Contact Us
Hamid Abdolvand
Mechanical & Materials Engineering
Spencer Engineering Building
Room 3077
Western University
Tel: 519-661-2111 ext. 88016
hamid.abdolvand@uwo.ca
Research Team
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Hamid Abdolvand
Canada Research Chair and Associate Professor, Ph.D., P.Eng. Employment 2023- present:Canada Research Chair 2022- present: Associate Professor
2017- 2022: Assistant Professor
2013- 2016: Postdoc at the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. Supervisor: Prof. Angus Wilkinson
2012- 2013: Postdoc at the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. Supervisor: Prof. Philip Withers Education 2008- 2012: PhD, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada. Supervisor: Prof. Mark Daymond 2001- 2007: MSc and BSc, Iran University of Sceince and Technology. |
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| Research | Mechanics of materials across length and time scales- both modeling and experiment. Fatigue, fracture, and (irradiation) creep. Finite element, crystal plasticity, and dislocation dynamics. Synchrotron x-ray, neutron, and electron diffraction/tomography. | ||||||||
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Contact |
Email: hamid.abdolvand@uwo.ca |
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Zahra Zaiemyekeh Postdoctoral Research Associate Email: zaiemyek@ualberta.ca |
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| Co-supervisor | N/A | ||||||||
| Research | Dr. Zahra Zaiemyekeh joined MSDL in 2025 as a postdoctoral research associate. She earned her PhD from the University of Alberta, where her research focused on bridging the knowledge gap in understanding the microstructure-property-performance relationships of additively manufactured alumina ceramics through experimentation and multiscale finite element modeling. At MSDL, Zahra's work focuses on investigating the fracture mechanics of ceramics under both room and elevated temperatures, leveraging a combination of in-situ experiments and multiscale finite element analysis. | ||||||||
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Sandeep Kumar Sahni Postdoctoral Research Associate Email: ssahni@iitk.ac.in |
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| Co-supervisor | N/A | ||||||||
| Research | Dr. Sandeep Kumar Sahni is a computational materials scientist specializing in molecular dynamics simulations and the mechanical behavior of materials. He completed his PhD in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 2024, focusing on the sintering and deformation behavior of Fe-Ni alloys. Proficient in simulation tools like LAMMPS and Atomsk, he is passionate about exploring the physical and mechanical properties of materials through advanced computational methods. Sandeep’s research at MSDL focuses on micromechanics of deformation and fracture of multi-layered ceramics for Small Modular Nuclear Reactors. | ||||||||
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Saiedeh Marashi PhD Candidate Email: Smarash3@uwo.ca |
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| Co-supervisor | N/A | ||||||||
| Research | Saiedeh's reseach focuses on the micromechanics of fracture of polycrystals. She received her BSc and MSc degrees from Sharif University of Technology in civil engineering and structural engineering, respectively. Before joinig MSDL in 2021, her field of study was mechanics of materials, computational mechanics and more specificaly, micromechnics of defects in solids. | ||||||||
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Bolin Fu PhD Candidate Email: bfu32@uwo.ca |
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| Co-supervisor | Prof. Robert Klassen | ||||||||
| Research | Bolin's research focuses on the high temperature application of metal alloys used in Small Modular Nuclear Reactors. Bolin got his bachelor's degree from Hefei University of Technology and received his MESc from Western in 2020. | ||||||||
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Masoud Taherijam PhD Candidate Email: mtaherij@uwo.ca |
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| Co-supervisor | N/A | ||||||||
| Research | Masoud is currently working on advanced CPFE modeling of hydrogen diffusion in metals and alloys. He obtained his MSc in Structural Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, and his BSc in Civil Engineering from K. N. Toosi University of Technology. Before joining MSDL, he studied augmented continuum mechanics and wave propagation in solids. | ||||||||
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Amirhosein Mozafari PhD Candidate (Direct PhD program) Email: amozafa4@uwo.ca |
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| Co-supervisor | N/A | ||||||||
| Research | Amirhosein's current project focuses on additive manufacturing of nickel superalloys used in gas turbines and advanced finite element modeling. Before joining MSDL in September 2022, he studied and published papers in the area of energy absorption and crashworthiness behaviour of thin-walled structures. | ||||||||
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Brandon Kuo PhD Candidate (Direct PhD program) Email: bkuo2@uwo.ca |
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| Co-supervisor | N/A | ||||||||
| Research | Brandon's research focuses on investigating the effects of hydride precipitates in zirconium alloys using in-situ synchrotron X-ray and electron diffraction techniques coupled with finite element modeling. Brandon joined MSDL in 2022 while completing his BESc at Western and joined our direct PhD program in 2023. | ||||||||
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Ala Amin MESc studnet Email: aamin68@uwo.ca |
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| Co-supervisor | N/A | ||||||||
| Research | Ala joined MSDL from the University of Windsor and received her BSc from Al-Zahra University. Her research focuses on the temperature-dependent diffusion of atoms in anisotropic polycrystals. | ||||||||
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Nicole Martyniak MESc studnet Email: nmartyni@uwo.ca |
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| Co-supervisor | Prof. Yolanda Hedberg | ||||||||
| Research | Nicole’s research focuses on stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of candidate alloys for small modular nuclear reactors (SMR). Nicole has a BSc in chemistry from Western University where she did her thesis on corrosion protection of steel. She joined MSDL in September 2024. | ||||||||
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Khaled El-Sobahi MESc student Email: kelsobah@uwo.ca |
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| Co-supervisor | N/A | ||||||||
| Research | Khaled's current project focuses on in-situ nano-indentation of metal alloys. Khaled holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lebanese University and joined MSDL in September 2022. | ||||||||
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Cheng-Hao Liang MESc student Email: clian6@uwo.ca |
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| Co-supervisor | |||||||||
| Research |
Cheng-Hao’s research focuses on the micromechanics of zirconium hydrides. He received his BESc from the National Taiwan Ocean University, and joined MSDL in September 2023. |
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Alireza Sedighi MESc student Email: asedigh@uwo.ca |
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| Co-supervisor |
N/A |
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| Research |
Alireza's research focuses on the fracture mechanics and deformation of ceramics and polycrystals at room and high temperatures. Alireza got his BSc degree from Amirkabir university of Technology and joined MSDL in May 2024. |
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MEng Studnets: |
Tapas Bhavsar and Jonathan Fernando (2023) |
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| Undergraduate Students: | Angus Ricketts (2024-2025) | ||||||||
| Research Assistants: |
Sofia Di Stasi |
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| Previous members of the Group |
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| Student | Year | Degree/Role | Supervisors | Project | Destination |
| Darshan Chalapathi | 2023-2024 | Postdoc | Abdolvand | High temperature testing for SMRs | Alleima (Sweden) |
| Karim Louca | 2019-2024 | PhD | Abdolvand | 3D-XRD of notched Zr | Canadian Light Source |
| Alireza Tondro | 2019-2023 | (Direct)PhD | Abdolvand | CPFE of zirconium hydrides | Canadian Nuclear Labs |
| Omid Sedaghat | 2018-2022 | PhD | Abdolvabd | A nonlocal CPFE model | PDF, McMaster University |
| Ahmed Aburakhia | 2020-2022 | MESc | Abdolvand | Additve manufacturing of Hasetlloy-X | PhD, Western U. |
| Prashant Shelar | 2019-2021 | MESc | Abdolvand/Butler | Dental materials | N/A |
| Abdulla Alawadi | 2018-2020 | MESc | Abdolvand | Residual stresses in CANDU pressure tubes | Moalajah plant, UAE |
| Karim Louca | 2018-2019 | MESc | Abdolvand | 3D-XRD and stress analysis of HCPs | PhD, Western U. |
| Colin Versnick | 2017-2019 | MESc | Abdolvand/Sun | Deformation of all solid-state batteries | E-One Moli Energy (Canada) |
| Some of the previous MEng and undergraduate students (total of 17 students) | |||||
| David Ilgert | 2021-2022 | MEng | Abdolvand | Modeling zirconium hydrides | Wolfe Heavy Equipment |
| Yufie He | 2021-2022 | MEng | Abdolvand | EBSD analysis of HCP alloys | Manaflex, Taicang, China |
| Harshal Gala | 2018-2019 | MEng | Abdolvand | Design of a multiaxial deformation rig | Veoneer |
| Brooke Bidyk | 2021-2022 | BSc | Abdolvand | Modeling the interaction of hydrides | Kinectrics |
| Ivan Ho | 2020-2021 | BSc | Abdolvand | Modeling hydrogen diffusion | Ontarion Power Generation |
| Zekun Wang | 2020-2021 | BSc | Abdolvand | Zirconium hydrides | MESc Student at Western |
| Ahmad Al-Mutairi | 2019-2020 | BSc | Abdolvand | Formation of delta Zirconium hydrides | Imperial Oil |
| David Kim | 2018-2019 | BSc | Abdolvand | Hydrogen and zirconium | Bruce Nuclear Generating Station |
| Dylan Harris | 2017-2018 | BSc | Abdolvand | Hydrogen and zirconium | Royal Military College of Canada |
| Gamal Assad | 2017-2018 | BSc | Abdolvand | Hydrogen and zirconium | Orgashell |
