People | SIGMa Stout Infrastructure, Geotechnics and Materials Lab

TEAM

Principal Investigator

Hessam Yazdani, PhD, PE

Dr. Hessam Yazdani is a tenured associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and the director of the SIGMa Lab at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Dr. Yazdani specializes in experimental and computational multiscale mechanics, geotechnical engineering, reliability analysis, machine learning, and optimization. Dr. Yazdani has taught/teaches several undergrad and graduate courses such as Advanced Foundation Engineering, Seepage in Soils, Advanced Geotechnical Engineering, Solid Mechanics, Soil Mechanics, Foundations, Undergraduate Research, Introduction to Engineering, Civil Engineering Software and Design, and Engineering Economics. He received his BSc and MSc in civil engineering from the University of Kerman and his PhD from the University of Oklahoma in December 2015. (Google Scholar Profile).

Postdocs and Visiting Scholars

Caro Tabar, PhD

Caro joined SIGMa in October 2024 as a postdoctoral scholar. He specializes in atomistic simulations and artificial intelligence. Dr. Tabar's research in SIGMa focuses on AI-assisted simulation of nanocomposites and materials discovery. (Google Scholar)

Yasaman Sanayei, PhD

Yasaman joined SIGMa in August 2024 as a visiting scholar. Her research focuses on modeling and simulation of bio-based nanocomposites. Dr. Sanayei earned her PhD in Environmental Technology from Universiti Sains Malaysia. (Google Scholar)

Kaveh Roushan, PhD Candidate

Kaveh joined SIGMa in November 2024 as a visiting scholar. His research focuses on the thermomechanical behavior of energy micropiles in sandy soils and their applications in shallow geothermal systems. He is a PhD candidate at Babol Noshirvani University of Technology under Prof. Janalizadeh Choobbasti. (GS)

Doctoral Students/Alumni

Shahbaz Paramban

PhD Student (Google Scholar)

Shahbaz joined SIGMa in January 2024. He holds an MSc in Design Engineering from NIT Jalandhar and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from MDIT Kozhikode (both in India). His research focuses on the intersection of nanomechanics, multiscale materials modeling and simulation, and machine learning

Hamid Ghasemi

PhD Alumnus

Hamid joined SIGMa in 2017 and graduated with a PhD and many high-quality publications in 2022. He is currently an Advanced Modeling Engineer and Data Scientist in Micron Technology.

Undergraduate Participants

Cade Johnson

Cade joined SIGMa in 2025. He is currently pursuing a degree in Civil Engineering at Mizzou, where he also serves as a TA for Structural Analysis and Transportation Engineering courses. His interests include structural design, prestressed concrete, and the integration of sustainable advanced materials in civil infrastructure.

Kyla Nguyen

Meet Kyla, a sophomore majoring in civil engineering with a minor in engineering sustainability and mathematics who joined SIGMa in spring 2025. Her research is on the characterization and simulation of polymer nanocomposites.

Christian Ferguson

Meet Ferguson, a junior majoring in civil engineering with a minor in Construction Management. He joined SIGMa in spring 2025 to research processing-structure-property relations in nanocomposites.

Khalid Hamed

Meet Khalid, who joined SIGMa in fall 2024. His research is on the characterization and simulation of nanomaterials. With a heritage rooted in Sudanese and Somali immigrant backgrounds, he contributes a vibrant cultural perspective that enriches the diversity of SIGMa.

Ivan Linger

Meet Ivan, a senior majoring civil and environmental engineering. He is passionate about sustainability and structural design. His research at SIGMa involves unraveling the relationship between the processing, microstructure, and properties of polymer nanocomposites for engineering applications.
Ivan is from St. Louis, Missouri.

Cassie Lueck

Meet Cassie, a senior at Mizzou majoring in civil and environmental engineering. Her research at SIGMa in fall 2024 focused on the characterization and simulation of polymer nanocomposites.

Robbie Criddle (former)

Robbie was with SIGMa in summer 2024. He is from Missouri and is an undergraduate in the University of Missouri’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. His research at SIGMa focused on nanomechanics and the characterization of polymer nanocomposites.

Cameryn Burnette (former)

Cameryn was with SIGMa in 2022 participating in a project on developing coarse-grained models for polymers. She is from Houston, TX, and is currently doing her PhD in materials engineering at MIT.

Sigmund Adrian Skinner (former)

Raised in the beautiful twin-island nation of Trinidad & Tobago, Sigmund conducted computational research on the mechanical properties of nanomaterials during his time at SIGMa. He is currently pursuing an MSc in structural engineering at Johns Hopkins.

Camille Wallace (former)

A native of Kingston, Jamaica, Camille is passionate about structural design and community service. At SIGMa, she was involved in a project on the mechanical properties of carbon nanotube-filled polyethylene composites that was later published in the journal Polymer Composites. She is now a structural engineer with Boeing.

Alfred Walfall (former)

A native of Maryland, Alfred was involved in SIGMa in 2021 focusing on the simulation of 2D nanomaterials.

Emilda Gwerengwe picture_edited_edited.jpg

Emilda Gwerengwe (former)

A native of Zimbabwe, Emilda's research at SIGMa focused on designing materials using artificial intelligence. She is now an airfield design engineer at Jacobs.

Christopher Tilford (former)

Christopher is from Houston, Texas, His research at SIGMa focused on developing predictive models for the properties of 2D nanomaterials, an experience that helped him secure a research internship at Harvard.

Sustainable Infrastructure, Geotechnics and Materials Lab

small indentations, global impact