Fawad A. Najam is currently a lecturer and research fellow at the School of Engineering, University of British Columbia (UBC), Okanagan, Canada. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the thematic area of Structural and Earthquake Engineering. Prior to joining UBC in 2023, he was an Assistant Professor of Structural Engineering at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST, Pakistan) since 2017. He holds a Doctor of Engineering degree in Structural Engineering from Asian Institute of Technology (AIT, Thailand) with a research focused on the evaluation of nonlinear seismic demands of high‐rise RC buildings using simplified analysis procedures.

Fawad’s work mainly focusses on the performance-based evaluation of built facilities under extreme loads e.g., severe earthquakes and winds. He studies seismic resilience of innovative structural systems, site-specific seismic hazard analysis, earthquake vulnerability assessment of existing infrastructure, nonlinear modeling of structures, dynamic behavior of complex systems, and other related aspects of earthquake risk. He holds an experience of over 10 years in the structural modeling, analysis and design of buildings, bridges and other structures. While working at various appointments including structural engineering consultant and research associate at various institutes in Pakistan, Thailand, and Canada, he has actively participated in various private and public sector research and consultancy projects resulting in improved academia-industry linkages. He has conducted professional trainings for over 1000 professionals in several countries in research areas related to structural analysis, design, dynamic analysis, and nonlinear analysis etc. He has also remained involved in the development of several software and computational tools for structural engineering applications.

Fawad has also been serving as the member of the primary taskforce and core group formulated by the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) for the updation of the Building Code of Pakistan (BCP 2007). He worked as the member of PEC’s following three working groups and sub-committees.

a) PEC Working Group 1: To conduct an updated probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) of Pakistan and develop the updated seismic hazard maps.
b) PEC Working Group 2: To develop guidelines for structural loads, design load combinations and structural design requirements for RC buildings in Pakistan.
c) PEC Working Group 6: To develop guidelines and recommendations for the retrofit of existing buildings in Pakistan.

Before this responsibility, he was also the member of the PEC committee and working group for developing the standards and specifications for low-prefabricated cost units in Pakistan (under the government’s Naya-Pakistan Housing Scheme).

He may be contacted at School of Engineering, University of British Columbia (UBC), 1137 Alumni Ave, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, V1V 1V7. Emails: fawad.najam@ubc.ca, fawad.najam@gmail.com.