École des Ponts and Ecole Polytechnique, in close affiliation with Lafarge, combined efforts to create an education programme that will be unique in the world. The Education and Research Chair provides an original combination of the most advanced skills in the areas of physics, mechanics and chemistry, to offer international outstanding training and research in construction materials, to reach sustainable development.

The Chair's goal

• to become a world center of excellence in the science of building materials for sustainable development,
• to develop a training at master's level,
• to develop and federate an interdisciplinary approach, based on the preparation of thesis within the CIFRE agreements or the obtention of scholarships to prepare PhD. Financial helps for accomodation are available for students.

Recruitment level : engineering school or Bachelor degree

Innovating scientific and engineering training

• The Chair offers students a high-level education, one that proposes the latest scientific knowledge, the acquisition of technical know-how, a mastery of methodologies and industrial tools, as well an understanding not only of challenges of sustainable construction, but also the economic constraints of the business world. Training is organised as six modules that represent the fundamental scientific disciplines.
• The specific classes of the Chair are :
  - Economics, sustainable development and management of the CO2 emissions market
  - Physicomechanical characteristics of porous environments
  - Physicochemistry of building materials
  - Rheophysics and soft matter
  - Digital simulation and methods for changing scale
  - Disordinate structures and physical tools

Research

Research will be organised in projects lasting several years (master internship in research labs, thesis, contracts) that address major issues with strong industrial applications and substantial scientific content.
Example of research themes include :

• Environmental behavior of plaster
• Deferred behavior of concrete
• Reaction of concrete to freezing
• Analysis of CO2 emissions generated during the life cycle of concrete

International scope

The Chair works in close collaboration with international experts in sciences and building materials engineering.

• Conferences with international professors, including : Pr R. J. Kirkpatrick, University of Illinois ; Pr. P. Monteiro, Berkeley ; Pr. L. Pel, Delft ; Pr. G. Sherer, Princeton ; Pr. F.J. Ulm, MIT
• International student exchange programmes
• Organisation of international internships
• Organisation of conferences and seminars
• An active policy of publishing in international reviews
  

Contact : Olivier Coussy