Matiyas A. Bezabeh

Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering

Ph.D., The University of British Columbia (2021)
M.A.Sc., The University of British Columbia (2014)
BSc., Addis Ababa University (2011)

Phone: 438-324-8337

Email: matiyas.bezabeh@mcgill.ca

Biography:

Professor Bezabeh specializes in the evaluation and design of timber and timber-hybrid structures for earthquakes and strong winds. Prior to joining McGill, he worked as a Scientist/Technical Coordinator at Rowan Williams Davies & Irwin (RWDI) Inc, where he coordinated technical teams tackling wind-design challenges for tall and complex buildings through wind-tunnel testing and dynamic structural analysis. He received his Ph.D. (2021) and M.A.Sc. (2014) from the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, and his B.Sc. (2011) from Addis Ababa University. As part of his M.A.Sc. at UBC, and with support from the NewBuilds network initiative, he developed a displacement-based seismic design guideline for a novel steel–timber hybrid structure. He spent four years as a visiting research student at Western University (formerly UWO), conducting numerous wind-tunnel studies at Western’s WindEEE Dome and the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory (BLWTL).

His doctoral research produced new performance-based wind design frameworks for tall buildings. These frameworks are included in the Modeling Guide for Timber Structures and in the second edition of Canada’s Technical Guide for the Design and Construction of Tall Wood Buildings published by FPInnovations. He also spent a semester at Kyoto University through the Mitacs-JSPS Fellowship, developing closed-form solutions for the seismic response of self-centering structural systems. He received the Young Scientist Excellence Award at the 2018 World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE) and currently serves on ASCE’s Performance-Based Wind Engineering Task Committee.

Google Scholar, Linkedin, ResearchGate

Daniel Habtamu Zelleke Ph.D.

Postdoctoral researcher

Daniel is a Postdoctoral Researcher at McGill University, and his current research focuses on exploring design solutions for high rise timber buildings equipped with supplemental control devices. Before joining McGill University, he served as an Assistant Professor of Structural Engineering at Haramaya University, Ethiopia. Daniel received his Ph.D. and M.Tech. degrees in Structural Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) and his B.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering from Mekelle University. His areas of interest include structural response control, tall buildings, timber structures, earthquake and wind engineering, and multi‐hazard protection of structures. Notable contributions of his previous research include the development and experimental validation of a novel semi-active response control algorithm, i.e., the energy-based predictive (EBP) algorithm, and the development of a new reliability-based multi-hazard design optimization framework for base-isolated buildings.

Postdoctoral research focus: Development of a Performance based Auxiliary Damping Design Framework for Tall Mass timber Buildings

Supervisor: Professor Matiyas Bezabeh

Email: daniel.zelleke@mcgill.ca

LinkedIn: Daniel Habtamu Zelleke

Xisheng (Eric) Lin Ph.D.

Postdoctoral researcher

Eric earned his B.Eng. in Civil Engineering from Xiamen University in 2021 and his Ph.D. from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2025. His doctoral research focused on developing orthogonal decomposition-based methods and frameworks for simulating and analyzing wind events. He is now a postdoctoral researcher at McGill-TSG, working with Professor Matiyas Bezabeh. His current work extends the methods he developed to new areas, including non-synoptic winds (such as tornadoes) and their application in performance-based wind design.

Postdoctoral research focus: Orthogonal decomposition in the simulation and analysis of non-synoptic winds and its application in performance-based wind design

Supervisor: Professor Matiyas Bezabeh

Email: xisheng.lin@mcgill.ca

LinkedIn: Xisheng (Eric) Lin

Nahom K. Berile

PhD Candidate

Nahom received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Addis Ababa University in 2017 with high honors, followed by dual M.S. degrees in Structural Engineering and Computational Physics from the same institution. His research at McGill-TSG focuses on the risk-based wind design of tall mass-timber buildings, under the supervision of Professor Matiyas Bezabeh.

PhD research: Risk-based wind design of tall mass-timber buildings

Supervisor: Professor Matiyas Bezabeh

Email: nahom.berile@mail.mcgill.ca

LinkedIn: Nahom K. Berile

Abebaw Abie Mekonnen

PhD Candidate

Abebaw holds a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering) from Adama Science and Technology University (2013) and an M.S. in Computational Structural Engineering from Chungbuk National University (2019), during which he participated in multiple research projects and published three papers. He joined McGill-TSG in Fall 2023 and is co-supervised by Professors Matiyas Bezabeh and Colin Rogers. His research develops, tests, and advances performance-based design for a novel timber–steel hybrid structural system.

PhD research: Development, testing, and performance-based design of a novel timber-steel hybrid structural system

Supervisor: Professor Matiyas Bezabeh

Co-supervisor: Professor Colin Rogers

Email: abebaw.mekonnen@mail.mcgill.ca

LinkedIn: Abebaw Abie Mekonnen

Mohammed S. Ibrahim

PhD Candidate

Mohammed earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Ain Shams University (ASU), Egypt, and an M.S. in Structural and Earthquake Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). He subsequently served as a lecturer at UNR and gained professional experience as an EIT-certified structural engineer at Thyssenkrupp in Egypt and Thornton Tomasetti in New York. His research at UNR centered on UHPC, leading to publications and conference presentations. Active in student leadership, he led seismic design teams at ASU and UNR and now contributes to the EERI Seismic Design Competition as a chair, helping to shape rules and judge international teams. At McGill-TSG, he is co-supervised by Professors Matiyas Bezabeh and Colin Rogers, working on performance-based design of innovative timber–steel hybrid buildings under wind and earthquake multi-hazard loads.

PhD research: Performance-based design of innovative timber-steel hybrid buildings under wind and earthquake multi-hazard loads

Supervisor: Professor Matiyas Bezabeh

Co-supervisor: Professor Colin Rogers

Email: mohammed.ibrahim3@mail.mcgill.ca

LinkedIn: Mohammed S. Ibrahim

Ahmed Maky

PhD Student

Ahmed graduated with a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Aswan University (2016) and later completed an Engineering Informatics Diploma at the Information Technology Institute in Cairo. He received his M.S. from the American University of Sharjah in 2023, contributing to several research projects and publishing three papers. Passionate about computational design and BIM automation, his current research at McGill-TSG (supervised by Professor Matiyas Bezabeh with co-supervision by Professor Djordje Romanic) develops a multi-hazard damage analysis framework for sequential seismic and thunderstorm loads on timber buildings.

PhD research: Performance-Based Wind Engineering Framework for Timber Buildings under Thunderstorm Downburst Wind Loads

Supervisor: Professor Matiyas Bezabeh

Co-supervisor: Professor Djordje Romanic (Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences)

Email: ahmed.maky@mail.mcgill.ca

LinkedIn: Ahmed Maky

Kalkidan T. Shewandagn

PhD Candidate

Kalkidan completed a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering with Distinction Honors from Addis Ababa University in 2018 and an M.Sc. in Structural Engineering at the same institution in 2022. At McGill-TSG, under the supervision of Professor Matiyas Bezabeh, she is developing a performance-based wind and seismic design framework for light-framed wood buildings on concrete podiums.

PhD research: Development of a performance-based wind and seismic design framework for light-framed wood buildings on concrete podium

Supervisor: Professor Matiyas Bezabeh

Email: kalkidan.shewandagn@mail.mcgill.ca

LinkedIn: Kalkidan T. Shewandagn

Lei Liao

PhD Student

Lei received his B.E. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from Chang’an University and Hunan University, respectively, and joined McGill University as a Ph.D. student in Winter 2024. Co-supervised by Professor Yazhou (Tim) Xie and Professor Matiyas Bezabeh, he works on multi-hazard fragility and risk assessment.

PhD research: To be updated

Supervisor: Professor Yazhou (Tim) Xie

Co-supervisor: Professor Matiyas Bezabeh

Email: lei.liao@mail.mcgill.ca

LinkedIn: Lei Liao

Huanru Zhu

PhD Student

Huanru Zhu is a Ph.D. student in Civil Engineering at McGill University and a member of the McGill Timber Structures Group (McGill-TSG), supervised by Professor Matiyas A. Bezabeh. He received his Bachelor of Civil Engineering from McGill University in 2022 with Distinction and subsequently joined McGill-TSG as a master’s student, where he was awarded the MEUSMA Award upon entry. His master’s research focused on the seismic design and performance assessment of post-tensioned cross-laminated timber (CLT) rocking wall buildings in Canada. His doctoral research centers on performance-based damping design for tall mass-timber buildings subjected to wind and seismic loading. His work has received national and international recognition, including First Place Best Student Paper in the Structural Specialty at the 2025 CSCE Annual Conference and First Place in the Student 3-Minute Thesis competition at the China–Canada Symposium on Structural and Earthquake Engineering. Beyond research, he founded the EERI McGill Student Chapter and currently serves as Secretary of the EERI Student Leadership Council.

PhD research: Performance-based damping design for tall mass-timber buildings

Supervisor: Professor Matiyas Bezabeh

Email: huanru.zhu@mail.mcgill.ca

LinkedIn: Huanru Zhu

Zijian (Jerry) Liang

PhD Student

Jerry graduated from McGill University with a B.Eng. in Civil Engineering (Dean’s Honour List, 2019). He subsequently worked at NCK Inc. in Montréal as a candidat à la profession d’ingénieur, contributing to structural analysis and design for several downtown high-rise condominium projects. He joined McGill-TSG in Winter 2024, co-supervised by Professors Matiyas Bezabeh and Colin Rogers, focusing on numerical simulation and performance-based design of coupled CLT shear-wall systems.

PhD research: To be updated

Supervisor: Professor Matiyas Bezabeh

Email: zijian.liang@mail.mcgill.ca

LinkedIn: Zijian (Jerry) Liang

Sukhveer Singh

MSc Student

Sukhveer earned his Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering from IIT Guwahati in 2023, with a minor in Electrical and Communication Engineering. His diverse project experience ranges from continuum damage modeling of concrete to market analysis for sustainable development.

Master research: To be updated

Supervisor: Professor Matiyas Bezabeh

Email: sukhveer.singh@mail.mcgill.ca

LinkedIn: Sukhveer Singh

Meghan Egan

MSc Student

Meghan received her Bachelor’s in Architectural Conservation and Sustainability Engineering from Carleton University (with high distinction) in 2019. She brings over five years of consulting experience and became a licensed Professional Engineer in Ontario in May 2023. Meghan joined McGill-TSG in Fall 2024, supervised by Professor Matiyas Bezabeh and co-supervised by Professor Luc Chouinard, where she contributes her professional insight to research in mass-timber structures.

Master research: To be updated

Supervisor: Professor Matiyas Bezabeh

Co-supervisor: Professor Luc Chouinard

Email: meghan.Egan@mail.mcgill.ca

LinkedIn: Meghan Egan

Karim Basha

MSc Student

Karim is a Master’s student in Civil Engineering at McGill University, specializing in structural engineering and soil–structure interaction (SSI). He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering with honours and brings over seven years of professional experience in construction management, marine infrastructure projects, and structural design coordination.

Master research: Seismic behaviour of mass-timber structures accounting for soil–structure interaction effects

Supervisor: Professor Matiyas Bezabeh

Co-supervisor: Professor Mohamed A Meguid

Email: karimeldin.basha@mail.mcgill.ca

LinkedIn: Karim Basha

Ze Yu (Thomas) Dong

MSc Student

Ze Yu (Thomas) Dong completed his Bachelor's in Civil Engineering from McGill University in April 2024 with distinction. During his undergrad he was involved with the McGill Bridge Building Team, first as a regular member then later being promoted to Team Director. He also participated in the RISE Germany program in the summer of 2023 researching mechanized tunnelling logistics at Ruhr-University Bochum. Apon graduation he worked at AtkinsRéalis in the Bridges and Transport Division as a Candidat à la profession d'ingénieur (CPI). He joined McGill TSG in Fall 2024.

Master research: To be updated

Supervisor: Professor Matiyas Bezabeh

Email: zeyu.dong@mail.mcgill.ca

LinkedIn: Ze Yu (Thomas) Dong