The Center for Flame Retardant Materials Science is a collaboration between the University of Dayton Research Institute Power and Energy Division and the University of Dayton Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics; and the Department of Chemistry.

Director: Robert Liang

Prof. Alakkad's research interests focus on mechanics, structures and surveying.

Dr. Ömer Bilgin's research interests focus on geotechnical and foundation engineering, soil-structure interaction, numerical modeling and analysis, retaining structures and geosynthetics. Dr. Bilgin has authored numerous publications, including studies on the stability of shell structures, soil settlement predictions, and the behavior of anchored sheet pile walls.

Dr. Chase has a deep love and appreciation for sustainability efforts with a particular emphasis on water resources. His specialty area is simulating the behavior of large-scale water resource systems in an effort to mitigate the negative effects that humans have on the built environment. He is also interested in the effects of climate change on urban water resource infrastructure systems. Much of Dr. Chase's prior research has focused on minimizing power consumption with a resultant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Dr. Kenya Crosson's selected publications include research on electrospun nanofibers, the sorptive removal of contaminants from water and various studies on carbon nanotubes and their interactions with environmental factors. Her research interests encompass drinking water treatment processes, emerging water contaminants and the interdependence of energy and water.

Dr. Amirsalar Esfahani's research focuses on innovative membrane technologies for water purification, including scalable fabrication methods and the use of eco-friendly nanomaterials. Notable publications include studies on reduced graphene oxide nanofiltration membranes and the removal of heavy metals from water using advanced materials.

Dr. Eustace's research focuses on traffic safety and operations, demand modeling and urban transportation planning, with notable publications analyzing crash severity and the effects of traffic signals on safety. He has received several honors, including awards for his contributions to traffic safety research.

Dr. Liang’s teaching and research areas are in geotechnical engineering and engineering mechanics. They can be broadly divided into four areas: (a) engineering mechanics, including constitutive modeling, fracture mechanics, vibration theory for nondestructive evaluation (NDE), computational algorithms and pavement mechanics, (b) geotechnical engineering, primarily in the area of deep foundations, slope stability, reliability based design, soil-structure interaction and in-situ testing, (c) natural and geological hazard management and mitigation, and (d) artificial intelligence to enhance intelligent infrastructure design, construction and management. The underlying theme of Dr. Liang’s research lies in developing innovative analysis, design and management methods for constructing new or rehabilitating existing civil engineering infrastructures, ensuring long-term durability and resiliency of the constructed facilities, as well as developing data analytics models for managing geological hazards (landslides, rockfall, shoreline erosion and underground voids) and mitigating the associated risks.

Dr. Saliba's research interests focus on mechanics and structures.

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Dr. Elias Toubia's research interests focus on innovative structural design systems, structural materials and experimental testing and the behavior of reinforced concrete and masonry structures, including fiber-reinforced concrete.

Dr. Hui Wang's research focuses on Bayesian machine learning, uncertainty quantification, geotechnical engineering, infrastructure sustainability and engineering risk assessment. He has authored 22 peer-reviewed articles and developed two open-source computational packages, pyCPT and BaySeg, which have gained global visibility in computational geosciences. His research interests encompass pattern recognition in geotechnical engineering, subsurface modeling and underground pipeline integrity assessment.

Dr. Thomas Whitney's research interests include structurally integrated thermal protection systems, mechanics and joining of hybrid materials, mechanics of materials and structures produced through additive manufacturing and the analysis, design and testing of composite materials.