Sam Salem, Ph.D., P.Eng. Email and Phone Number

Dr. Salem began his academic career at Lakehead University (LU) as an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Civil Engineering in 2012, shortly after receiving his Ph.D. in structural fire engineering with distinction from Carleton University. Over his more than a decade at LU, he has risen through the ranks and is currently a tenured faculty member at the rank of Full Professor. Before being elected to take on the role of the Chair of the Dept. of Civil Engineering, he had a variety of leadership responsibilities over the years, as he served as the director of the civil engineering graduate programs between 2017 and 2021. Dr. Salem launched his unique research program on investigating the behaviour of innovative structural building systems exposed to fire shortly after starting his appointment at LU, emphasizing structural components constructed of engineered wood products. In 2013, he received a major national infrastructure research grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the John R. Evans Leaders Fund, which he utilized to establish a world-class structural fire testing and research laboratory (LUFTRL). This cutting-edge facility is the only one of its kind in a Canadian university and one of only a few worldwide.To date, Dr. Salem has received over $2.2 million in research grants and awards from various funding entities, including NSERC, CFI, OCE, OMRI, NOHFC, MNRF, MTI, and LU. He has two patents and has authored over 60 peer-reviewed, refereed publications in top leading journals and top-tier international Conference proceedings in structural and fire safety engineering. He also trained and mentored over 40 HQPs, including 1 PDF, 7 Ph.D., 17 M.A.Sc., and 14 UG summer research interns.Dr. Salem's outstanding performance and dedication to high-quality research, innovative scholarly endeavours, and teaching have been recognized by receiving several awards and honours, including the LU 2023 Research Excellence Award, Merit Award for Excellence in Research in 2022, Merit Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research in 2015 and 2020, Outstanding Paper Award from the 6th Intl. Conf. on Applications of Structural Fire Engineering in 2019, LU’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2014, 2018 and 2022. As a recognized expert in the field of structural fire engineering, Dr. Salem sets in various important committees, including the ULC’s Standards Technical Committee on Fire Tests (S100A), ISO/TC 92 Committee on Fire Safety, the Standing Committee on Structural Design of the Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes (2015-2020).