Professor hammers his way to success

Dr. Simon AbouRizk

Dr. Simon AbouRizk never strayed from his childhood dream of working in the construction business.

As a young boy growing up in the mountains of Lebanon, he helped his father and grandfather toil away on form work and concrete structures. With the intention of becoming an engineer and taking over the family business, AbouRizk turned to school. He became a part-time sessional instructor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and never looked back.

"I enjoyed teaching more than the construction business," said AbouRizk, a recent Killam Professorship winner. "I settled into a different role than my childhood dream but I wasn't too far off. Now I get the best of both worlds."

Today the University of Alberta professor develops computer-simulated models for the construction industry. The computer systems evaluate everything from project costs, structure deficiencies and any other strategies construction companies might use when erecting sites.

Although he works in a more non-traditional field than other civil engineers, AbouRizk appreciates the challenge. While other industries can apply straightforward theories of science, there are no simple rules in construction, he said.

"It's a blend of business, structures, technology, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering," said AbouRizk, whose focus is on heavy construction. "You name it, everything is involved in this industry."

The construction industry is also not as progressive as some other fields in terms of systems used to deliver the product, he said. When a customer goes to a grocery store, for example, everything is scanned and recorded on a computer. But when someone goes to a construction site a time sheet would be recorded with a simple paper and pen.

"It's the same process that was used in 18th-century England or 17th-century Egypt," he said. "It's all very manual."

AbouRizk is trying to change all that. He has accomplished in 10 years what most people accomplish in a lifetime. In his spare time he works as a consultant for several companies and spent years as a surveyor and construction engineer in Beirut. He is currently the principal investigator for several research grants.

His name is known in engineering circles across the country and his list of contacts is endless, said one graduate student. "He has such a personal relationship with all of his students," said Danny Hajjar, who has been under AbouRizk's wing for several years. "I talk to other grad students and they say they see their supervisor once every two weeks and that shocks me. Dr. AbouRizk is always hands-on and pushes me. He's involved in my work from start to finish."

He's also convincing. When Hajjar first met AbouRizk as an undergraduate research assistant, the professor pulled Hajjar into the graduate program. Due to graduate in June, Hajjar has agreed to come back to teach at the university for an additional semester because of AbouRizk. "It's hard to pull away from him," he said.

AbouRizk gives much of the credit to his junior high-school sweetheart and wife, Marlene.

"I run at 110 miles an hour so somebody has to be composed to maintain our children's sanity," said the father of three. "To get to the level of achievements I've made somebody has to stay home with the kids and that was something we agreed on at the start. I'm blessed with an incredibly loving and understanding wife who is the main reason for my success."

When AbouRizk does find a minute to breathe, he can be found on the soccer field coaching one of his girls. And after hearing from their father how much he loves his job, all three daughters want to follow in his construction footsteps and carry on a family tradition.