Ghasan Doudak

Biography

Dr. Ghasan Doudak, Ph.D, P.Eng. is an Assistant Professor of structural engineering at the University of Ottawa. His area of expertise includes multi-scale understanding of how complete structural systems function, encompassing issues like how complete buildings respond to effects of wind storms, ground shaking during earthquakes, or other actions like impacts and blasts. He is a member of the CSA O86 Technical Committee on Engineering Design in Wood, CSA s850 Technical Committee on Blast Resistant Buildings, and the Truss Plate Institute (TPI, USA). Dr. Doudak is also an active member of the NSERC Strategic Network on Innovative Wood Products and Building Systems (NEWBuildS). His research contribution, through collaboration with Canadian as well as international researchers, is in establishing solutions to meet specific performance requirements for mid-rise wood and hybrid buildings. Dr. Doudak has established strong affiliations to complementary research groups at national and international levels. National collaborations include projects with researchers from the University of New Brunswick, Concordia, McGill and Manitoba. International collaborations include projects with the Technical University of Denmark, Penn State in the USA, and ETH-Zurich in Switzerland. Prior to joining the Engineering Faculty, Dr. Doudak held the position of Manager, Wood and Structural Standards at the Canadian Wood Council, where he was actively involved in work related to the development of building Codes and standards, developing tools for designers, and communicating to key audiences including government agencies, building designers and researchers. Dr. Doudak received his Master of Science degree from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Following his graduation, he worked as a structural engineer where he designed commercial and residential buildings. In 2001, Dr. Doudak was awarded a fellowship from the Danish Research Agency for a 3-year research program in Civil Engineering at McGill University. His PhD research was aimed at determining the load paths in wood light frame buildings under various stages of construction using a holistic design approach. Based on his valuable contribution to the field of wood engineering, Dr. Doudak was awarded the Forest Products Laboratory Young Engineer Award, 2008. This award is intended to encourage young (40 years of age or younger) engineers, researchers, or scientists with “promising potential for significant contribution to the field”.  

Research Interest

  Fields of Interest Propagation of load (Load paths) in wood structures Behaviour of Mid-Rise Light-Frame Wood Buildings Structural performance of wood buildings subject to wind loads Structural performance of wood buildings subject to earthquake loads Performance of wood structures under blast loading Full-scale and field testing of wood structural systems