Andrew Assadollahi (’09)

“Looking back on my time as a student at CBU, my favorite memories include the late-night studying with my friends in the Nolan Engineering building. At the time, we did not realize what amazing and warm memories we were making.”

Dr. Andrew Assadollahi came to CBU as a graduate of Christian Brothers High School and was a double major in Civil Engineering and Mathematics. As a student, he was very active in the Student Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and served as its Fundraising Chair and President, and in the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, serving as its Secretary. He was also a member of the Mathematical Association of America, and he performed work-study as a Geomatics Lab Assistant and a Mathematics and Engineering Tutor. During his entire college career, Andrew also had an off-campus internship with Professional Engineering Consultants in Bartlett.

When he graduated from CBU in 2009, Andrew was hired by Professional Engineering Consultants as a full-time Structural Design Engineer and enrolled in the master’s program at the University of Memphis. He also worked as a Research Assistant at the UofM, performing seismic structural facility assessments for over 300 Risk Category I and II facilities, and as a Teaching Assistant for the undergraduate Structural Analysis I course. Upon receiving his MS in Civil Engineering in 2010, he enrolled in the doctoral program and earned his PhD in 2013.

Andrew joined the CBU faculty in 2014 and is currently the Chair of the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department and an Associate Professor. Along with his classroom and departmental duties, he advises first- and second-year Civil Engineering students, serves as the ASCE Student Chapter Advisor, and oversees the annual Steel Bridge and Concrete Canoe projects. He has also been a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Memphis and Christian Brothers High School, and he has worked on various civil engineering consulting projects over the years.

During his career, Andrew has received numerous awards and acknowledgments. He was voted Featured Engineer by the Memphis-Area Joint Engineers Council in 2016 and 2022 and the Outstanding Engineering Educator in West TN by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2018. He was recognized with the ASCE Peter G. Hoadley Award for Outstanding Engineering Educator in the entire State of Tennessee in 2018 and the Young Engineer of the Year Award by the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers Memphis Chapter in 2019. At CBU, he was honored as the New Advisor of the Year during the 2017-2018 academic year and received the J. Everett Pidgeon Chair for the 2016-2017 academic year.

CBU’s academic programs really opened my eyes to furthering my education in graduate school and greatly influenced me to pursue my master’s degree and PhD in Civil Engineering. Now, I have the pleasure of serving my alma mater by leading the same department that laid the foundation for my engineering education.