Professor Mark Alexander is Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering and a Senior Research Scholar at the University of Cape Town, where he is co-director of the Concrete Materials and Structural Integrity Research Unit (CoMSIRU). His research and teaching centre on cement and concrete materials engineering, with a focus on durability, design, construction, and innovations such as low-carbon cements and solutions for marine environments. He holds a PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand and is a National Research Foundation (NRF-B) rated researcher. Professor Alexander has published widely in South Africa and internationally, and is co-author of Aggregates in Concrete (2005), Alkali-Aggregate Reaction and Structural Damage to Concrete (2011), and Durability of Concrete – Design and Construction (2017), and editor of Marine Concrete Structures: Design, Durability and Performance (2016). A Fellow and Past President of RILEM, he also served as President of the Concrete Society of Southern Africa (2018–2020), and continues to act as a specialist consultant on concrete materials and related problems.

Prof. Alexander will present on “Experiences with calcined clay cements in the East and South African contexts – key insights and findings”

Prof. Sofía Sánchez Berriel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the Central University of Las Villas (UCLV), Cuba, where she also serves as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Economic Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in Economics in 2018 through a collaborative program between ETH Zurich (ETHZ) and UCLV, focusing on sustainable construction — work that was recognized as the Best Doctoral Thesis in Economic Sciences in Cuba that year. Prof. Sánchez Berriel’s research centers on the economic and environmental assessment of cement and concrete, with a particular emphasis on low-carbon technologies such as Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3). A member of the LC3 project since 2012, she has led multiple impact assessments addressing the economic, technical, social, and environmental dimensions of LC3 production. Her work has demonstrated significant sustainability benefits, including emissions reductions of 25–35% compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC). She has also contributed to the development of the LC3 Impacts Tool, a specialized program designed to evaluate the economic, environmental, and financial viability of LC3 adoption. Prof. Sánchez Berriel has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and presented her findings at international conferences and workshops on sustainable construction and the built environment. She is an active member of the International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems and Structures (RILEM). Her contributions have been recognized with numerous distinctions, including the Cuban Academy of Sciences Award (2013, 2015), the LCA Award (2019), and the Best Doctoral Thesis Award in Applied Economics (2018).

Prof. Berriel will present on “From data to decarbonization: the economics and carbon value of LC3”

Prof. Shashank Bishnoi is Vice Provost of IIT Delhi Abu Dhabi and Professor of Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. His areas of interest include cement chemistry, sustainability in construction, durability, repair, retrofitting and strengthening of structures. His Ph.D. is from EPFL, Switzerland on modelling of cement hydration, Masters from the University of Tokyo and Bachelors in Civil Engineering from IIT Kanpur. He has over 80 journal and 160 conference publications, in the area of cement and concrete technology. He has worked on over 380 industry and government sponsored research and consulting projects. He is the India lead on the development of Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3) since 2012 and was also responsible for the preparation of the draft standard for LC3 which was accepted as IC18189 by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). He is chairperson of CED 06 sectional committee of BIS and the leader of Indian delegation to ISO TC327 and ISO TC328. He is on the BIS panel tasked with the rewriting of the concrete standard (IS456) of India. He is a member of several technical committees of RILEM. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Cement and Concrete Research journal and an Associate Editor of RILEM Technical Letters journal. He is the Scientific Chairperson of International Congress on the Chemistry of Cement 2027.

Prof. Vanderley M. John’s research interest is focused on eco-efficient solutions for building materials and strategies to improve sustainability of the construction supply chain. Research projects include development of low-binder cement-based and asbestos-free cement-based composites, advanced rendering mortar technology, advanced cement-based materials (FGM, biomimetic, and self-cleaning), processing of construction and demolition waste, and development of streamlined LCA-based tools. He has been a member of the FAPESP Engineering Board since 2010 and of the CNPq Civil Engineering Board (2010–2013). He advises various Brazilian governmental institutions, including the Ministry of Cities and Environment, UNEP SBCI, and NGOs such as WWF. He is also a member of the Board of CBCS – Brazilian Sustainable Construction Council, a think tank dedicated to developing and disseminating sustainable construction, and coordinates the CBCS Building Materials Working Group. He is co-author of the book The Challenge of Sustainable Construction (O Desafio da Sustentabilidade na Construção Civil, Blucher Editora, 2011).

Prof. John will present on “An optimization tool for LC3 cements that balances chemical reactivity with the requirements for mixing water and admixture”

Dr. Joseph Mwiti Marangu is the Founder and Director of the Institute of Cement and Concrete, an Institute that focuses on advancing research, training, and community outreach in cement technology. He also the Head of Limestone Calcined Clay Technology Resource Centre for Africa (LC3TRC Africa) supporting the adoption of LC3 technology in Sub-Saharan Africa. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Kenyatta University, Kenya and has conducted postdoctoral research at EPFL in Switzerland and Cardiff University, United Kingdom. His research emphasizes sustainable cement based materials. He has published widely in scholarly journals, attended and presented research findings in international conferences and workshops on construction materials including United Nations Climate Change conference. He is also a senior member of International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems and Structures (RILEM). A professional association that advances access to scientific knowledge related to construction materials, systems and structures and to encourage transfer and application of this knowledge world-wide. He plays a profound role in linking academia and industry in cement and concrete.

Dr. Marangu will present on “Unlocking Sustainable Construction with Low-Carbon Cement in Sub-Saharan Africa”

Prof. Thomas Matschei is professor for construction materials at the Institute for Building Materials Research (ibac) at RWTH Aachen University. After studying civil engineering, specialized in building materials and renovation, he obtained his PhD at the University of Aberdeen /UK in cooperation with EMPA Dübendorf /CH in the field of cement chemistry in 2008. From 2008 he worked in various positions in the cement industry. In addition to activities in research and development, he was responsible for a team for the application of new cements and binders and worked as a building segment manager. From 2017 to 2020 he worked as a professor for concrete building materials at HTW Dresden/Germany. In 2020 he accepted a professorship for construction materials at RWTH Aachen University. His research focusses on sustainable low carbon binder and concrete systems.

Prof. Matschei will present on “Early age reactivity of calcined clays – impact on LC3 hydration”

Dr. Cheng Yu is a senior engineer, deputy director of R&D department of Sobute New Materials Co., Ltd. He obtained his doctor degree from Southeast University, co-supervised by Prof. Wei Sun and Karen Scrivener. He has been engaged in the research and application of low-carbon cementitious materials and concrete admixtures for a long time. He has led and participated in more than 10 scientific research projects including the National Natural Science Foundation and National Key Research and Development Program in China. He has published over 50 SCI/EI papers, obtained more than 20 patents of invention. His achievements have awarded 6 provincial level scientific and technological prizes, and have been applied to key national projects such as the Baihetan Hydropower Station, Beijing-Xiongan Intercity Railway, Jiangyin-Jingjiang Yangtze River Tunnel and so on.

Dr. Yu will present on “The research progress and prospect of LC3 in China”

Prof. Franco Zunino  is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. His research revolves around the development of novel, environmental friendly cementitious materials with a fundamental scientific approach. Among his interests are advanced, time-resolved characterization methods of cement hydration, interaction of surfaces with polymers in cement paste, microstructural analysis through electron microscopy and optimization of the production process of clinker and supplementary cementitious materials. His doctoral thesis was recognized in 2021 with the Nanocem 2020 prize, awarded to the best thesis in the field of cement and concrete science worldwide by a panel of international experts. In 2022, he received the Wason Medal, awarded by the American Concrete Institute (ACI) to the most meritorious paper published in 2021 in their journals. In 2023, he was recognized by RILEM with the Colonnetti Medal for his outstanding contributions to the fields of construction materials and structures.

Prof. Zunino will present on “Shedding Light on Early-Age Hydration of Metakaolin-containing Cements Using Novel Solid-State NMR Experiments”