Muhammad Sherif, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering was recently selected to receive the UAB President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Sherif is one of 12 UAB faculty members receiving the award, which honors those who have demonstrated excellence accomplishments in teaching.

Read more about all 12 award recipients here.

Sherif supports his students to succeed in their careers and lives through providing a positive learning environment in his classes, nominators said. “Dr. Sherif incorporates inclusiveness, personal support/encouragement, ethics, professional development and lifelong learning in his courses and across the curricula,” one wrote.

Sherif’s students “have highly praised his organizational skills, passion and high energy to deliver information and teach engineering concepts as evident from the IDEA surveys from more than 800 undergraduate and graduate students,” another nominator said. “In his classes, Dr. Sherif provides a judgment-free environment and an atmosphere of familiarity, trust and freedom of expression.”

Nominators also noted Sherif’s “successful mentoring of Ph.D./M.S. students toward graduation and publication of several articles” and “mentoring undergraduate students to conduct research and review papers.” This all occurred while he was “conducting extensive research (submitting and managing proposals/reports/papers and performing mechanical testing), service activities (i.e., serving on university, school and departmental committees, and outreach activities) and mentoring postdoctoral students,” they wrote.

Sherif’s Advanced Materials and Smart Infrastructure Systems (AMSIS) research group aims to develop and characterize the future generation of multifunctional materials and resilient structural systems. AMSIS includes two post-doctoral research associates, a Ph.D. student and four M.Sc. students. The AMSIS team focuses on several multidisciplinary thematic areas, including resilient, sustainable and smart materials; additive manufacturing; and structural health monitoring and decision-making systems.