Keynote speakers

Jose Norambuena-Contreras is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering at Swansea University, UK. He is also an active member of the Materials and Manufacturing Research Institute (M2RI-UK). His research is focused on self-healing bituminous materials for more sustainable and resilient roads. This multidisciplinary approach integrates methodologies from material science, civil engineering, and chemical engineering disciplines. Over the past ten years, he held positions as both an Assistant and Associate Professor in Civil Engineering at the University of Bio-Bio (UBB-Chile), where he founded and directed the Research Group LabMAT. Prior to his roles at UBB-Chile, he held scientific positions as a Researcher and Postdoctoral Fellow at several prestigious institutions, including the University of Cantabria (Spain), EMPA at ETH-Zürich (Switzerland) and the University of Nottingham (UK). He has undertaken research in the field of bituminous materials, attaining an H-index of 32 with over 3,400 citations to date. He has contributed to over 140 scientific articles, including peer-reviewed journal publications, book chapters, and conference papers. He has been a Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI on 15+ Research Projects supported by several industries and Funding Agencies. In recognition of his outstanding research, Dr. Norambuena-Contreras was awarded the 2023 Scientist Medal by the International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM). He has also been very actively involved in RILEM, serving on multiple technical committees within his field, and contributing to Lat-RILEM. Recently, he was appointed as the new Regional Convener of RILEM for Latin America.

Karen Scrivener has been Professor and Director of the Laboratory of Construction Materials in the Department of Materials of EPFL(Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne for the last 20 years. She is a Fellow of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering and author of over 200 journal papers. Her research focusses on the understanding the chemistry and microstructure of cement based materials and improving their sustainability. In 2008, she came 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 received her bachelor’s degree in Materials Science from the University of Cambridge in 1979 and her PhD from Imperial College London in 1984.

Nicolas Roussel is the head of the physico-chemistry of construction materials laboratory at Gustave Eiffel university, France. He is moreover the current president of RILEM. His research focuses on mix design, rheology and processing of construction materials. With 135 journal papers and more than 10.000 citations, his H-index is currently 54. He received in 2007 the Robert L'Hermite medal for his work on fresh concrete rheology and processing.

Susan A. Bernal is Professor of Structural Materials at the University of Leeds, UK.She was awarded the 2022 RILEM Robert L’Hermite, and the 2016 RILEM Gustavo Colonnetti Medals in recognition to her contributions to cementitious materials science and engineering. Her team’s research centres on development of solutions for decarbonise future infrastructure including: (i) waste valorisation for developing new low carbon cementitious materials, particularly alkali-activated cements, and Portland cement systems with high contents of supplementary cementitious materials, and (ii) understanding factors controlling durability performance of concretes. She is Co-Director of the UK Transforming Foundation Industries Network Plus representing the cements sector, Deputy Chair of the RILEM Technical Committee - RILEM TC 281-CCC on carbonation of concretes with supplementary cementitious materials, and member of the RILEM Technical Activities Committee (TAC). She also serves as Associate Editor of the journals Cement and Concrete Research, RILEM Technical Letters and npj Materials Sustainability.

Jason Weiss is Professor at the School of Civil and Construction Engineering at Oregon State University. He is the Edwards Distinguished Chair in Engineering. His research group is known for contributions to the ring and dual ring test, shrinkage-reducing admixtures, internal curing, electrical resistivity (formation factor), freeze-thaw damage, salt damage, microbially induced concrete corrosion, and mixture proportioning methods that reduce embodied carbon content.  He is Editor-in-Chief of the American Concrete Institute’s Journal of Materials.  He has authored 270 peer-reviewed journal articles.  He is the recipient of the NSF Career Award, RILEM L'Hermite Medal, and ASCE Huber Award.  He has been recognized by ACI with the W. P. Moore, Philleo, Wason, and Arthur Anderson Awards.  He has been recognized by TRB with the Mather and Burgraff awards, ESCSI with the Erskine award, ACPA with the Knutson award, and ASTM with the C13 Chairs and Committee on Publications award.  He is a fellow of ACI and RILEM and is the recipient of ten teaching awards.

Shiho Kawashima is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University in the City of New York. She specializes in cement rheology and processing, with recent efforts on 3D concrete printing and CO2-to-concrete pathways. Kawashima received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award in 2017 and the American Ceramics Society (ACerS) Early Career Award in 2022. She is an active member of American Concrete Institute (236 Material Science of Concrete, 238 Workability of Concrete), ACerS (Cements Division), and RILEM (TC PEM and MBC), and serves on the editorial board of ACI Materials Journal and Cement and Concrete Research. Kawashima received her B.S. in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University, and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Structural Engineering and Materials at Northwestern University. She joined Columbia University as an Assistant Professor in 2013.

Professor Hans Beushausen studied civil engineering in Germany and South Africa and completed his PhD at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2005, working in the fields of repair and rehabilitation of concrete structures. In subsequent years at UCT, he broadened his scope of research and teaching from general fields related to structural engineering into service life prediction and performance-based design of concrete structures, steel reinforcement corrosion, and sustainable concrete technology. He is an active member of RILEM and fib and involved in a range of international research activities. At UCT, he is the Deputy Dean for Research and Strategic Innovation of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, Director of the Concrete Materials and Structural Integrity Research Unit, and the Convenor of the postgraduate programme on Civil Infrastructure Management and Maintenance.

Enrico Sassoni is Associate Professor of “Materials Science and Technology” at the University of Bologna (Italy). His main research topics include innovative materials and techniques for the conservation of historic building materials and cultural heritage artefacts. In 2015 he was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, thanks to which he has worked at Princeton University (USA) and the University of Göttingen (Germany). In 2017 he was awarded the prestigious "Gustavo Colonnetti Medal" by RILEM. He is currently Deputy Editor-in-Chief of "Materials and Structures" and member of the Editorial Boards of "RILEM Technical Letters" and "Frontiers in Materials".

Corina G. Papanicolaou holds a Diploma and a Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece. She has been a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment of the Joint Research Centre, Ispra (2003-04) and a faculty member of the Civil Engineering Dept., University of Patras (from 2004 onwards, currently serving as an Assoc. Professor). Her main research interests are focused on experimental mechanics of structural materials under normal and extreme environmental conditions (including fire) with a special focus on the mechanical behavior of inorganic matrix composites (mainly, textile-reinforced mortars/concrete) and their use in the strengthening/rehabilitation of structurally-deficient structures (typically, old/cultural heritage ones) and in the optimum design of advanced prefabrication systems. She is a member of International and Greek Scientific Committees and Associations and the co-Chair of Rilem TC IMC “Durability of Inorganic Matrix Composites used for Strengthening of Masonry Constructions”.

Prof. Paulo Monteiro is the Roy W. Carlson Distinguished professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at U.C. Berkeley. He has published over 300 archival papers, and he co-authored a comprehensive textbook on concrete that is widely used and has been translated into Japanese, Chinese, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, and Persian. He has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and has received the following awards for this research: Stephen Brunauer Award (twice), Premio Ari Torres, and Wa-son Medal for Materials Research.

Carmen Andrade is Doctor. in Industrial Chemistry and Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Trondheim (Norway) and of Alicante (Spain) and has been Titular Prof. 2021 of the Chair “Construindo a Amanha” of San Paulo University-Brasil. She has been Research Professor at the Institute of Construction Sciences of the CSIC of Spain until 2017, devoting his research to concrete durability and reinforcement corrosion. She has received several awards among which are: R. N. Robert L’Hermite Medal 1987 from RILEM and Whitney Prize 2013 by NACE. She has been President of several international organizations: RILEM, UEAtc, WFTAO, Liaison Committeee and the Iberoamerican Ass. For Concrete Rehabilitation (ALCONPAT Int.) and is Fellow of Rilem and fib and Honorary member of RILEM. She is now Research Visiting Professor at the International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE) of the Technical University of Catalonia-Spain. Also is Honorary President of ALCONPAT Int.  and her Director of International Relations.

Mateusz Wyrzykowski did his PhD in Civil Engineering in 2010. He leads the Concrete Technology Group at the Concrete and Asphalt Lab at Empa, Switzerland and is also a leader of Empa's Research Focus Area "Built Environment". His research is devoted to deformations and corresponding stresses development in concrete, in particular at early ages, with the overall goal of understanding and mitigating cracking of concrete. He also works on development of novel sustainable binders and concretes, with special focus on carbon sequestration, clinker reduction and improved durability.

Mateusz Wyrzykowski has been an active RILEM member since 2010, participating to different TCs, conferences and serving as an associate editor in Materials and Structures since 2021.

Stéphane Multon is a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at INSA Toulouse. He completed his Ph.D. in the Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées (LCPC) in Paris. He joined the Laboratory of Materials and Durability of Construction (LMDC) in 2003. His research interests include internal swelling reaction (alkali-silica reaction and delayed ettringite formation) and air permeability, both for experimental and modelling developments at material and structural scales.

Monika Woloszyn is a full professor at the Université Savoie Mont Blanc in France, and head of the Solar Academy Graduate School. Over the past 25 years at the Universities of Lyon and Savoie, Monika has covered various topics in Building Physics and Building Energy Performance. Her research focuses mainly on coupled heat and mass transfer in building envelopes, covering different scales from material behaviour to whole building performance. Her research work in modelling with experimental validation has enabled Monika to gain a better understanding of building envelopes. The applications of this research span from innovative modern double-skin ventilated facades to very traditional wooden-frame, bio-based or earth-based walls. Monika has published over 100 scientific papers. She is involved in Building Physics and International Building Performance Association communities. She is IBPSA Fellow and serves as Editor in Building and Environment Journal.

Thibaut Lecompte is an Assistant Professor at U. Bretagne-Sud and IRDL lab (France), in civil engineering, eco-materials and eco-construction. After a PhD thesis in powder mechanics, he worked as a research engineer for Lafarge group for two years. His main research topics concern bio-based and earth-based materials for building. He works (1) on dependences between processing parameters, mix designs and rheology of granular materials in the fresh state and (2) on the mechanical, hydrothermal and environmental performances from material scale to building scale. He also developed approaches of Life Cycle Assessments in building sector. In this capacity, he is a member of the High Council of Britanny for the climate.

Fionn McGregor earned his PhD from the University of Bath (UK) with a focus on the moisture buffering properties of clay-based building materials. Following a Marie-Curie "PRESTIGE" postdoctoral fellowship, he assumed the role of an associate professor at the University of Lyon (ENTPE). His research primarily centers on low carbon building materials, including clay-based and bio-based materials. Presently, he serves as the head of the Academic Chair "ConstrucTerr'" at the University of Pau and Pays de l'Adour (UPPA), dedicated to advancing the use of low carbon clay-based building materials. In the frame of the chair, his work encompasses the investigation of the material's impact on indoor comfort, ranging from the microscopic material scale to full-scale demonstrators. Additionally, he studies the effects of weathering agents on the material's durability. He currently leads a working group focusing on the durability of clay-based materials within the RILEM TC MAE.

Dr. Guoqing Geng is Assistant Professor of the Department Civil and Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore. He received his PhD degree in Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) of UC Berkeley in 2017, with research interests on microscale chemistry and mineralogy of cementitious materials. He was awarded the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral fellowship in Paul Scherer Institute (Switzerland), where he studied the durability of concrete both as a construction material and hosting material for radioactive wastes. Since 2019, Dr. Geng has led a research group in CEE of National University of Singapore, dedicated to the designing of construction materials with improved sustainability, performance and durability against the tropic marine environment. He is a board member of the American Concrete Institute – Singapore Chapter, Singapore Concrete Institute. He is also the East Asian Region Convener and technical committee members of RILEM.

Mohammed Sonebi is a Professor of Sustainable and Structural Materials at School of Natural and Built Environment at Queen’s University Belfast, UK. He is a Fellow of RILEM and RILEM Regional Convenor Middle East and North Africa. He was the Chair of RILEM Committee on TC-266-MRP and served as a member of 15 RILEM committees. He is a Fellow of American Concrete Institute.  He was a Vice-Chair of American Concrete Institute ACI 552 –Cementitious Grouting, a voting member of six other ACI Committees. He is a Fellow of Institute on Concrete Technology (UK) and also a member of ASTM International (C09-47-SCC), and fib TG8.8. He is (co-)authored more than 290 peer-review journal and conference papers and 35 books/chapters with high citations (7116, h-index: 45). His research focusses on 3D printing concrete, bio-based building materials, rheology and self-compacting concrete.  He received his MSc’s and PhD from University of Sherbrooke (Canada).

 Eshan Dave is a professor and graduate program coordinator in the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New Hampshire. He obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2003 and 2009 respectively. Eshan held a Visiting Professorship at the Université Gustave Eiffel in France from 2021 to 2024. Eshan’s research interests include performance evaluation of pavements and paving materials, development and implementation of performance-based specifications, resilient design of transportation infrastructure, climate variability impacts on infrastructure longevity, life cycle assessment, and cold regions pavement operability and performance. In addition to RILEM, Eshan holds leadership positions in several other professional organizations, for example, he is director at large for International Society for Asphalt Pavements (ISAP) and chair of the ISAP Technical Committee on Pavement Field Evaluation. He has recently led and participated in research studies on performance-based material selection, design and management of pavement infrastructure and climate-change adaptation strategies of road infrastructure. Eshan is also associate editor for the Road Materials and Pavement Design journal.

Gabriele Tebaldi is an Associate Professor in Construction of Road, Railways, and Airport at the Department of Engineering and Architecture of the University of Parma (National Scientific Qualification for Full Professor Position awarded in November 2017), he is also a Visiting Research Professor at the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering of University of New Hampshire. He obtained his Ph.D. in Road, Railways, and Airport Building (certified equivalent to a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering in the USA Higher Education system) from Università degli Studi di Ancona (now Università Politecnica delle Marche) in 2000. Gabriele’s research interests include asphalt recycling, performance of bituminous materials, pavement performance evaluation, use of byproducts in asphalt mixtures. Gabriele is a RILEM Fellow, and in RILEM he is a member of the Development Advisory Committee and Chairman of TC 308-PAR Performance-based Asphalt Recycling. Gabriele is Chairman of the European Asphalt Technology Association, Former President and Member of the Board of Directors of International Society for Asphalt Pavements (ISAP); in ISAP Gabriele is also Chair of and chair of the Technical Committee on Asphalt Pavements and Environment. He is Editor in Chief for the Road Materials and Pavement Design journal and Associate Editor of the Materials and Structures journal.

Roland Pellenq is a CNRS Director of Research at the European Institute of Membranes (Montpellier, France). He is a computational materials scientist with a strong interest in the physics of porous materials and confined fluids. He obtained a PhD in Chemical Physics from Imperial College London (UK) in 1994 and received his Habilitation degree from the University of Orléans (France) in 2000. Roland Pellenq's research is dedicated to the development of bottom-up simulation approaches for a large variety of critical problems in energy and environment, ranging from hydrogen/CH₄ storage, CCUS, cement research and more recently to Urban Physics. He is the author of 250+ papers. He was the founder and head of the MIT-CNRS joint laboratory (2008-2020). He currently leads the USERS-CNRS international network on Urban Physics. R. Pellenq in the recipient of the 2019 Prix Special du Jury, Trophées de l’Innovation from Aix-Marseille University; the Research Medal of the 2018 ALERT European Geomechanics association; the 2017 Appreciation award of the US Engineering Mechanical Institute; the Young Researcher Award at the 2003 French Sci&Tech Festival and the 2002 Young Researcher Award of the Division de Physique-Chimie (France).

Laurent Izoret holds a PhD in Internal Geophysics, Geochemistry & Mineralogy from Paris 7 University. Laurent Izoret spent most of his career in the French Cement Industry. He first held a position in a start-up specialising in materials failure analysis, before joining the Vicat group from 1988 to 2001, where he held various positions: head of the central R&D laboratory, R&D director and director of a cement plant in Senegal. Then, He moved to Lafarge Group as cement plant manager in Nigeria, and then in Honduras. Back to France in 2006, he took the position of Technical Sales Manager for France. He joined ATILH (Technical Association of the French Cement Industry) in 2011 as R&D director then as R&D and Standardization director. During this period, he was also technical secretary of the French cement standards committee AFNOR P15A, chairman of the French cement certification committee, chairman of CEN/TC51 and a member of Cembureau and RILEM. As researcher, he co-supervised 7 PhDs, 20 research internships and (co-)authored around 40 scientific/technical papers. He is currently CEO of Réseau Réciproque Conseil (Reciprocal Network Consulting), a consulting company dedicated to R&D and engineering of low carbon materials for construction. He is also a researcher at the Institute for Mineralogy, Physics of Materials and Cosmo-chemistry at Paris Sorbonne University. He is Co-chairman of RILEM TC-PHC (Performance testing for Hydraulic Cement) with Karen Scrivener and a corresponding member of RILEM/TC-EBD.