Dr Elias Kassa is currently a Principal Track Engineer and leading the Track Infrastructure team at the Monash IRT. Prior to IRT, he was working as senior researcher and Professor, with focus on researches on wide aspect of track issues and teaching railway courses and providing trainings at graduate and postgraduate programs. Dr Kassa's research focus has been on rail vehicle dynamics in turnouts and dynamics of train-track interaction. Dr Kassa has over 20 years of research experience within rail related topics. He has developed knowledge in the fields of wheel-rail interface, track alignment design and alignment optimization, and track components design, and became a specialized expert in train-turnout interaction and slab track. He has led a range of research and consultancy projects dealing with turnouts, level crossings, slab track choice, locomotive visibility at level crossings, inspection and condition monitoring of tracks and turnouts for clients around the world. He has published several articles in journals, magazines, edited technical reports and conference proceedings, all dealing with railway engineering subjects.