12 Mar 2014
The second recent Young Researchers' Forum in Construction Materials was held at University College, London on 19 February 2014 and was by all measures, a resounding success. This SCI meeting spans all construction materials and is co-promoted by several of the learned societies, working in co-operation, with one taking the role of lead organiser. This year's event was steered very ably by the Institute of Concrete Technology whose Events Director, Raman Mangabhai, did sterling work organising the meeting.
The SCI Construction Materials Group Young Researchers' Forum was resurrected in recent years in order to allow networking of early career materials scientists and engineers. It's a format that has been extremely successful and well supported.
Seventy participants attended this year's forum, including representatives of eight countries. Fourteen high quality presentations were given throughout a very full day on a wide range of related topics. In addition, a poster competition was held. This was well-received and a number of the 26 poster authors took advantage of the opportunity to present their ideas verbally to the audience of delegates.
Society of Chemical Industry Prize (oral presentation):
Chrysoula Litina, from the University of Cambridge, for her paper on the: Development of self-healing cementitious composites with microencapsulated healing agents.
Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining Prize (oral presentation):
Julia Herterich, University of Leeds, for her paper on: Microstructure and phase assemblage of low-clinker cements during the early stages of carbonation.
Institute of Concrete Technology Prize (oral presentation):
Yanfei Yue, from University College, London for her paper on: Characterisation of Friedel's salt in cementitious materials with Raman spectroscopy.
Institute of Concrete Technology Prize (poster presentation):
Haolin Su, from the University of Birmingham for the poster: Physical and mechanical properties of concrete containing single and mixed sized rubber particles with and without pre-treatment.
Institute of Concrete Technology Prize (poster presentation):
Sukina Alzyound, from Imperial College, London for the poster: Effect of spacers on concrete transport properties and chloride penetration.
The organisers would like to add their congratulations to the prize winners, to thank all the authors for their efforts and to our sponsors: The David Ball Group, Grace, Isolearn, Sika and Zwick-Roell for their support.
Mark Tyrer and Adrian Blacker
Construction Materials Group
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