Bio
Baabak Ashuri is associate professor in the School of Building Construction and the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech. His work focuses on economic decision analysis of resilient and sustainable infrastructure systems. This field is multidisciplinary and lies at the confluence of construction engineering and project management, infrastructure asset management, and quantitative and computational finance. His work has significant implications for improving long-range planning and integrated decision-making processes for buildings and civil infrastructure assets, advancing economic/financial valuation methods for investments in major capital projects while preserving environmental and social conditions to foster resilient and sustainable development.
Ashuri's most significant research and scholarly accomplishments are one book, one book chapter, 20 journal articles, seven research reports, 44 refereed conference proceedings, 23 invited research presentations, and ten poster presentations. He has been principal investigator of 14 external research projects, total worth of $1,981,606, sponsored by several public and private organizations, such as National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), Construction Industry Institute (CII), Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), and American Utility Management (AUM). He has been principal investigator of 12 internal research projects, total worth of $133,641, sponsored by several Georgia Tech units, such as Digital Building Lab (DBL), Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), Georgia Tech Foundation (GTF), and Georgia Intern Fellowships for Teachers (GIFT).
Ashuri is the recipient of several research awards for his scholarly accomplishments. He was recently selected to Engineering News-Record (ENR) Southeast’s “Top 20 Under 40” list for 2014. His research project “Recommended Guide for Next Generation of Transportation Design Build Procurement and Contracting in the State of Georgia” received 2013 High Value Research “Sweet Sixteen” Award from the Value of Research Task Force of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). “A Real Options Model to Evaluate Toll Highway Project under Two-Phase Development Plan” published in the Built Environment Project and Asset Management Journal was the 2012 Highly Commended Award Winner at the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence. “An Investment Analysis Framework for Energy Retrofit in Existing Buildings” received the Best Paper Award from the 47th Annual International Conference of the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC). In 2014, Ashuri was elected as the secretary of the ASCE Construction Research Congress (CRC) and was appointed as the vice chair of the ASCE T&DI Committee of Sustainability. Ashuri holds a Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering, an M.S. in operations research, and an M.S. in Building Construction and Facility Management, all from Georgia Tech, and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Sharif University of Technology.