Northwestern University Professor Hamlin Jennings will join the Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSH) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, as inaugural executive director, serving also as MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering adjunct professor
Northwestern University Professor Hamlin Jennings will join the Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSH) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, as inaugural executive director, serving also as MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering adjunct professor. Credited with the first fully quantitative model of the nanostructure of calcium silicate hydrate, the major component of hydrated cement, Jennings will take the helm in July.
CSH launched in fall 2009 with a $10 million commitment from PCA and the RMC Research & Education Foundation. Jennings will oversee work on two charter projects: 1) Liquid Stone, aimed at manipulating cement’s basic molecular structure to produce a greener concrete, possibly by swapping one chemical element for another to reduce greenhouse gas emissions during production, or by designing a stronger concrete that would require less binding material; and, 2) Edge of Concrete, wherein researchers are developing the basis for quantification of concrete’s ecological and economic performance over the lifetime of structures and pavements.
We are confident CSH researchers will advance scientific breakthroughs to make the manufacture of concrete and cement even more sustainable into the future, but the real key will be to translate that into industry practice, asserts RMC Foundation Executive Director Julie Garbini.