Newark College Grad Is Changing The Face Of Civil Engineering, Snags Prestigious Award

NEWARK, NJ — The redeveloped World Trade Center. Newark Liberty International Airport. The John F. Kennedy International Airport runway.

These are some of the work experiences that have garnered West Orange resident Muhammad Elgammal a high-profile kudos from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

The ASCE recently named Elgammal – a 27-year-old associate civil engineer at the Port Authority of NY/NJ – as one of its 10 “New Faces of Civil Engineering” for 2017. The award is given to civil engineers under 30 years of age who have excelled in their professional and personal lives.

Elgammal earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Newark-based New Jersey Institute of Technology. Now he’s back at NJIT… but this time as an adjunct professor in the Civil Environmental Engineering Department, according to the Port Authority.

Elgammal – who has worked on the World Trade Center Redevelopment project, the Newark Liberty International Airport runway construction and John F. Kennedy International runway design - is currently working on Newark Liberty International Airport Terminal A Redevelopment project, where he is a part of the team that will design the apron area around the terminal, officials stated.

In all, Elgammal has designed and directed more than 20 projects since joining the agency in 2012, NJIT administrators stated.

Born into a family of five engineers, the trade is in his blood, officials say.

“Hoping for the best and planning for the worst, as engineers we overdesign for safety and unexpected situations,” Elgammal said.

Elgammal said that he’s particularly excited to be working at the area’s airports, which are increasingly “a huge public priority” and are in dire need of repairs and redesign.

“As more and more people rely on air travel, we need to make sure we can sustain the growing volume and even improve service,” Elgammal said. “The airfield is a critical place, where we have to operate, construct and repair faster than anywhere else. Decisions can affect thousands of people by the minute. And anything that happens on an airfield can snowball – from a foreign object that damages a plane to an inspection that takes longer than it should.”

“How we approach these problems is something we all need to think about,” Elgammal added. “The health of our infrastructure and our economy depend on it.”

Photo: Port Authority of NY/NJ

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