Prabu Thannasi

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Prabu Thannasi is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Advanced Materials and Building, Efficiency Laboratory (AMBER Lab), Program of Civil and Urban Engineering at New York University Abu Dhabi. Prabu received his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering in 2013 from the Kongu Engineering College, Perundurai, Tamil Nadu. In 2015, he received his Master’s in Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai. His research focused on ground improvement techniques using nano-sized additives during his Master’s degree.

After his Master’s degree, Thannasi worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, at Builders Engineering College, Kangayam, Tamil Nadu, for three years from 2015 to 2018. He joined his PhD in 2019 and received his degree in 2023 from the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu. His PhD research thesis is focused on developing lunar soil simulants, assessing their geotechnical and geo-mechanical properties, and developing new lunar in-situ materials such as lunar bricks, mortar, concrete, blocks, etc.

Before Joining AMBER lab, Thannasi worked as a Research Fellow with Professor Muthukkumaran at NIT, Trichy, under the sponsored project of Chandraayan Mission of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). He worked on that project for three years and focused on developing and evaluating the properties of lunar soil, lunar soil simulants, and lunar in-situ materials. He has received Research Excellence and Young Researcher Awards for 2021 and 2022 from the Institute of Scholars, Bangalore, India. He is an active reviewer of Aerospace, Arabian Journal of Geosciences, American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Also, he is acting as an Editor for the Iterative International Publishers IIP, USA & India book series. He has published 16 peer-reviewed journal articles and a book chapter in international journals. In April 2023, Prabu joined AMBER Lab, headed by Kemal Celik. His research at AMBER lab focuses on developing new lunar soil simulants and materials for the UAE lunar mission project.