CIES welcomes new staff member

Dr Ali KashaniCIES welcomes Dr Ali Kashani – a 2018 Churchill Fellow, and expert in the field of sustainable concrete design and technology - specifically waste valorisation and circular economy in concrete design, lightweight concrete, geopolymer concrete, and automated construction 3D printing.

Dr Kashani has extensive experience in research, development, and commercialisation of advanced and sustainable construction materials. His primary research area is 'Construction Automation' via development of novel high-performance materials and techniques for construction 3D printing. His other main area of research is sustainable construction materials for the 'Circular Economy' including waste valorisation and low-carbon construction materials.

Ali received his BSc and MSc from Iran’s leading technical and engineering university, Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran.  He obtained his PhD in 2015 from The University in Melbourne with research into the rheology and fresh properties of low-carbon geopolymer concrete. As a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Melbourne, his focus widened into development of sustainable lightweight concrete, design of concrete with waste tyre and waste glass, and exploration of the innovative field of construction 3D printing.

He has been the Project Leader in several R&D projects funded (to a total of $645,000) by government entities and construction industry leaders in Australia, to promote research in advanced and sustainable concrete. He continues to look at partnerships with industry. “We are looking forward to working with cement and concrete industries and building standard regulators to prove the viability of using sustainable concrete with recycled materials in different applications”

Automation in construction by 3D printing is another main research interest. And this area is proving equally exciting and fruitful. One of Dr Kashani’s recently papers as a corresponding author about 3D printing was published in the high-impact Elsevier Journal ‘Composites:  Part B’ in June 2018. It has attracted 331 citations so far.

It was this area of research which won Ali a prestigious Churchill Fellowship in 2018. The award will allow him to travel to six countries to continue his research into 3D printing of houses. The 3D project has the potential, he notes, to assist with more sustainable, faster and safer construction of affordable houses and to provide housing solutions to disadvantaged Australian communities and homeless people. These technologies could also be used to provide quick accommodation for affected communities after natural disasters such as floods and bushfires.

We are excited and delighted to have such a passionate, knowledgeable and innovative scholar join our Centre team.

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