Meet Our Highly Qualified Team of Professionals
Imad L. Al-Qadi, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE
President and Principal Engineer
Imad Al-Qadi, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE is the Founding President of TEST, Inc. He is also the Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), Director of the Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT), and leads the Illinois Autonomous and Connected Track (I-ACT). Prior to joining UIUC, he served as a Full Professor at Virginia Tech, where he was the Charles E. Via Jr. Professor.
At Virginia Tech, Dr. Al-Qadi established the roadway infrastructure group and designed various heavily instrumented pavement sections of the Smart Road. This state-of-the-art, full-scale test bed research facility has become one of the leading facilities in North America, providing diverse test environments for transportation research. At UIUC, Dr. Al-Qadi established and elevated ICT to an internationally renowned transportation center. He also developed a premiere and innovative program for advanced mobility as part of the state-of-the-art I-ACT.
Dr. Al-Qadi’s teaching, research, and consulting interests and expertise include highway and airfield pavement mechanics, advanced modeling, tire-pavement interaction, pavement fracture modeling and testing, interface and interlayer systems (including geosynthetics), pavement materials, sustainability, resiliency, and life-cycle assessment, asphalt mixes and performance, modified asphalt binder rheology, pavement recycling optimization, ground-penetrating radar optimization and signal analysis, infrastructure asset management systems and pavement condition assessment, preservation technologies, transportation infrastructure instrumentation and full-scale accelerated testing; autonomous and conceded vehicles and trucks, energy harvesting, truck platoons, and forensic engineering and arbitration.
A registered professional engineer, Dr. Al-Qadi holds numerous esteemed positions and memberships. He is an elected Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and Chapter Honor Member of Chi Epsilon, the Civil Engineering Honor Society. Additionally, he is an honorary member of the Societa Italiana Infrastrutture Viarie and an emeritus member of the TRB Committee on Pavement Maintenance. Dr. Al-Qadi has also served as an honorary professor at Southeast University in Nanjing, Chang ’An University in Xian, and Tongi University in Shanghai, China; Aston University in the UK; and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Furthermore, he served as an honorary chair professor at Harbin Institute of Technology, China; and the ARAMCO honorary chair at KFU in Saudi Arabia.
In addition to his esteemed positions, Dr. Al-Qadi serves as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Pavement Engineering, Associate Editor of the Research in Nondestructive Evaluation Journal, and editor and member of the editorial boards of various other journals.
Dr. Al-Qadi is the only pavement engineer to ever receive the National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award (1994) and the Quadrennial International Geosynthetic Society Award (2002). He has received numerous prestigious awards including the ASCE James Laurie Prize (2007), ARTBA S.S. Steinberg Award (2013), ASCE Robert Horonjeff Award (2021), ASCE Turner Award (2014), TRR of the National Academies D. Grant Mickle Award (2006), ASCE Carl Monismith Lecture (2022), Limoges Medal of Merit (2004), STS Research Award (1993), Virginia Tech College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (2001), ASCE Outstanding Instructor Award (2006), Illinois Center for Transportation Research Award (2012, 2015), Engineering Council Award for Excellence in Advising (2010), as well as several best paper awards.
Dr. Al-Qadi is the past President of the Board of Governors of the ASCE Transportation and Development Institute and Founder and current Chair of the Executive Board of the Academy of Pavement Science and Engineering (APSE). He also served as Group Leader of ISAP Technical Committee on Interlayer Systems, a member of the USDOT Truck Size and Weight Study National Committee, and as a member of the TRB Operation and Maintenance Group. He is the past chair of TRB Preservation and Maintenance Section, TRB Subcommittee on Interlayer Systems to Control Reflective Cracking (founder), TRB Committee Sealants and Fillers for Joints and Cracks, TRB Subcommittee on Geosynthetics in Flexible Pavement Systems (founder), ASCE Highway Pavement Committee, and ASCE Design, Construction, and Maintenance Executive Council. His service record also includes the role of chair/co-chair of more than 25 international conferences, such as the 5th, 6th, and 7th RILEM International Conference on Pavement Cracking; 2006 International NDE Conference on Civil Engineering; Advanced Characterization of Pavement and Soil Engineering Materials; 2006, 2010, 2013, 2017, and 2019 ASCE International Airfield and Highway Pavement Conferences; the First ASCE Transportation and Development Institute Congress, and the 2017 and 2021 Pavement Life Cycle Assessment Conference.
Dr. Al-Qadi is a member of several technical committees and a member of the State Transportation Innovation Leadership Team-Illinois. He is an emeritus member of the Transportation Research Board (TRB), a life member of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (AAPT). Additionally, he is affiliated with the North American Geosynthetic Society (NAGS), the International Society of Asphalt Pavements (ISAP), the International Geosynthetic Society (IGS), the American Society of Nondestructive Testing (ASNT), the International Association of Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG), the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Dr. Al-Qadi’s scholarly record features more than 800 authored/co-authored publications. His research has led to the development of new standard tests, testing specifications, and advanced pavement modeling and simulation techniques. He has made significant contributions to understanding pavement layer interface and crack devices; and radar electromagnetic wave interactions with civil engineering materials. Moreover, Dr. Al-Qadi has been actively involved in the development of connected truck platoon models. He presented the outcome of his research at numerous national and international conferences, often as an invited keynote speaker or distinguished lecturer.
As a principal investigator, Dr. Al-Qadi has led over 150 research projects, securing funding exceeding $150 million from various federal, state, and international agencies, as well as industry partners. Additionally, he has also managed more than 280 projects sponsored by ICT.
In addition to his research endeavors, Dr. Al-Qadi has provided consulting services to numerous federal, state, and major public agencies in the U.S. and abroad, including the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), BP Amoco, Michelin, Bekaert, Maccaferri, DMJM+HARRIS, Jacobs, and Koch.
Hasan Ozer, Ph.D., M.ASCE
Director of Infrastructure and Principal Engineer
Hasan Ozer is TEST’s Director of Infrastructure and Co-founder. He is also an Associate Professor at the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment of Arizona State University (ASU). Additionally, he serves as the Director of ASU’s National Center of Excellence on Smart Innovations and is the Founder and Director of ASU’s Southwest Pavement Technology Consortium. Before joining ASU in 2019, he served as a Research Faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and the Illinois Center for Transportation. He has led or co-led many projects sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Highway Administration, Illinois Department of Transportation, Illinois Tollway, and private industry.
Dr. Ozer is actively involved in professional organizations, contributing to the pavement community in various capacities. He serves as an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Pavement Engineering. Additionally, Dr. Ozer holds leadership positions as the Committee Chair for the ASCE Highway and Pavement Committee and as the Subcommittee Chair for the Sealant and Fillers for Joints and Cracks (AKT30) TRB Subcommittee. Dr. Ozer’s contributions to the field have been recognized through prestigious awards, including the 2023 Academy of Pavement Science and Engineering (APSE) Outstanding Academic Member Award and the 2022 Wilber S. Smith Award, established by the ASCE Highway Division (now the Transportation & Development Institute).
Dr. Ozer’s research and teaching interests encompass various aspects of infrastructure materials, pavement modeling, and transportation sustainability. His research focuses on several key areas, including computational fracture mechanics, numerical modeling of pavement response, and the development of sustainable pavement systems. He is particularly interested in exploring the use of recycled materials in pavements, as well as conducting rheological and mechanical characterization of highly polymerized asphalt binders. Additionally, Dr. Ozer is actively involved in research on wireless sensor networks for monitoring infrastructure health. In the realm of sustainability, Dr. Ozer is dedicated to developing guidelines to enhance sustainable practices within the transportation industry. He works on assessing the sustainability of highway infrastructure and investigating alternative materials for asphalt mixture production and aggregate production.
Yanfeng Ouyang, Ph.D., M.ASCE
Director of Operations and Principal Engineer
Yanfeng Ouyang brings in many years of technical experience in transportation systems analysis, operations management, large-scale optimization, and data analytics. Since receiving his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 2005, Dr. Ouyang has served as a principal investigator or co-principal investigator of over 50 research projects, with over $13 million of total funding, from various sponsors such as the U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Transportation, Illinois Department of Transportation, Illinois Toll Highway Authorities, and the private sector (e.g., ADM and CSX). His research outcomes have been successfully transferred to field practice, leading to various prestigious awards such as a 2014 High Impact Project Award from the Illinois DOT, a 2013 Chairman’s Award of Excellence from CSX Inc., and a 2015 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers.
He is an active member and officer of professional societies such as the Transportation Research Board (TRB), the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Science (INFORMS), and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He has authored/coauthored well over 100 technical publications and delivered more than 250 national/international presentations. He is also a Department/Area/Associate Editor of multiple top academic journals.
Issam Qamhia, Ph.D.
Senior Engineer
Issam Qamhia is a senior engineer at TEST with extensive experience in pavement and geotechnical engineering. He previously served as a Research Scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC). Dr. Qamhia’s areas of expertise encompass various aspects of pavement and geotechnical engineering, including the characterization of pavement materials with a focus on soils and aggregates, soil stabilization techniques, pavement design and evaluation methodologies, nondestructive pavement testing methods, accelerated pavement testing procedures, sustainable construction practices, and infrastructure engineering.
Dr. Qamhia is an active member of several professional organizations. He serves as a younger committee member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Highway Pavement Committee and as a Topics Board Editor for the Civil Engineering Journal by the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI). He is also a reviewer for the Transportation Geotechnics Journal. Dr. Qamhia maintains professional affiliations with the ASCE, the Transportation Research Board (TRB), the Transportation and Development Institute (T&DI), the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA), and the UIUC Alumni Association.
Dr. Qamhia holds a Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, a master’s in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, and a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Birzeit University – Palestine.
Ester Tseng
Senior Engineer
Ester Tseng is a Pavement Engineer with over ten years of technical experience in pavement and geotechnical engineering. She has worked for engineering consulting, research, and government organizations in various countries, including the United States, Australia, France, Brazil, and Spain.
Ms. Tseng has provided geotechnical and pavement investigation, design and construction support for numerous road, port, and airfield projects. Additionally, she has led technical efforts for government-funded research projects focusing on pavement design methods, materials testing, and sustainability. Ms. Tseng has been actively involved in the preparation and review of pavement design guidelines and has conducted technical training courses for pavement designers.
Ms. Tseng has previously served as the Chairman of the Western Australia Pavements Group, a subcommittee of the Australian Geomechanics Society, and received the Western Australia Emerging Leader Award from the Australian Flexible Pavement Association in 2019.
Ms. Tseng holds master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of California and from the École des Ponts ParisTech, as well as a master’s degree in Transportation Engineering from the University of São Paulo.