Prof. Franco Zunino

Prof. Franco Zunino is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on developing innovative, environmentally friendly cementitious materials through a fundamental scientific approach. His interests include advanced time-resolved characterization of cement hydration, surface–polymer interactions in cement pastes, microstructural analysis using electron microscopy, and the optimization of clinker and supplementary cementitious material production processes.

Dr. Zunino’s work has been recognized internationally. His doctoral thesis received the Nanocem 2020 Prize for the best Ph.D. thesis in cement and concrete science worldwide. In 2022, he was awarded the Wason Medal by the American Concrete Institute (ACI) for the most meritorious paper published in their journals in 2021. In 2023, he received the Colonnetti Medal from RILEM for his outstanding contributions to construction materials and structures.

He currently serves as Chair of the ACI 240.0A subcommittee on calcined clays, secretary of ACI 231 committee on early-age properties of concrete and chair of Workgroup 5 within the ASTM C09.24 subcommittee on reactivity. He is also a member of the Educational Activities Committee (EAC) of RILEM and serves on the Editorial Board of Construction and Building Materials and RILEM Technical Letters.