Dr Arash Azizi

  • Lecturer in in Geotechnics for Sustainability and Resilience of Infrastructure (Infrastructure & Environment)

Biography

I am a Lecturer in Geotechnics for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure at the James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow. Prior to this, I was a Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth and a Research Fellow at Durham University. Before Joining Durham University, I served as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Polytechnic University of Turin, collaborating with Eni S.p.A, an Italian energy company. I hold a PhD in Structural, Seismic, and Geotechnical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan, preceded by an MSc in Geotechnical Engineering and a BEng in Civil Engineering from Iran. During my early career in Iran, I worked as a Geotechnical Engineer for a consulting engineering company.

Academic Qualifications

  • 2012 - 2016: PhD in Civil Engineering, Polytechnic University of Milan (Politecnico di Milano), Italy
  • 2006 - 2009: MSc in Geotechnical Engineering, Tehran Polytechnic (Amirkabir), Iran
  • 2001 - 2006: BEng in Civil Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Iran

Employment

  • 2024 - now: Lecturer, James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow
  • 2022 - 2024: Lecturer, University of Portsmouth, UK
  • 2018 - 2021: Research Fellow, University of Durham, UK
  • 2016 - 2017: Post-doc Researcher, Polytechnic University of Turin (Politecnico di Torino), Italy
  • 2008 - 2011: Geotechnical Engineer, Ettehad-Rah Consulting Engineers, Iran

Research interests

My research focuses on the laboratory testing and modelling of the hydro-mechanical behaviour of soils under complex loading conditions, such as environmental loading. The goal is to better understand field loading scenarios including the impacts of climate change on the resilience of geotechnical infrastructure and to develop sustainable solutions to mitigate these risks. My main research areas include:

  • Advanced laboratory testing of saturated and unsaturated soils
  • Cyclic behaviour of soils
  • Microstructure based modelling of soil hydro-mechanical behaviour
  • Field monitoring of soil-climate interactions

Publications

Prior publications

ORCiD

Ashutosh Kumar, Arash Azizi, David G. Toll, (2025) The Use of High-Capacity Tensiometer for Cyclic Triaxial Testing of Railway Formation Material (doi: 10.1007/978-981-97-8213-0_33); source: Crossref

Ashutosh Kumar, Arash Azizi, David G. Toll, (2024) Deterioration of a compacted soil due to suction loss and desiccation cracking Canadian Geotechnical Journal (doi: 10.1139/cgj-2023-0453); source: Crossref

Ashutosh Kumar, Arash Azizi, David Toll, (2024) Insight Into Soil Cyclic Triaxial Testing Using a High Capacity Tensiometer ISSMGE (doi: 10.53243/Geo-Resilience-2023-3-5); source: Arash Azizi

Arash Azizi, Ashutosh Kumar, David Geoffrey Toll, (2023) The bounding effect of the water retention curve on the cyclic response of an unsaturated soil Acta Geotechnica (doi: 10.1007/s11440-022-01724-0)(issn: 1861-1125)(issn: 1861-1133); source: Arash Azizi

Kumar, A., Azizi, A., Toll, D.G., (2022) Application of Suction Monitoring for Cyclic Triaxial Testing of Compacted Soils Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0002766)(eid: 2-s2.0-85125058946)(issn: 19435606 10900241); source: Scopus - Elsevier

Kumar, A., Azizi, A., Toll, D., (2022) The Influence of Cyclic Loading Frequency on the Response of an Unsaturated Railway Formation Soil Geotechnical Special Publication (doi: 10.1061/9780784484050.029)(eid: 2-s2.0-85127000165)(issn: 08950563); source: Scopus - Elsevier

Azizi, A., Kumar, A., Toll, D.G., (2021) Coupling cyclic and water retention response of a clayey sand subjected to traffic and environmental cycles Geotechnique (doi: 10.1680/jgeot.21.00063)(eid: 2-s2.0-85119527806)(issn: 17517656 00168505); source: Scopus - Elsevier

Musso, G., Azizi, A., Jommi, C., (2020) A microstructure-based elastoplastic model to describe the behaviour of a compacted clayey silt in isotropic and triaxial compression Canadian Geotechnical Journal (doi: 10.1139/cgj-2019-0176)(eid: 2-s2.0-85087587070)(issn: 12086010 00083674); source: Scopus - Elsevier

Azizi, A., Musso, G., Jommi, C., (2020) Effects of repeated hydraulic loads on microstructure and hydraulic behaviour of a compacted clayey silt Canadian Geotechnical Journal (doi: 10.1139/cgj-2018-0505)(eid: 2-s2.0-85077495567)(issn: 12086010 00083674); source: Scopus - Elsevier

Azizi, A., Kumar, A., Lingwanda, M.I., Toll, D.G., (2020) The influence of rates of drying and wetting on measurements of soil water retention curves E3S Web of Conferences (doi: 10.1051/e3sconf/202019503005)(eid: 2-s2.0-85097180778)(issn: 22671242 25550403); source: Scopus - Elsevier

Azizi, A., Lingwanda, M.I., Nyaoro, D.L., Hughes, P.N., Toll, D.G., (2019) Preparation of high capacity tensiometers for field application 17th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, ECSMGE 2019 - Proceedings (doi: 10.32075/17ECSMGE-2019-0728)(eid: 2-s2.0-85111936342); source: Scopus - Elsevier

Azizi, A., Jommi, C., Musso, G., (2017) A water retention model accounting for the hysteresis induced by hydraulic and mechanical wetting-drying cycles Computers and Geotechnics (doi: 10.1016/j.compgeo.2017.02.003)(eid: 2-s2.0-85013653786)(issn: 18737633 0266352X); source: Scopus - Elsevier

Azizi, A., Bella, G., Farshchi, I., (2015) Evaluating the capability of a critical state constitutive model to predict the collapse potential of loose sand IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (doi: 10.1088/1755-1315/26/1/012018)(eid: 2-s2.0-84946615897)(issn: 17551315 17551307); source: Scopus - Elsevier

Azizi, A., Imam, R., Soroush, A., Zandian, R., (2009) Behavior of sands in constant deviatoric stress loading Prediction and Simulation Methods for Geohazard Mitigation - Proceedings of the International Symposium on Prediction and Simulation Methods for Geohazard Mitigation, IS-KYOTO 2009 (eid: 2-s2.0-84859858748); source: Scopus - Elsevier

Grants

  • £116k (2022-2026): Waste Services Management - Research Support Office (RSO) - PhD Studentship: “Stress-induced creep and stability in Mercia Mudstone”; External Co-I (Formerly PI)   
  • £10k (2023-2024): Research and Innovation Fund (University of Portsmouth) - Research Grant for "Machine Learning for Geotechnics", Co-I 
  • £50k (2020-2021): EPSRC Impact Acceleration (University of Durham) - Research Grants for “Suction based design for slope stability”, Collaborator    

Supervision

I am always eager to work with highly motivated graduate students interested in pursuing research in geotechnics. A list of available PhD projects (including my proposed projects) at our school can be found here under the Geotechnics section: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/engineering/research/i_e/phd/

You are welcome to propose your own research ideas too.

Scholarships are available at the James Watt School of Engineering, though they are awarded on a competitive basis. Please feel free to reach out if you are interested.

Additionally, there are other scholarship opportunities you can explore, such as Commonwealth Scholarship, The Carnegie PhD Scholarships or British Council Scholarships. 

I am also available to assist and support postdoctoral research fellowship applications for fellowships such as

  • Newton International Fellowships
  • Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships
  • EPSRC Fellowships
  • Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowships
  • The Leverhulme Trust Fellowships

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you are interested in applying for these opportunities.

Teaching

ENG2080: Geology and Surveying for Civil Engineers


Arash Azizi