An Interview with
Reza Khanbilvardi, Ph.D., P.E.
Professor of Civil Engineering – City College of New York
September 2008

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I met Dr. Khanvbilvardi in 1989 for the first time. I worked as a project manager in NYC Department of Sanitation Landfill Engineering Unit, and he was the consultant from CCNY, doing 3D computer modeling for the rainwater movement at Fresh Kills Landfill. Since then, we kept in touch. Over these years, I have reached out to Reza many times and have asked for favors, including hosting our events in CCNY. Reza’s support for our organization has been very valuable and he has always been very accommodating. I asked him to be interviewed as a “Distinguished Member”, and as always, he accepted. I am still waiting for him to reach out to me asking for a favor!! Reza is a Professor of Civil Engineering at City College, but this is just one of his numerous responsibilities, (we get to that…). He is very active and involved, both with clients, which are mainly government agencies and also with students and faculty members. He gets the work from these agencies and mobilizes an efficient and energetic student and faculty body to do the work. Reza is efficient, serious about his job, very helpful, open and pleasant. He is one of the success stories of the Iranian Engineers in Metro Area. I am honored to know him and this interview was an opportunity to know him better. I think you would enjoy learning more about him and his activities. Q1: Reza, please introduce yourself to our members, your family, your education, current responsibilities, and professional achievements, etc... I am a graduate of Shiraz University with a BS degree in Civil Engineering. I joined Penn State University in 1978 and completed my Master degree and Ph.D. from Civil Engineering Department specializing in Water Resources Engineering. After working a year as Post Doctoral Scholar at USDA/Penn State Branch, I was offered a faculty position in the Civil Engineering Department at The City College of The City University of New York. I have been at CUNY ever since. During these years at CCNY, in addition to teaching civil engineering courses I have been involved in other activities and have other responsibilities. I am NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Chair Professor of Civil Engineering and Directors of two major research centers: Cooperative Remote Sensing and Technology Center (NOAA-CREST Center), and Center for Water Resources and Environmental and Environmental Research (CWRER). NOAA-CREST Center is federally funded, while Center for Water Resources and Environmental Research is a CUNY Center working mostly with state and local agencies. I direct overall An Interview with Reza Khanbilvardi, Ph.D., P.E. Professor of Civil Engineering – City College of New York September 2008 activities of these two centers which include research and development activities of 50 scientists on several issues related to water resources and environment issues at local/state/federal levels. For instance at NOAA-CREST Center we work on developing technology to use satellite remote sensing for understanding, forecasting, and providing warning to protect the ecosystem from natural environmental hazards such as severe storm rainfalls, snowfalls, flash floods, coastal water quality, and air quality in eastern US. At CUNY Center for Water Resources, we address issues related to New York State watershed protection, runoff controls, beach erosions, groundwater contamination, and water quality. When I joined CUNY in 1984, the research in Water Resources and Environmental field was too scanty and invisible. Currently, I manage more than 50 scientists and 68 graduate students who are conducting cutting-edge research in this very interdisciplinary field, which has made CUNY one of the leaders in environmental remote sensing at national level. In addition to academic activities, I am involved in engineering and consulting works in NY and CT where I am registered as a professional engineer. I am married for 24 years and have two sons and one daughter. Q2: What is your opinion about Iranian Architects and Engineering Community in Metro Area? What are their strength, weaknesses, and any other opinion you may have. During the last 24 years living and working in the New York Metro region, I have come across a large number of Iranian Architects and Engineers, working in consulting companies, City and or State agencies. They possess some of the best technical talents. I always believe that our major strength is in our technical expertise and weakness lies in lack of strong networking amongst us. I have noticed a better networking amongst the Iranian physicians. They are the better known Iranian communities in Metro Area and even in the Northeast. There are many social activities sponsored by the Iranian medical doctors like fund raising, social parties, technical gathering, etc, which help to bring them together as a community. I see a major gap in networking for the Iranian-American architectures and engineering communities. Q3: As you may know, we were recently registered as a non-for-profit, professional organization in the State if New York. Do you think the organization is filling a gap that needed to be filled? I believe that Iranian-American Society of Architects and Engineers is a step in the right direction. It takes time and sincere efforts for the success of organization like this where board members need to organize activities to “connect” members together. I mean on personal, social, as well as professional levels. I think this organization has a lot of potential for success by utilizing various opportunities to mobilize the work force and talents within these communities. We also need to develop a strategy in order to have political base and voice. Q4: What do you think we should do to be an asset to our members? A number of suggestions that comes to my mind are:
Have an active websites with latest news and information useful to members.
Distribute jobs and other opportunities announcement to members.
Develop community-based projects that can be achieved in short period of time (here or overseas) (such as creating a team of experts to support local communities in solving their engineering problems or infrastructures)
Participate in other Iranian Professionals group activities. Promote their activities. In return they will help us and our members by promoting our activities. Q5: Since you are very close to Iranian Student Community, what do you think we should do to be connected to them and create a synergy between the working members and those who entering the work force? There used to be just a handful of Iranian students at this university. In the last five years this is changed. Now, there’s a large number of Iranian Students in this Campus. Working and dealing with them has An Interview with Reza Khanbilvardi, Ph.D., P.E. Professor of Civil Engineering – City College of New York September 2008 raised my awareness of their needs and their strengths. Most of these students have strong engineering background and lots of energy and multi-tasking abilities. I think their major need is job hunting when the graduation time comes. They can be helped by providing them with potential job lists, providing summer or semester internship at agencies or private companies. The short-term experience will help them to emerge stronger for the professional careers. In the last few years, CCNY Iranian students have been active and can mobilize forces quickly. They have organized Iranian New Year parties and communicate with other students’ organization across the Metro area. Their networking is becoming strong amongst themselves, and I think we should capitalize on that. They also need sponsors so they can get wok permit. Q6: Add whatever you like to say your fellow Iranian architects and engineers, advice, compliment, anything you wish. I am very impressed by the number, reputation, quality, and technical strength of Iranian architects and engineers in the New York Metro Area. They are amongst the most successful professionals in this area. I would like to see this organization develops a good relationship with younger generation of Iranian students. Many of these students are among the top ranks in the country. This year alone some of them received admission with full scholarship to top universities like Harvard, MIT, etc. Sounds like a compliment!! Thank you Dr. Khanbilvardi. We are very proud of you and wish you more and more success. I will soon contact you to ask for another