UTHM Expert : Professor Ir Ts. Dr. Adnan Zainorabidin

H³i (HUMBLE, HONEST, HARDWORKING, & INTEGRITY)

Professor Ir Ts. Dr. Adnan Zainorabidin is a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia. Since obtaining his Certificate of Civil Engineering in 1994 from Polytechnic Port Dickson, he excelled in his academic studies and was awarded a Ministry of Education scholarship to continue his tertiary education under a collaboration program between the Malaysian government and the World Bank. In 1997, he graduated with a BSc. (Hons) Civil Engineering and obtained his Master’s Degree in Research (Geotechnics), majoring in “Geotechnical properties of peat soil in Johor” in 2003. He furthered his enthusiastic interest in peat soil research and successfully obtained his PhD from the University of East London, United Kingdom in 2011.

He joined UTHM in 2000 and has had over 23 years of experience in teaching and research. Currently, he is appointed as the Head of the Centre of Research Centre for Soft Soil Malaysia (RECESS). He is also one of the founders who set up and established this centre in 2004. Under his dedicated management, RECESS rapidly established and became well known as a pioneering research centre, both at the national and international levels focusing on soft soil technology. Prior to this, he was a Director of the Centre of Advancement and Alumni Relations (CARE), Deputy Dean (Research, Development, and Publication), and Head of Department at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia.

He has supervised and is still supervising more than 30 research students (PhD and master’s levels). He has over 150 publications in journals, conference proceedings, symposiums, and consultative committees where his enthusiastic research has been shared and disseminated in the public domain. As for conferences, he has been the keynote speaker for more than 10 times and delivered invited talks locally and internationally.

His expertise includes innovative ground improvement methods for peat ground, development of new testing methods of field testing on peat, and innovative methods of construction on peat area. Due to his knowledge and experience, he is always appointed as an advisor not only in research but also in consultancy work focusing on forensic studies on construction failure of peat areas. These contributions and expertise in the technology of peat ground were duly acknowledged when he was appointed as a committee member to develop the Guidelines for Construction on Peat Soil under the Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM) in 2015 and 2020. Due to his passion and enthusiasm, he was awarded as Top 10 Outstanding Researcher (2020-2021) and Top 10 UTHM Researchers (3^rd Rank International Grant, 2021).