Azer Kehnemui

Featured Alumni

After earning his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey in 1962, and his master’s degree in structural engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Azer Kehnemui joined the structural consulting firm of Smislova & Carcaterra in 1963, and settled in Washington, D.C.

While working as a structural engineer, he decided to pursue a doctoral degree in engineering, and enrolled at GW, where he earned his doctor of science degree in structural mechanics in 1975. The firm was reorganized in the 1970s under the name of Smislova, Kehnemui & Associates (SK&A), and Azer took over leadership of the firm and remained CEO until 2009, when SK&A’s management was transferred to a younger generation of principals.  Since then, Azer has stayed on with the company as a consultant and founding principal. Today, the SK&A Group of three related companies has a large workforce of engineers and technical and management personnel, many of whom are GW alumni.

Over the course of his career, Azer has been responsible for the structural design of several hundred buildings, encompassing a broad range of building project types. He also combined his years of professional experience with an active role as an educator, teaching graduate level engineering courses for many years as a professional lecturer at GW. Azer was also the 2009 recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Structural Engineers Association of metropolitan Washington, D.C.

Azer and his wife Gladys live in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and have two daughters, both married, and two grandchildren.