People
Brand Research Group

Alexander S. Brand, Ph.D., P.E., is an Associate Professor in the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and an affiliate faculty member in the Myers-Lawson School of Construction at Virginia Tech. Dr. Brand is also involved with the Carbon CoLab at Virginia Tech. Prior to joining VT in August 2018, Dr. Brand was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Materials and Structural Systems Division of the Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD. He received his B.S. (2010), M.S. (2012), and Ph.D. (2015) degrees in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Virginia.
Current Postdoctoral Researchers
T.A. Kamakshi, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Brand Research Group. She received her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad in 2024.
Current Ph.D. Students
Rahat photo

Dip Banik

Aidyn Tugelbayev

Current M.S. Students

Former Students
Former Ph.D. Students
- Sung-Won Cho, Ph.D. (CEE), 2025
- Sung Eun Cho, Ph.D. (CEE), 2025
- Rashed Alarrak, Ph.D. (CEE), 2024
- Thien Tran, Ph.D. (CEE), 2023
- Ebenezer Fanijo, Ph.D. (CEE), 2022
Former M.S. Students
- Md. Hasibul Hasan Rahat, M.Eng. (MSE), 2025
- Kristen Ellis, M.S. (CEE), 2025
- Megan Grose, M.S. (CEE), 2024
- Thien Tran, M.Eng. (MSE), 2023
- Rashed Alarrak, M.Eng. (MSE), 2023
- Tu-Nam Nguyen, M.S. (CEE), 2023
- Byeonguk Jeon, M.S. (CEE), 2023
- Mohammad Shadab Shaikh, M.S. (CEE), 2023
- Ketki Phadke, M.S. (CEE), 2023
- Michael Lowry, M.S. (CEE), 2022
- Douglas Annand, M.S. (CEE), 2022
- Paul Atwood, M.S. (CEE), 2022
- Elizabeth Bise, M.S. (CEE), 2022
- Ebenezer Fanijo, M.Eng. (MSE), 2022
- Shivani Agrawal, M.S. (CEE), 2022
- Laurie Metzler, M.S. (CEE), 2021
- Donald DeMartino, M.S. (CEE), 2021
- T. Trevor Painter, M.S. (CEE), 2020
- Morgan C. Jenkins, M.S. (CEE), 2019
Former Postdoctoral Research Associates
- Dr. Amir Behravan, 2020-2022
Former Undergraduate Research Assistants
- Bao Chau (CEE), 2025
- Janelle Davis (AOE), 2025
- Alexander Zhao (CEE), 2022
- Mitchell Davis (CEE), 2022
- Anketse Zewdu, MAOP Program, Summer 2022
- Sean Li (CEE), 2022
- Matt deJong (MSE), 2021
- Emily Schwab (MSE), 2019
- Nicole MacCrate (MSE), 2019
Former Visiting Scholars
- Ali Aghajanian, University of Cantabria, 2022
Research Group Photos

Graduation May 2024

End of Year Social


Graduation December 2022

Concrete Wall Inspection, May 2022
