He has received numerous awards including Fulbright cholarship awards, teaching awards, best paper awards, community service awards, and admission as an Eminent Engineer into Tau Beta Pi. His research on passive radon-resistant new residential building construction was adapted in HB1647 building code of Florida Legislature. Najafi is a member of numerous professional societies and has served on many committees and programs, and continuously attends and presents refereed papers at international,

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... national, and local professional meetings and conferences. Lastly, Najafi attends courses, seminars and workshops, and has developed courses, videos and software packages during his career. His areas of specialization include transportation planning and management, legal aspects, construction contract administration, public works and renewable energy. ABSTRACT As climate change becomes more of a reality, and as our non-renewable resources are becoming depleted, finding "cleaner" renewable energy for our society is imperative. In recognition of this problem, the objective of this paper is to present the geothermal energy as one of the clean and sustainable form of renewable energy that uses the heat stored in the Earth as its source of energy. Its first commercial uses dates back to the early 1800's and has continued to grow throughout the years. One of its most known and common uses is at a small scale as a heat source for residences. It can also be used at a much larger scales. There are several questions that come up with large scale geothermal energy model. How much energy can be produced? Can geothermal energy produce enough energy for a whole town, city, or country? What is the initial cost and lifelong cost of geothermal energy? Are there limitations in regards to geographic locations? This paper will identify and explore the viability of different large-scale uses of geothermal energy, and how it stands out in comparison to other major sources of renewable energy such as wind power, solar power, hydropower and bio energy. The results of this study indicates initial costs of geothermal power plants is high, even double compared to other power generation plants, due to the high cost of well drilling and well exploration. However, the lifecycle costs of geothermal plants tend to be much lower, resulting in a sound economic choice over the lifespan of a facility. Particularly when considering the environmental benefits of using geothermal power over traditional forms of fossil power production. This study is related to improvement and enhancement of graduate engineering education in a changing environment. Engineers must recognize the negative impacts of fossil fuel as the main source of energy. And the facts of the price of silence on climate change and the high cost on environment caused by fossil fuel carbon emission. And the recognition in the number of people and property likely to be affected by rising sea levels caused by melting polar ice caps. The study and analysis of geothermal energy as one of the clean and sustainable form of renewable energy would fit the call in the graduate division and it is consistent with the division objective.