Research Assistant Professor

Academic Degrees

• Ph.D., Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023
• M.S., Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2021
• B.S., Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2019

Areas of Research and Professional Interest

• Road safety structures
• Bridge railings
• Vehicle crash testing
• Nonlinear finite element modeling with LS-DYNA
• Concrete damage models

Research Profiles:

• Digital Commons

Courses Taught

• CIVE 441: Steel Design 1

Honors and Awards

• Transportation Research Board 2024 AKD20 Best Paper Award: Vehicle Collision Load Design Demands for Deck Overhangs with Parapet Railings
• 2021 and 2023 Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellow
• International Road Federation Fellow

Selected Publications

• Loken et al., Vehicle Collision Load Design Demands for Deck Overhangs with Parapet Railings, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2024.
• Loken et al., Performance Case Study of Concrete Bridge Rail Post on Deck Overhang, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2023.
• Steelman et al., NCHRP Research Report 1078: MASH Railing Load Requirements for Bridge Deck Overhang, National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, Washington, D.C., 2023. 
• Loken et al., Comparison of Modified Yield-Line and Punching Shear Capacities for Concrete Traffic Barriers and Bridge Rails, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2021

Recent Presentations

• Vehicle Collision Load Design Demands for Deck Overhangs with Parapet Railings - TRB 2024 lectern session (AKD20)
• Performance Case Study of Concrete Bridge Rail Post on Deck Overhang - TRB 2023 lectern session (AKD20)
• Concrete Modeling Lessons with the Karagozian & Case and Continuous Surface Cap Models - TRB 2023 workshop (AKD20 computational mechanics subcommittee)
• Recent Experiences in Simulation of Reinforced Concrete Structures - TRB 2021 summer meeting (AKD20 computational mechanics subcommittee)