Tarek Zohdi

Tarek I. Zohdi received his Ph.D. in 1997 in Computational and Applied Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany from 1997 to 1998 and then a lecturer (C2-Oberingenieur) at the Gottfried Leibniz University of Hannover in Germany from 1998 to 2001, where he received his Habilitation in General Mechanics (Allgemeine Mechanik). Approximately one out of every twenty Ph.D holders in Germany is allowed to proceed with a Habilitation. It is the highest academic degree in Germany and is usually required to obtain the rank of full Professor there and in other parts of Europe. In July 2001, he became an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He was promoted to Associate Professor in July 2004 and to Full Professor in July 2009. In July 2012, he was appointed Chair of the Designated Emphasis Program in Computational and Data Science and Engineering (DE-CSE) at UC Berkeley and in 2018 the Chief Technology Officer UC Berkeley Fung Institute for Innovation. Previously, he has served as Chair of the Engineering Science Program at UC Berkeley (2008-2012) and Vice-Chair for Instruction in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (2009-2012). He is currently a Chancellors Professor of Mechanical Engineering and holder of the W. C. Hall Family Endowed Chair in Engineering. He also holds a Staff Scientist position at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs and an Adjunct Scientist position at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute.

His main research interests are in modeling, simulation and optimization of advanced manufacturing processes with emphasis on nonconvex multiscale-multiphysics inverse problems. He has published over 175 archival refereed journal papers and seven books, as well as six handbook/book chapters and five encyclopedia chapters.

In 2017, he was awarded the University of California, Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award. The Distinguished Teaching Award is a campus-wide recognition for faculty that have established a sustained and varied record of teaching excellence. This is the highest award for teaching in the University.

A more comprehensive list of publications, awards, projects, and board affiliations, can be found on Dr. Zohdi’s site.