BIOGRAPHY
Kamarudin Ahmad obtained his Bachelor of Science (Civil Engineering) from West Virginia University, USA in 1985 after which he worked as a Civil Engineer at Jeffa Construction Sdn Bhd and then at Intertex Sdn Bhd. At the time he joined Jeffa Construction, this company was involved in a joint venture transmission line project with Samsung Electric of South Korea. The owner of the project was Lembaga Letrik Negara (LLN), presently known as Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). Among the tasks that he had to perform were surveying of tower locations, supervision of site investigations (Mackintosh probing and drilling of boreholes), stub setting, design of tower foundations, supervising construction of tower foundations (shallow foundations, driven piles and bored piles), supervising segregation of tower parts and tower erections. Working at Intertex he was given the tasks among others to perform project estimation and scheduling for a proposed housing project in Pahang.
He joined Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in 1987. Then he pursued his study towards the Master of Science in Engineering (MSE – Civil) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA from 1990 to 1991. He obtained his PhD (Civil Engineering) in 2004 from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia with a thesis entitled Soil Improvement by Electrokinetic Process.
Kamarudin started his career at UTM as an Assistant Lecturer A where he was attached to the Department of Geotechnics and Transportation, Faculty of Civil Engineering. Among the courses at diploma level that he had to teach (1987 – 1990) were Statics, Soil Mechanics, Geotechnics and Civil Engineering Laboratory (Soil). After obtaining his MSE degree, he has been given the tasks to teach first degree or undergraduate students. The courses are Soil Mechanics, Geotechnics 1, Geotechnics 2 and Integrated Design Project.
Due to the increasing numbers of postgraduate students since early 2000, he has been given the responsibilities to deliver lectures to postgraduate students majoring in Geotechnical Engineering and Structural Engineering. Two courses in geotechnical engineering that he is involved in are Environmental Geotechnics and Advanced Geotechnical Analysis and Design. Lectures on Advanced Materials in Construction are given to students majoring in Structural Engineering. Besides delivering lectures, he involves in the supervisions of both postgraduate and undergraduate students’ projects. His research interests are in the areas of ground improvement, foundation and environmental geotechnics. Based on the students’ projects under his supervision, several articles have been published in indexed and non-indexed international journals, conference proceedings and book chapters.
In terms of management, he had assumed posts such as the Head of Laboratory (Geotechnical Model), Head of Laboratory (Geotechnical Model and Instrumentation), Technical Manager of Civil Engineering Testing Unit (CETU) – Geotechnics, Laboratory Manager of Faculty of Civil Engineering and Head of Department of Geotechnics and Transportation. He was also a member of several committees (i.e., evaluation technical committee of University Laboratory Management Unit, Panel of OSHE award for workshops and laboratories, Association of Academic Staff, Hazardous Waste Management, Quality Award of Faculty of Civil Engineering, Head of Panel of Geotechnics, Coordinator of Laboratory Manual – geotechnics, committee of Engineering Accreditation Council of Faculty of Civil Engineering, coordinator of Faculty of Civil Engineering Handbook and Laboratory Manual, GEOTROPIKA series from 1990, task force on Research and Publication, undergraduate academic affair).
While assuming the post of the Head of Department, he was appointed as the Chairman of the 11 th International Conference on Geotechnical Engineering in Tropical Regions (GEOTROPIKA). Taking into consideration that transportation engineering is a part of the department, the first International Conference on Highway and Transportation Engineering (ICHITRA) was initiated. With the strong support and cooperation from the dedicated staff of the department and other committee members, a joined conference namely the 11 th GEOTROPIKA and the 1 st ICHITRA was successfully held on 27-28 February 2019 in Kuala Lumpur. This memorable event was officiated by the Deputy Minister of Works of Malaysia YB Datuk Wira Haji Mohd Anuar Mohd Tahir. In addition to 4 keynote speeches, a total of 90 technical papers were presented. Several local and international companies also participated as sponsors of the conference. In return, exhibition booths were provided for the sponsors to promote their products. A total of RM146,000.00 was generated from the conference fees and sponsorships.
In addition to lecturing and supervising, he had participated in several consultancy projects. The projects that he involved in were related to geotechnical engineering aspects such as independent geotechnical checker, site investigation and soil testing, forensic engineering, slope stability as well as evaluating engineering properties of soil and environmental impact assessment for proposed projects.
