Keynote Speakers
Robert J. Flatt
Switzerland
He is Professor for Physical Chemistry of Building Materials at ETH Zürich since 2010. Before he was Principal Scientist at Sika Technology AG and postdoctoral researcher at the Princeton University. He owns a master in Chemical Engineering and a PhD from EPFL (Switzerland). Prof. Flatt is currently Deputy Director of the Swiss National Competence Centre on Digital Fabrication in Architecture. His main research topicsare the working mechanisms of chemical admixtures, cement hydration, digital fabrication with concrete and the preservation of built cultural heritage. He earned several important awards including the 2016 Swiss Technology Award, two Concrete Innovation Awards (2014, 2017), the RILEM Medal and the Sandmeyer Award from the Swiss Chemical Society for outstanding contribution to industrial and applied chemistry. Robert is also fellow of the American Ceramic Society. Prof. Flatt also co-authored the book Science and Technology of Concrete Admixtures.
Maria Juenger
U.S.A
She is the L.B. (Preach) Meaders Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering and Associate Dean of Graduate Education Transformation in the Graduate School at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Juenger’s teaching and research focus on materials used in civil engineering applications.She primarily examines chemical issues in cement-based materials, including phase formation in cement clinkering, hydration chemistry of cements and supplementary cementitious materials, and chemical deterioration processes in concrete. Her current research efforts emphasize the interaction of cement-based materials and the environment.This work encompasses the development and characterization of cementitious systems with lower carbon dioxide and energy footprints, as well as the capacity of cementitious materials to produce or remove airborne and waterborne pollutants. Dr. Juenger is a fellow of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and the American Ceramic Society (ACerS). She currently serves on the Board of Directors of ACI. She has received several awards from ACI for her research, teaching, and service, including the Walter P. Moore, Jr. Faculty Achievement Award, the Young Member Award for Professional Achievement, the Wason Medal for Materials Research, the Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award, and the Concrete Sustainability Award. She has also received a Faculty Early CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation.She is an associate editor of Cement and Concrete Composites and is on the editorial boards of both Cement and Concrete Research and ACI Materials Journal. Dr. Juenger received her B.S. degree in Chemistry from Duke University and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University. After completing her Ph.D., she was a postdoctoral researcher in Civil Engineering at the University at California, Berkeley before coming to the University of Texas at Austin.
Kamal Khayat
U.S.A
He is the Vernon and Maralee Jones Professor of civil engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T), Rolla, Missouri. Between 1990 and 2011, he was professor of Civil Engineering at the Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec. He is the director of the Center for Infrastructure Engineering Studies at Missouri S&T and director of the Tier-1 University Transportation Center for Research on Concrete Applications for Sustainable Transportation (RE-CAST). Dr. Khayat is Fellow of ACI and RILEM and recipient of numerous awards, including the is the ACI Concrete Research Council Robert E. Philleo Award in 2020, the ACI Wason Medal for the Most Meritorious paper in 2018, the ACI Foundation Jean-Claude Roumain Innovation in Concrete Award in 2017, and the ACI Arthur R. Anderson Medal in 2015 and the 2020 President’s Award for Sustained Career Excellence from the University of Missouri System. Dr. Khayat has conducted pioneer work in the field of rheology and self-consolidating concrete. Other research interests include high-performance concrete, underwater concrete, fiber-reinforced concrete, ultra-high performance concrete, and grouting. He has authored and co-authored over 450 technical papers and was recently listed by Elsevier among the 150 most cited people in civil engineering in the world.
Chi Sun Poon
Hong Kong
He obtained his PhD from Imperial College, London, spent two years as a Post-doctoral Fellows at Oxford University specialising in cement and concrete research. Currently, he is the Chair Professor of Sustainable Construction Materials and Head at the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has been awarded the title of Changjiang Chair Professor by the Ministry of Education. He specialises in the teaching and research of concrete technology, eco-friendly construction materials and waste management. He has published over 400 papers in international journals and conferences (including over 350 international journal papers, and 8 patents). Prof. Poon is a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers and the Hong Kong Concrete Institute (HKCI). He was a Chairman of HKIE (Environmental Division) and Discipline Representative of the HKIE Environmental Discipline. He has been the President of the HKCI since 2014 and is now the Immediate Past President. Prof. Poon was also a past President of the American Concrete Institute (China) Chapter. He was awarded the State Technological Innovation Award 2017 (2nd Prize).
Karen Scrivener
Switzerland
She obtained her PhD at Imperial College in 1984. She worked for Lafarge in France for 6 years, before being appointed Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Construction Materials, at EPFL, Switzerland in 2001. In 2003 she founded the research network Nanocem bringing together the leading Industrial companies (Cement and admixtures) with European academic institute to do research on Cementitious Materials. Her research focusses on the understanding the chemistry and microstructure of cement based materials and improving their sustainability. In 2008, shecame up with the idea for LC3 cement, this material has the potential to cut CO2 emissions related to cement by more than 400 million tonnes a year. She was made a fellow of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering in 2014.
Arezki Tagnit-Hamou
Canada
Full professor at the Department of Civil Engineering of UdeS and Fellow of the American Concrete Institute (FACI). He is the director of the Research Centre for Concrete Infrastructures at UdeS (CRIB-US). His expertise has been internationally recognized in research areas of ecological concretes and the valorization of by-products. He is the Director of the Cement and Concrete Research Group of UdeS. He is also holding the Industrial Chair for Research in the area of valorization of waste glass in materials which was awarded by the Société des Alcools du Québec (SAQ).
He is member and leader of a number of technical committees of the American Concrete Institute (ACI), the International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems and Structures (RILEM) and the Canadian Standard Association (CSA): ACI C-130: Sustainability in Concrete ACI C130D: Sustainability tools (Directeur) ACI C-555: Concrete with Recycles Materials RILEM TC 224-AAM: Alkali Activated Materials RILEM TC DTA: Durability techniques of alkali-activated materials RILEM TC 217PRE: Progress of recycling in the built environment. CSA A3000: MatériauxCimentaires CSA A3004: Sous comitéajoutscimentairesalternatifs (co-présidentIn 2011, he received the Jean-Claude Roumain Innovation in Concrete Award for the ACI Strategic Development Council (ACI-SDC) for his research work on the sustainable development in concrete. He is a three-times laureate of a ADRIQ/NSERC award. He was laureate of the "Célébrons le Partenariat (University/Enterprise) in 2011 and 2012 and of the Innovation award in 2013.