Professor Vasilis Sarhosis

Profile

Professor Vasilis Sarhosis holds the Chair in Resilient Structures and Infrastructure at the School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds. He is also a visiting Professor at Southeast University, Nanjing, China and a CDRI (Coalition for Disaster Resilience Infrastructure) Fellow. He holds both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Leeds, and worked as a consultant Civil Engineer in the UK. Prof Sarhosis is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and Fellow of the Institute of Civil Engineering (FICE), Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering (FIMEchE) and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) in the UK. He is currently chairing the National Scientific Committee on the Analysis and Restoration of Structures of Architectural Heritage (ISCARSAH-UK), which is part of the ICOMOS. 

For more information, please visit my personal site here.

Responsibilities

• International Lead (IL) and Study Abroad Co-ordinator
• School Management Team
• Liaison for the Institution of Civil Engineering (ICE)

Research interests

My research focuses on understanding the long-term behaviour of masonry infrastructure subjected to natural and man-made hazards. My team has a strong translational focus, while my work encompasses both “blue skies” research and “near-to-market” development. I work together with industry and develop state-of-the art technologies and tools to reduce maintenance demands and improve the life-span of old and deteriorated masonry infrastructure and built heritage. More specifically, in my reserach group, the following areas are investigating:

• inspection, monitoring and condition appraisal of masonry infrastructure;
• structural assessment of masonry infrastructure; and
• maintenance, repair and rehabilitation of masonry infrastructure.

Grants

• CDRI Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, Real time scour detection and prediction for structural performance and safety (2022-2023). Value $15,000 PI.
• UKRI, HEIF, STEM-driven solutions to climate change (2022). Value £30,000 PI.
• MSCA-IF-2020 (EF-ST), Smart Restoration with Particle Infused Repointing (S-RePaIR for Anastasios Drougkas) (2021-2023). Value €212,933 PI.
• EPSRC (EP/T001305/1). Exploiting the resilience of masonry arch bridge infrastructure: A 3D multi-level modelling framework (2019 - 2022). Value £1,823,900, Leeds PI
• RFCS European Commission (RG CIVE118207), "Coal to liquids supply chain integration in view of operational, economic and environmental risk assessments under complex geoloical settings" (2019 - 2022). Value €3,218,300 Co-I (Leeds PI).
• British Academy, GCRF, Cities and Infrastructure Programme. Reducing Disaster to Life and Livelihoods by Evaluating the Seismic Safety of Kathmandu's Historic Urban Infrastructure (2017-2019) Value £300,000 Co-I
• EPSRC Global Challenge Research Fund: Disaster Risk Reduction of Heritage Structures in Nepal (2016-2017). Value £19,700 Co-I.
• EPSRC CASE Studentship AWARD (CASE/179/65/82) "Assessment of masonry arch bridges subjected to flooding" (2016 - 2019). Value £72,214 PI.

Scientific and Technical Committee Member

• Chair of the National Scientific Committee on Structural Analysis and Restoration of Structures of Architectural Heritage (ISCARSAH) in UK. 
• Expert Member of the International Scientific Committee on Structural Analysis and Restoration of Structures of Architectural Heritage (ISCARSAH).
• Executive Committee Member of ICOMOS: International Council on Monuments and Sites. 
• Committee Member of ICOMOS Digital Technology Heritage.
• Technical Committee Member of the RILEM group CSM - Composites for sustainable Strengthening of Masonry.
• Member of the task group (TG) of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE): TG5.5 “Conservation and Seismic strengthening/retrofitting of existing Unreinforced Masonry Structures”.

Participation in Funding Research Bodies

• Reviewer of EPSRC grants. 
• Full College Member of the EPSRC Peer Review College (since 10/2020).
• Reviewer for Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
• Reviewer for Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

External Examinations of PhDs

Heriot-Watt University (1), Newcastle Univeristy (1), University of Bologna (1), Politecnico di Milano (2), University of Turin (1), Bristol University (1), UCL (1), University of Genoa UNIGE (1), UPC-Polytechnic University of Catalonia (1), University of Naples Federico II (1), EPFL (1), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (1), Salford University (1), Liverpool University (1), University of Perugia, Italy (1), ETH-Zurich (1)

Special Issues and Workshops Organised

• Bagi K. Lemos J.V., Sarhosis V. (2019). Discrete element modelling of masonry structures, CMN2019 – Congress on Numerical Methods in Engineering, Portugal.
• Xiao W., Sarhosis V. (2017). Workshop on the Geospatial and Geotechnical Applications on Disaster Risk Reduction of Heritage Structures, Geomatics Engineering Society, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2016.
• Sarhosis V., Xiao W. (2017).Workshop on the Assessment of historic masonry structures in Nepal. Department of Archeology, Government of Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2016.
• Sarhosis V & Bagi K, Bicanic N. (2016). NMMS - Numerical Modelling of Masonry Structures, at the 8^th International Congress of Croatian Society of Mechanics, Opatija, Croatia.
• Sarhosis V. (2015). Advances in Masonry Materials and Structures: Experimental & Numerical Modelling Aspects .The Open Construction and Building Technology Journal (HT-BO-TOBCTJ-0006).

Awards

• Interantional Partnership Award, University of Leeds 2021.
• Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education for work of outstanding excellence, as a member of the Geo-environmental Research Centre, Cardiff University, December 2013. 
• First price award. Commercialisation of Research: Project sDNA, Research Innovation and Enterprise Award, Cardiff University, April 2014.

Editor

• Subject Editor, Engineering Failure Analysis, Elsevier 
• Associate Editor, International Journal of Masonry Research and Innovation, ISSN: 2056-9467 (online), Interscience Publishers.
• Special Issue Guest Editor, Bridge maintenance and management  (2024-2025). Engineering Structures
• Special Issue Guest Editor, Artificial intelligence and data analytics in earthquake engineering (2022-2023). Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering
• Special Issue Guest Editor, Strengtheing of masonry construction (2022-2023). Construction and Building Materials
• Special Issue Guest Editor, Advances in mechanics of masonry structures (2021). Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE. ISSN (online): 1943-7889

Editorial Board Member

• Editorial Board Member, Construction and Building Materials, Elsevier
• Editorial Board Member, Heritage, ISSN 2571-9408, MDPI
• Editorial Board Member, Open Construction and Building Technology Journal (OCBTJ), ISSN: 1874-8368 (Online), Bentham Publishers
• Editorial Board Member, Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure, Taylor and Francis Group.  ISSN 2378-9689 (Print), 2378-9697 (Online) http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tsri20
• Editorial Board Member, Frontiers in Earthquake Engineering, Frontiers. Earthquake Engineering.
• Editorial Board Member of Computational Methods in Structural Engineering, Frontiers in Built Environment. 

Qualifications

• Ph.D Computational modelling of low bond strength masonry, University of Leeds (2012)
• MSc Sustainable Waste Management, University of Leeds (2006)
• MSc Infrastructure Asset Maintenance and Management, University of Leeds (2004)
• BEng Civil Engineering, University of Leeds (2003)

Professional memberships

• Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (FICE), UK, No. 60196357.
• Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE), UK, No. 80317045.
• Chartered Engineer (CEng), Institution of Civil Engineers (CEng ICE), UK, No. 60196357.
• Chartered Engineer (CEng), Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE), UK, No. 80317045.
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Recognition reference number: PR120205.
• Member of the Association of Civil Engineer, Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE), No. 114420.
• Member of the International Masonry Society (IMS).
• Associate Member, American Society of Civil Engineers, ASCE, No. 9924132.
• Member of the Hellenic Society of Earthquake Engineering (ETAM)

Student education

My vision for teaching is to promote lifelong learning environment, empower students' potential, expand their boundaries of knowledge and produce graduates with experience, skills and ability to innovate and tackle local and global challenges. I have a commitment to teaching, learning and the student experience, through engagement in a practical process that encourages research, reflection and development.

Undergraduate

• Structural Design 2 – Design of Masonry and Timber Structures (20 credits)
• Construction site field course (10 credits)
• Integrated Design Project 2 (20 credits)
• Individual Research Project 1 (20 credits)
• Individual Research Project 2 (45 credits)
• FOEN8001 Industrial Placement 

Postgraduate 

• Monitoring and Maintenance of Infrastructure (15 credits)
• Dissertation projects (60 credits)

Research groups and institutes

• Institute of Robotics, Autonomous Systems and Sensing
• Materials and Structures
• Centre for Computational Engineering

Current postgraduate researchers

• Loverdos Dimitrios
• Olusola Olusunmade