Prof. YAGIZ holds a PhD from Colorado School of Mines, USA. Authored over 100 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, proceedings, books, and industrial reports. Recognized reviewer of numerious prestigious journals and an Editor of Tunnelling & Underground Space Tech., (TUST, 2019-2021) and also an editorial board member of TUST (2021-2025). First paper he published (in TUST, 2008) is awarded by Int Association of Engineering Geologists as the best paper of the year. One of the authors of first manuscript published (in Enginering Geology, 2017) with the affiliation of School of Mining and Geosciences of Nazarbayev University (NU). Also, he is the author of the Book "Advancements in Underground Infrastructures, 2025" published first and only book with the affiliation of SMG.

Prof. YAGIZ is a chair of teaching & learning committee and coordinator of Mining Engineering program of the School of Mining and Geosciences (SMG) (2018-2021). Representative member of teaching & learning and academic quality committees of the SMG at NU (2018-2022). Awarded with Nazarbayev University, Senate Service Award (2020), due to outstanding contribution to the SMG and NU.

Prof. YAGIZ is in the list of the top 2% world most widely cited scientists for the sixth consecutive year (2020-2025). Recognized by Scopus Elsevier Research Excellence Award (2022). He awarded with the Medal of the National Sciences and Higher Education Councel of Kazakhstan (2025). A professional member of the Int Society for Rock Mechanics & Rock Engineering (ISRM).

MINE302-Geomechanics

MINE310-Rock Breakage

MINE502-Geology for Civil & Mining Engineers

SMG520-Research Methods & Ethics

MINE507-Rock Excavation Methods

MINE605-Mechanised Excavation & Tunnelling

GEOL604-Engineering Geology & Geotechnics

MINE801-Adv. Mechanized Excavation & Tunnelling

Geotechnical Engineering; Geomechanics; Rock Mechanics; Mechanized Excavation & Tunnelling; Geotechnical Site Investigation & Testing; Rock Mass Characterization; Infrastructures

Selected Journal Manuscripts [2008- Current]

YAGIZ S. Utilizing rock mass properties for predicting TBM performance in hard rock condition (2008) Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 23 (3), pp. 326 – 339. DOI: 10.1016/j.tust.2007.04.011. Article

YAGIZ S., Akyol E., Sen G. Relationship between the standard penetration test and the pressuremeter test on sandy silty clays: A case study from Denizli (2008) Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, 67 (3), pp. 405 – 410. DOI: 10.1007/s10064-008-0153-2. Article

YAGIZ S. Predicting uniaxial compressive strength, modulus of elasticity and index properties of rocks using the Schmidt hammer (2009) Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, 68 (1), pp. 55 - 63. DOI: 10.1007/s10064-008-0172-z. Article

YAGIZ S. Assessment of brittleness using rock strength and density with punch penetration test (2009) Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 24 (1), pp. 66 - 74. DOI: 10.1016/j.tust.2008.04.002. Article

YAGIZ S., Gokceoglu C., Sezer E., Iplikci S. Application of two non-linear prediction tools to the estimation of tunnel boring machine performance (2009) Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 22 (4-5), pp. 808 - 814. DOI: 10.1016/j.engappai.2009.03.007. Article

YAGIZ S., Gokceoglu C. Application of fuzzy inference system and nonlinear regression models for predicting rock brittleness (2010) Expert Systems with Applications, 37 (3), pp. 2265 - 2272. DOI: 10.1016/j.eswa.2009.07.046. Article

YAGIZ S. Correlation between slake durability and rock properties for some carbonate rocks (2011) Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, 70 (3), pp. 377 – 383. DOI: 10.1007/s10064-010-0317-8. Article

YAGIZ S., Karahan H. Prediction of hard rock TBM penetration rate using particle swarm optimization (2011) International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, 48 (3), pp. 427 – 433. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrmms.2011.02.013. Article

YAGIZ S., Sezer E.A., Gokceoglu C. Artificial neural networks and nonlinear regression techniques to assess the influence of slake durability cycles on the prediction of uniaxial compressive strength and modulus of elasticity for carbonate rocks (2012) International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 36 (14), pp. 1636 – 1650. DOI: 10.1002/nag.1066. Article

YAGIZ S. Comment on "Point load test on meta-sedimentary rocks and correlation to UCS and BTS" by Diyuan Li and Lous Ngai Yuen Wong, rock mechanics and rock engineering, DOI: 10.1007/s00603-012-0299-x (2013) Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, 46 (4), pp. 909 - 912. DOI: 10.1007/s00603-013-0417-4. Note

Mahdevari S., Shahriar K., YAGIZ S., Akbarpour Shirazi M. A support vector regression model for predicting tunnel boring machine penetration rates (2014) International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, 72, pp. 214 - 229. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrmms.2014.09.012. Article

Ghasemi E., YAGIZ S., Ataei M. Predicting penetration rate of hard rock tunnel boring machine using fuzzy logic (2014) Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, 73 (1), pp. 23 - 35. DOI: 10.1007/s10064-013-0497-0. Article

YAGIZ S., Karahan H. Application of various optimization techniques and comparison of their performances for predicting TBM penetration rate in rock mass (2015) International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, 80, pp. 308 – 315. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrmms.2015.09.019. Article

Frough O., Torabi S.R., YAGIZ S. Application of RMR for estimating rock-mass–related TBM utilization and performance parameters: A case study (2015) Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, 48 (3), pp. 1305 – 1312. DOI: 10.1007/s00603-014-0619-4. Article

Armaghani D.J., Tonnizam Mohamad E., Hajihassani M., YAGIZ S., Motaghedi H. Application of several non-linear prediction tools for estimating uniaxial compressive strength of granitic rocks and comparison of their performances (2016) Engineering with Computers, 32 (2), pp. 189 - 206. DOI: 10.1007/s00366-015-0410-5. Article

Adoko A.C., Gokceoglu C., YAGIZ S. Bayesian prediction of TBM penetration rate in rock mass (2017) Engineering Geology, 226, pp. 245 - 256. DOI: 10.1016/j.enggeo.2017.06.014 Article

YAGIZ S. The effect of pH of the testing liquid on the degradability of carbonate rocks (2018) Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, 36 (4), pp. 2351 - 2363. DOI: 10.1007/s10706-018-0467-1. Article

Ghasemi E., Kalhori H., Bagherpour R., YAGIZ S. Model tree approach for predicting uniaxial compressive strength and Young’s modulus of carbonate rocks (2018) Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, 77 (1), pp. 331 – 343. DOI: 10.1007/s10064-016-0931-1. Article

Armaghani D.J., Koopialipoor M., Marto A., YAGIZ S. Application of several optimization techniques for estimating TBM advance rate in granitic rocks (2019) Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 11 (4), pp. 779 - 789. DOI: 10.1016/j.jrmge.2019.01.002. Article

Koopialipoor M., Noorbakhsh A., Noroozi Ghaleini E., Armaghani D.J., YAGIZ S. A new approach for estimation of rock brittleness based on non-destructive tests (2019) Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation, 34 (4), pp. 354 – 375. DOI: 10.1080/10589759.2019.1623214. Article

Buyuksagis I.S., Rostami J., YAGIZ S. Development of models for estimating specific energy and specific wear rate of circular diamond saw blades based on properties of carbonate rocks (2020) International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, 135, art. no. 104497. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrmms.2020.104497. Article

YAGIZ S., Yazitova A., Karahan H. Application of differential evolution algorithm and comparing its performance with literature to predict rock brittleness for excavatability (2020) International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment, 34 (9), pp. 672 – 685. DOI: 10.1080/17480930.2019.1709012. Article

Ghadernejad S., Nejati H.R., YAGIZ S. A new rock brittleness index on the basis of punch penetration test data (2020) Geomechanics and Engineering, 21 (4), pp. 391 – 399. DOI: 10.12989/gae.2020.21.4.391. Article

Parsajoo M., Mohammed A.S., YAGIZ S., Armaghani D.J., Khandelwal M. An evolutionary adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system for estimating field penetration index of tunnel boring machine in rock mass (2021) Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 13 (6), pp. 1290 – 1299. DOI: 10.1016/j.jrmge.2021.05.010. Article

Goodarzi S., Hassanpour J., YAGIZ S., Rostami J. Predicting TBM performance in soft sedimentary rocks, case study of Zagros mountains water tunnel projects (2021) Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 109, art. no. 103705. DOI: 10.1016/j.tust.2020.103705. Article

Yang J., Liu Y., YAGIZ S., Laouafa F. An intelligent procedure for updating deformation prediction of braced excavation in clay using gated recurrent unit neural networks (2021) Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 13 (6), pp. 1485-1499. DOI: 10.1016/j.jrmge.2021.07.011. Article

Li C., Zhou J., Armaghani D.J., Cao W., YAGIZ S. Stochastic assessment of hard rock pillar stability based on the geological strength index system (2021) Geomechanics and Geophysics for Geo-Energy and Geo-Resources, 7 (2), art. no. 47. DOI: 10.1007/s40948-021-00243-8. Article

Zhou J., Qiu Y., Zhu S., Armaghani D.J., Li C., Nguyen H., YAGIZ S. Optimization of support vector machine through the use of metaheuristic algorithms in forecasting TBM advance rate (2021) Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 97, art. no. 104015. DOI: 10.1016/j.engappai.2020.104015. Article

Yang J., YAGIZ S., Liu Y.-J., Laouafa F. Comprehensive evaluation of machine learning algorithms applied to TBM performance prediction (2022) Underground Space (China), 7 (1), pp. 37 – 49. DOI: 10.1016/j.undsp.2021.04.003. Article

Jafarshirzad P., Ghasemi E., YAGIZ S., Kadkhodaei M.H. Evaluation of hard rock tunnel boring machine (TBM) performance using stochastic modeling (2023) Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, 41 (6), pp. 3513 - 3529. DOI: 10.1007/s10706-023-02471-z. Article

Yazitova A., YAGIZ S. Performance analysis of drilling machines based on rock properties and machine’s specifications (2024) Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, 83 (1), art. no. 37. DOI: 10.1007/s10064-023-03499-4. Article

Ghorbani E., YAGIZ S. Estimating the penetration rate of tunnel boring machines via gradient boosting algorithms (2024) Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 136, art. no. 108985. DOI: 10.1016/j.engappai.2024.108985. Article

Ghorbani E., YAGIZ S. Predicting disc cutter wear using two optimized machine learning techniques (2024) Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, 24, art. no. 106, Cited 9 times. DOI: 10.1007/s43452-024-00911-y. Article

Jamshidi A., YAGIZ S. Limestone deterioration under freeze–thaw and acid attack: a critical geotechnical problem for the stability of a structure foundation (A case from Lorestan Province, Iran) (2025) Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, 58 (6), pp. 7129 – 7148. DOI: 10.1007/s00603-025-04429-4. Article

Gad A., Arman H., YAGIZ S., Abdelghany O., Bahaa Mahmoud B., Ahmed A., Paramban S., Mahmoud Abu Saima. Strength characterization of limestone lithofacies under different moisture states (2025) Scientific Reports, 15(1), art. no. 36822. DOI:10.1038/s41598-025-22699-4. Article

Yazitova A., Adoko A.C., Hassanpour J., YAGIZ S. Empirical models for estimating penetration rate of tunnel boring machines in rock mass (2025) Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, 84 (1), art. no. 55. DOI: 10.1007/s10064-024-04062-5. Article

Zhou P., Wang J., Song Z., Tian X., Zhang Y., Xiao W., YAGIZ S. Theoretical prediction method for settlement of existing tunnel induced by undercrossing (2026) Transportation Geotechnics, 62:102111. DOI:10.1016/j.trgeo.2026.102111. Article

Olaiya D.T., YAGIZ S., Adoko A.C. TBM penetration rate estimation using Rock Mass Rating (RMR) and machine specifications (2026) Rock Mechanics Bulletin,  5(3):100328. DOI: 10.1016/j.rockmb.2026.100328 . Article

Ghorbani E., YAGIZ S. Comprehensive models for estimating drag force of conical picks using relieved small-scale LCM tests data (2026) Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, X (x), pp. xx-xx. DOI: 10.1007/s00603-025-04967-x. Article

Hosseini S., YAGIZ S. Explainable ensemble machine learning for predicting the drilling rate of diamond core drillers using SHAP and integrated graphic user interface (2026) Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, X(x), pp. xx-xx. DOI:10.1007/s00603-026-055573-1. Article