• Nominated by the Civil Engineering Department and the Faculty of Engineering, University of Ottawa for the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations Teaching Excellence Award (2007).
• Nominated by the Faculty of Engineering Teaching Personnel Committee for the University of Ottawa Award for Excellence in Teaching (2007). Received commendation letter from the Acting Dean, Faculty of Engineering.
• Nominated by the Faculty of Engineering Teaching Personnel Committee for the University of Ottawa Award for Excellence in Teaching (2006). Received commendation letter from the Acting Dean, Faculty of Engineering.
• Nominated by the Civil Engineering DTPC for the John V. Marsh. Teaching Excellence Award (2006). Received commendation letter from the Acting Dean, Faculty of Engineering
• Invited by the President of the University of Orleans as a Visiting Professor (May 2005), University of Orleans, Orleans, France
• William A. Trow Award from Trow Consultants for submitting Best Paper. This paper is entitled, “A simple technique for estimating the coefficient of permeability of unsaturated soils”, authored by Lobbezoo, J.P. and Vanapalli, S.K., and published in the Canadian Geotechnical Conference, Winnipeg, 2002.
• Merit Increment (Category: Teaching & Research, 2002), Lakehead University
• NSERC & Saskatchewan Highways Research Grant for Ph.D. program (1990-94)
• Supervised student projects that received National Honors/Recognition:
• Elizabeth Garven (2006): Elizabeth’s presentation was selected as the second place winner in the Canadian Geotechnical Society National Graduate Students Presentation competition for the year 2006. The topic of her presentation was entitled, “Evaluation of empirical procedures for predicting the shear strength of unsaturated soils”.
• Cevat Catana (2006): Thesis entitled, “Compaction and Water Retention Characteristics of Champlain Sea Clay”, was nominated for Best Thesis Award by the Examination Committee by the Civil Engineering Department
• Tahirou Assane Oumarou (2004): Won speaking award for “Best Familiarity with Research Subject”. Topic of presentation: “Simple techniques for interpreting the shear strength of unsaturated soils”.
  This competition was organized by Professional Engineers of Ontario, April 2004 in Ottawa.
• Kenton Power (2004): Won the 27^th Annual Graduate Students Speaking Competition conducted by the Ottawa Geotechnical Group, 2^nd March 2004. Topic of presentation: “Consolidation characteristics of an unsaturated glacial till”.
• Elizabeth Garven: (2003) Supervised summer student: Received Ottawa Geotechnical Society Award for submitting a paper under my supervision at the Canadian Geotechnical  Conference, Winnipeg
• Kerrie Fabius: (2003): Kaministiqua River Slope Analysis using the Principles of Unsaturated Soil Mechanics”, Received Canadian Geotechnical Society’s Best Undergraduate Project Award (Individual). 
• Mike Vogrig & Adam MacDonald: (2003): “A Laboratory Technique for Estimating the Resilient Modulus of Unsaturated Soil Specimens from CBR and Unconfined Compression Tests”, Received Canadian Geotechnical Society’s Runner up Undergraduate Project Award (Group). 
• Lane, Jason J., Tara Law, Kimberly Station (2001): “Determination of the Shear Strength of an Unsaturated Clay Till Using Conventional Direct Shear Apparatus”. (This student group won the First Prize in the Canadian Geotechnical Society Report Competition, 2001).
• John, P. Lobbezoo (2001). “A Simple Technique to Predict the Normalized Coefficient of Permeability of Unsaturated Soils”. (This student individual project won the Second Prize in the Canadian Geotechnical Society Thesis Competition, 2001).

• Conference Advisor, 14th Pan-American Conference 2011, International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Toronto.
• International Advisory Committee Member, 5th International Conference on Unsaturated Soils, Barcelona, Spain, 6-8th Sep 2010.
• Organizing committee member, 4th Asian Pacific Conference on Unsaturated Soils, 23-25 November 2009, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
• Co-Chair, 12th International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics, Goa, India from 1st to 6th October, 2008.
• Member, International Scientific Committee, 8th International Congress on Advances in Civil Engineering, 2008 ACE, September 15-17, 2008, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta-North Cyprus.
• Co-Chair, Diamond Jubilee Canadian Geotechnical Conference, 2007, 21st to 24th October 2007.
• Organizing Committee Member, Fourth International Conference on Unsaturated Soils, April, 2 - 5, 2006, Arizona, USA.
• Summarized State-of-the-art Report on the topic entitled, “Axis Translation and Hanging Column Techniques for Measurement of Suction in Unsaturated Soils”, as lead author (other authors, Nicotera M.V, Italy, Sharma, R.S. (U.S.A.) for Unsaturated Soils, EXPERUS 2005 Conference to be held in Italy.
• Member, International Scientific/Advisory Committee, “Mediterranean Conference on Problematic Soils", GEOPROB 2005, May 25-27, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, A conference organized in Collaboration with the Internal Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering
• Member, Technical Committee, 3rd International Conference on Unsaturated Soils, Brazil (2002).
• Summarized State-of-the-art Report on the topic, “Suction and Storage Characteristics of Unsaturated Soils”. Published in Volume 3 of the 3rd International Conference on Unsaturated Soils, Recife (2002).
• Invited to Chair several sessions on topics related to Unsaturated Soils in International conferences and Canadian Geotechnical Conferences. Some of them include:
• Chairman, First European Conference on Unsaturated Soils, 3rd July 2008, Advances in Unsaturated Soil Testing.
• Chairman, Practical Applications of Unsaturated Soils, 2nd International Conference on Mechanics of Unsaturated Soils, Weimar, Germany, 2007
• Chairman, Laboratory Studies – Particular Soils, Geosynthetics, Treated and Composite Soils (April 5, 2006: Fourth International Conference on Unsaturated Soils) held in Arizona, U.S.A.
• Chairman, Mechanics of Unsaturated Soils/Contaminated Soils, GEOPROB 2005, International Conference on Problematic Soils (26th May, 2005)
• Shear strength of unsaturated soils session, 3rd Asian Regional Conference on Unsaturated Soils, Osaka, Japan 2003 (cancelled the trip due to SARS hazards in Japan)
• Chaired 4 sessions during years (2001 to 2005) in Canadian Geotechnical Conferences
• Evaluation Reporter, 3rd International Conference on Unsaturated Soils, 2002 Parallel Session 2.1 (Suction and Storage Characteristics) (March 11th, 2002), Brazil, 10th to 13th March 2002. Delivered a 45 minutes presentation summarizing state-of-the-art on the topic “Suction and Storage Characteristics”.
• Panel member: XI Asian Regional Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Seoul, Korea, 1999. Discussion Session. Invited to deliver a lecture on “Practical Application of Unsaturated Soils Research”
• Instructor at a two-day workshop entitled, “From theory to the practice of unsaturated soil mechanics”, conducted by the Unsaturated Soils Group (USG) from the University of Saskatchewan, October 24-27, 1999.
• Geotechnical Research Board, Canadian Geotechnical Society, (Secretary, 1999- 2001)
• Member, TC6 Committee, International Society of Geotechnical and Geo-environmental Engineering (1998-2002)
• Peer-reviewed Technical Articles for:
• Canadian Geotechnical Journal
• Chinese Geotechnical Engineering Journal
• Construction Materials Journal
• Geotechnique
• Geosynthetics Journal
• Iran Journal of Science and Technology
• Journal of Geotechnical and Geo-environmental Engineering, ASCE
• Journal of Transportation Engineering
• Journal of American Society of Testing Materials and Methods
• Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Unsaturated Soils
• Problematic Soils, International Conference, Cyprus
• Proceedings of the 4th Internal Conference on Unsaturated Soils
• Proceedings of the 8th International Congress on Advances in Civil Engineering", 2008 ACE
• Proceedings of the 12th IACMAG
• Soil Science Society of America)
• Transportation Research Board Journal
• Geotechnical Engineering Journal, China
• Canadian Earthquake Engineering Conference
• Professional Organization Memberships
• Professional Engineers of Ontario
• Canadian Geotechnical Society
• American Society of Civil Engineers
• Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, University of Ottawa
• Ottawa Geotechnical Group

Graduated Ph.D /M.A.Sc thesis + Post doc fellows

1. Xudong Li, M.A.Sc. (2008): University of Ottawa, Title: “Laboratory studies on the bearing capacity of unsaturated sands”
2. Fathi Mohammed, M.A.Sc. (2006): University of Ottawa, Title: “A semi-empirical approach for interpreting the bearing capacity of unsaturated soils”
3. Cevat Catana, M.A.Sc (2006): University of Ottawa, Title: “Compaction and Water Retention Characteristics of Champlain Sea Clay”, (Joint supervision with Dr. Garga)
4. Patrick Brisson, M.A.Sc (2006): University of Ottawa, Title: “Unsaturated Flow Behavior in Tailings”,   (Joint supervision with Dr. Garga)
5. Julius Angele Infante Sedano, Ph.D., (2006),  University of Ottawa, Title: “A modified Ring Shear Device for Determining the Hydro-mechanical Behavior of Unsaturated Soils”, (Joint supervision with Dr. Garga)
6. Kenton Power, M.A. Sc. (2005), University of Ottawa, Title: “Suction and Compressibility Characteristics of an Unsaturated Till”, (Joint supervision with Dr. Garga)
7. Ravi Khanzode, M.Sc., (1999), University of Saskatchewan. Title: “An alternative centrifuge method to obtain the soil-water characteristic curves for fine-grained soils”
8. Oh, W.T. (PhD) (2004-2007): Application of the mechanics of unsaturated soils in the design of foundations (Post-doc Fellow)
9. Dr. Shen Hong (March 2008 to February 2009): Slope stability analysis of earth dams in China using the mechanics of unsaturated soils. (Visiting Research Scholar)

In progress (Ph.D./M.A. Sc / M.Eng)

10. Elizabeth Garven, M.A. Sc. (2006): Estimation of the shear strength of unsaturated soils using simple testing techniques.
11. Lu Lu (M.A.Sc) (2006): A simple technique for estimating the volume change behavior of expansive soils
12. Sebastian Bisson (M.Eng) (2006): Design of a highway embankment on a landfill deposit
13. Joel Anibal Mateo (M.Engg) (2007): Design of soil liners using the mechanics of saturated and unsaturated soils
14. Oh, W.T. (PhD) (2008): Practical application of the mechanics of unsaturated soils in the design of foundations
15. Fathi Mohamed (PhD) (2008): Influence of dynamic loading on the engineering behavior of shallow foundations in coarse-grained soils .
16. Fredric Lacasse (MA Sc) (2007): Shear strength behavior of coarse-grained soils .
17. Sun Rui (MASc): Bearing capacity of unsaturated coarse and fine grained soils from model footing tests .

Undergraduate Design Projects / Undergraduate Thesis at the University of Ottawa

1. Lara Ferreira, Angele Morcos, Kim Lesage, Eric Lehoux (2005): Title: “Silo Foundations at Fraser Farm in Champlain Clay”
2. Nathan Andospeh, Justin Bernard, Victor Chan and Chun Yu Chung (2006): Title: “The University of Ottawa New Below Grade Parking Structure”
3. Fredric Lacasse (2006): Title: “Architectural Panels for Lichens – An Environment Friendly Approach”
4. Josiane Belanger, Christopher Fischer, Leonard Gauvin, Abdel Issaoui, Philippe Malette (2007): Title: “Clark Island Contaminated Sediment Remediation” (Jointly supervised this project with Dr. Ioan Nistor)
5. Jim Janes, Ming Gang Xie, Ilyaz Boz, Weiyi Gong, Weixiao Sun (2008): Title: “Leaning Tower of Pisa: Foundation Redesign. “