Dr. Najib Saliba is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Balamand. He holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Balamand. He was the first University of Balamand graduate student to be accepted at Imperial College London to continue his postgraduate studies in which he obtained an MSc and PhD in Structural Engineering in 2009 and 2012, respectively. His doctoral research was partially funded by Outokumpu, the largest producer of stainless steel in Europe and the second largest in the Americas. The research focused on testing the structural performance of a newly developed grade of stainless steel known as the lean duplex stainless steel. His studies also included assessing the Eurocode 3 design guidance for carbon and stainless steel and proposing new design methods for structural stainless steel.
Dr. Saliba’s interest in academia started during his undergraduate studies, in which he worked as a teaching assistant at the University of Balamand and later on as a graduate teaching assistant at Imperial College London. He joined the University of Balamand as a part-time Assistant Professor in Spring 2013 and then as a full-time Assistant Professor in Fall 2013. He is engaged in teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, advising and moderating postgraduate projects and he serves on several departmental committees and the University Wide Curriculum committee. Dr. Saliba was the advisor of the American Society of Civil Engineers Student (ASCE) Chapter at the University of Balamand from July 2017 until February 2019.
Dr. Saliba principal research interests, in respect of which he has co-authored more than 18 papers in peer-reviewed academic journals and conferences, include experimental and numerical research on the structural behavior and applications of steel and stainless steel cross-sections and members. His other research interests lie in the areas of finite element analysis and the structural behavior of composite steel structures.
His research portfolio extends to a major contribution to the structural engineering field through the adoption of his proposed design equations in the latest Eurocode 3 revision. In a study that he carried out to assess the Eurocode 3: Part 1.4 (EN 1993-1-4: 2006) design equations for the calculation of shear buckling resistance of stainless steel plate girders, it was shown that the codified equations are safe but conservative and inefficient. The outcome of this research led to the proposal of new design equations for the calculation of the ultimate shear capacity of stainless steel plate girders for the consideration of the Eurocode design committee. On December 31, 2015, the design equations were approved by the Eurocode design committee and are officially adopted in the latest revision of the code under Clause 5.6 of Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures – Part 1.4: General rules – Supplementary rules for stainless steels, including amendment A1 (EN 1993-1-4: 2006 + A1: 2015).
Dr. Najib Saliba serves as a member of the technical committee of several international conferences. He is also a peer reviewer for renown international civil engineering journals. He received the certificate of outstanding contribution in reviewing from Elsevier Thin-Walled Structures Journal. He supervised projects winning awards at the Order of Engineers and Architects (OEA) annual competition for engineering projects. He received the Most Distinguished Supervisor award for the project winning the first place at the Lebanese Industrial Research Achievements 12 exhibition (LIRA). Dr. Saliba also supervised the project winning the ‘Elma Maalouf Award’ for the best scientific project at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Balamand in 2016.
Dr. Saliba is a registered engineer at the OEA in Tripoli and an active member of the ASCE and the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI).

‘Certificate of Outstanding Contribution in Reviewing’ from Thin-Walled Structures Journal, Elsevier.
Supervised the project winning the ‘First Place’ award, at Order of Engineers and Architects Competition for Engineering projects – Tripoli, Lebanon 2017
‘Most Distinguished Supervisor’ award in the specialization of Civil Engineering, at the Lebanese Industrial Research Achievements 12 exhibition (LIRA) – Beirut, Lebanon 2016
Co-supervised the project winning the ‘First Place’ award in the specialization of Civil Engineering, at the Lebanese Industrial Research Achievements 12 exhibition (LIRA) – Beirut, Lebanon 2016
Supervised the project winning the ‘Third Place’ award, at Order of Engineers and Architects Competition for Engineering projects – Tripoli, Lebanon 2016
Supervised the project winning the ‘Elma Maalouf Award’ for the best scientific project at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Balamand, 2016