Fulbright Award to support Ho in study of pavement performance in Finland

Chun-Hsing (Jun) Ho, associate professor in the Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction, has been selected as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar for the 2024-25 academic year. Ho holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering with an emphasis on construction materials and pavement systems.

As the world's largest and most diverse educational exchange program, the Fulbright Scholar Program is devoted to increasing mutual understanding between people of the United States and other countries. Its alumni include myriad heads of state, judges, ambassadors, cabinet ministers, CEOs and university presidents, as well as 62 Nobel Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows and 89 Pulitzer Prize winners.

The Fulbright Award will support Ho's six months of research in Finland, evaluating the impact of freeze-thaw cycles and moisture damage on pavement performance in that country. Ho will be collaborating with Pauli Kolisoja, professor at Tampere University and head of the Terra Road Division, which will begin in January 2025.

"It's like a dream come true, both professionally and personally. I will conduct a research project that can help the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency with better understanding of the pavement performance on Finnish highways and the improvement of the decision-making strategies for highway maintenance.

"I like traveling through Scandinavia, as it has never ceased to amaze me with its beauty of nature and sustainable living environment. This will allow me to engage in the host community, share my own experience, and learn the value of Finnish culture and traditions; all of which will allow me to expand my understanding of the spectrum of diverse cultures and provide insightful/meaningful advice to students."

Ho said a goal is to "find the reason for what causes damage to the roadways in Finland due to the atmospheric conditions they experience there." Ho holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering with an emphasis on construction materials and pavement systems.

"I was in Finland last year to meet Dr. Kalisoja, and he showed me some of the pavement conditions. His team is going to collect samples from different roads this summer, and these samples will be stored in an environment-controlled room in the Terra Road Division's Materials Laboratory so we can start doing testing when I arrive next year."

Ho said he hopes this project will create further collaboration with Tampere University and Kalisoja's research team that could benefit the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the College of Engineering, too. The research may lead to a proposal to the European Commission and the Finnish transport infrastructure agency as well.

"This proposal was prepared with springs of hope that we can pursue a National Science Foundation International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) grant to create an exchange program for students from both universities," Ho said. "We want to show how this can benefit both faculty and students by establishing a partnership that can last a long time."