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

Dip Banik

Photo of Dip Banik — Dip Banik is a Ph.D. student advised by Dr. Brand. He received his M.S. and B.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from University of Oklahoma in 2022 and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 2019, respectively.

Photo of Paul — Paul Atwood is a Ph.D. student advised by Dr. Brand. He received his M.S. degree in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech and his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from Utah State University.

Aidyn Tugelbayev

Aidyn Tugelbayev — Aidyn Tugelbayev is a Ph.D. student advised by Dr. Brand. He received his M.S. (2023) in Architectural Engineering from Pukyong National University and B.E. (2020) in Civil Engineering from Nazarbayev University.

Current M.S. Students

Photo of Erika — Erika Buela is an M.S. student advised by Dr. Brand. She earned her B.S. in Civil Engineering from Ateneo de Naga University in 2023 and became a licensed civil engineer in the Philippines the same year. Before moving to the U.S., Erika worked in the concrete floor and slab construction for a year and was certified by ACI as a concrete field-testing technician.

Photo of Liz — Liz Chen is a M.S. Student advised by Dr. Brand. She received her B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 2025.

Former Students

Former Ph.D. Students

Md. Hasibul Hasan Rahat, Ph.D. (CEE), 2025
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

Cade Meredith (MSE), 2025
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

Research group at ORNL — Brand Research Group at the VENUS beamline at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in November 2025.

3D printed wall — 3D printed wall section with the 3D4VA Team in September 2025

Brand Research Group poster presentations at the 15th Advances in Cement-Based Materials in June 2025

Graduation May 2024

Graduation December 2022 — Graduation May 2024

End of Year Social

End of Year Social — Brand Research Group End-of-Year Social in December 2022

Cement plant tour — Dr. Brand's CEE 5484 class visiting Roanoke Cement Plant in October 2025

End-of-Semester Social in May 2025

Graduation December 2022

Graduation December 2022

Concrete Wall Inspection, May 2022

Photo of Concrete Wall Inspection, May 2022 — Concrete Wall Inspection, May 2022