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Timothy D. Stark, PhD, PE

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign


Timothy D. Stark is a Professor and Excellence Faculty Scholar of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with an expertise in Geotechnical Engineering. Dr. Stark has been conducting research on performance of track transitions, reduced performance ballast, and seismic testing for track substructure assessments. This includes dynamic finite element modeling of track transitions, seismic
surface waves to estimate ballast and subgrade moduli, and ways to non-invasively monitor track performance using accelerometers and high speed video cameras.

Dr. Stark has received a number of awards for his research, teaching, and service activities including: 2022 T.H. Wu Lecturer at The Ohio State University, 2021 11th GZA Lecturer, Geo-Institute Metropolitan Section, New York City, 2019 George H. Norman Medal from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); 2018 Technical Editors Award, ASTM; 2017 and 2015 Best Research Paper, International Railway Engineering Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland; 2016 Best Paper in Geosynthetics International Journal; 2015 James M. Hoover Lecturer at Iowa State University; and 2013 and 1998 Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award, ASCE.