civil Engineering (2008), both from Tongji University, China. He recently completed a post-doc in the DesRoches group.

His primary research interests include seismic assessment and protection of highway bridges using high-fidelity modeling approaches, advanced statistical tools, and innovative devices. He is the recipient of UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship and the UCLA Martin Rubin Scholarship for academic excellence. He has served as the president and vice president of the EERI student chapter at UCLA.

Research: Next Generation Fragility Functions for California Bridges

yxie@rice.edu

Sourav Gur, Ph.D.

Dr. Sourav Gur joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Patna in 2019 as an Assistant Professor.

Prior to joining IIT Patna, he was a Civil (Structural) Engineer at Array Technologies Inc. (2018-2019), and a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Rice University (2017-2018). He received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics from the University of Arizona (2017), Master of Technology in Civil Engineering from IIT Kanpur (2011), and Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering from the Jadavpur University (2009).

Dr. Gur’s research interests are structural engineering and computational mechanics of materials. His technical expertise include passive vibration control under extreme loads, the application of smart materials, and Multiscale/Multiphysics (MSMP) modeling.

Research: Structural engineering and computational mechanics of materials

sgur@iirp.ac.in