Through extensive research and collaboration, combined with leadership strategies, Professor Arvin Farid from the Department of Civil Engineering has emerged as a key figure in advancing sustainable engineering solutions worldwide.
This summer, serving as the United States lead, Farid played a pivotal role in Boise State University hosting a U.S. and United Kingdom research workshop focused on studying the environmental and societal impacts of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances, better known as PFAS, or forever chemicals.
“Professor Farid’s leadership and expertise in geoenvironmental engineering have elevated Boise State University’s visibility globally,” Department of Civil Engineering Chair and Professor Bhaskar Chittoori said. “His ability to foster collaboration across international borders exemplifies the innovative and impactful research coming out of our department. We are proud of his contributions to geoenvironmental engineering solutions.”
Farid serves as the chair of the Geoenvironmental Engineering Technical Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers and its Geo-institute. His long track record of computational and experimental research on the detection and modeling of the fate and transport of contaminants, including PFAS, led him to collaborate with experts in the U.K. to strengthen knowledge and expertise for future global challenges.
“Grand challenges of today’s world are larger in magnitude and numbers, running across wider scales,” Farid said. “Collaboration makes the whole larger than the sum of its parts, but that only comes by reaching across borders of departments, colleges, institutions and even nations.”
With growing research capabilities at Boise State, the workshop provided an avenue for team building and fostering long-term collaboration to develop national and international research networks previously unavailable.
Over the past year, Farid attended four prestigious international conferences across Europe and Asia, elevating Boise State’s profile on geoenvironmental and sustainable engineering.
“Solving these problems requires a convergent systems approach that is transdisciplinary and holistic,” he said. “Such an approach requires collaborations across various engineering and science disciplines and is beyond what one scientist or field of science could reach.”
In 2023, Farid traveled to India and Japan for two international conferences and a Global Brainstorming session on sustainable engineering, geoenvironmental impacts of climate change, and environmental geotechnology as a U.S.-lead and keynote speaker and guest of honor. The conferences highlighted urgent challenges posed by climate change and emerging contaminants as well as the necessary solutions to address them through engineering.
Farid’s international presence continued with his participation in the 4th U.S.-Japan Geoenvironmental Engineering Workshop in Kumamoto, Japan. In 2024, Farid returned to the Environmental, Geotechnics, Recycled Waste, and Sustainable Engineering conference in Warsaw, Poland, to follow up his keynote with a guest lecture as a member of the conference’s scientific committee, where he serves as one of the two U.S. committee members.
Early in 2025, Farid will travel to Louisville, Kentucky, where he chairs the American Society of Civil Engineers GeoenvironMeet Conference. The conference is for geoenvironmental professionals, academics and practitioners to address the challenges of the resilience and sustainability of the geoenvironment in the face of a changing climate.