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CEE's Belarbi earns American Concrete Institute service award
By
Stephen Greenwell
Abdeldjelil "DJ" Belarbi, Ph.D., Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, is one of the recipients this year of the Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award. He is the first University of Houston professor to receive the honor.
Abdeldjelil "DJ" Belarbi, Ph.D., Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, is one of the recipients this year of the Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award. He is the first University of Houston professor to receive the honor.

A Cullen College of Engineering professor has been recognized for his distinguished service with the American Concrete Institute (ACI).

Abdeldjelil "DJ" Belarbi, Ph.D., Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, is one of the recipients this year of the Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award. He is the first University of Houston professor to receive the honor.

The Distinguished Service Award was established in 1969 to recognize noteworthy work on ACI technical committees. The name of the award was changed to the Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award in 1972 in honor of the late Bloem. The award is given to a current or recent chair of an ACI technical committee, or under special circumstances, to deserving individuals other than committee chairs, in recognition of outstanding performance.

Belarbi has been an active member of ACI since 1989 and has served in several national and international technical and educational committees.  During the last three decades, he held several officer positions within ACI and chaired several technical committees.  As a member of ACI-440 committee (Fiber-Reinforced Polymers  Reinforcement), he co-authored several technical documents on the subject. Belarbi served as the Chair to the Joint ASCE-ACI-445 committee (Shear and Torsion) for seven years and under his leadership, he led the development of a technical document on torsion of structural concrete. 

As part of his ASCE-ACI 445 chairmanship and more recently, Belarbi led an international effort to assess and revise the current shear design procedures for reinforced concrete.  This exercise resulted in revised design equations that were implemented in the 2019 ACI Building Code (ACI318-19). Belarbi’s leadership and team effort were recognized by him receiving the 2019 nVent Lenton Award, and now, this 2022 Delmar L. Bloem Award.

This is the third time that Belarbi has been recognized by the ACI. In 2011, he received the Joe W. Kelly Award – renamed the Clyde E. Kesler Education Award in 2022 – which is given for outstanding contributions to education in the field of concrete. Belarbi earned the American Concrete Institute Chapter Activities Award in 2006. He has been a Fellow of the ACI since 2000.

In addition to his ACI activities, Belarbi has also led several research projects that resulted in new AASHTO bridge design specifications for the use of FRP reinforcement for external and internal prestress design of bridge members. During the last three decades, Belarbi’s research and design code implementation has covered both bridge and building design aspects.

Belarbi joined the Cullen College of Engineering in 2009 as the Department Chairman. From 1991 to 2009, he held several different Professor positions in the University of Missouri-Rolla's Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering. Belarbi earned his doctorate from the University of Houston in Civil and Structural Engineering in 1991, as well as his M.S. in Civil and Structural Engineering in 1986. He earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering at the University of Sciences and Technology of Oran, Algeria in 1983.

Belarbi was recognized during a gala Sunday, March 27 at the ACI Concrete Convention in Orlando, Florida. The convention runs through March 31. For more information, visit the ACI convention website.

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