Spring 2026: Tu & Th 12:00 - 1:00
Franco Zunino is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. His research uses a fundamental materials science approach to develop sustainable cementitious materials. His specific areas of expertise include the time-resolved characterization of cement hydration, surface–polymer interactions in cement pastes, microstructural analysis via electron microscopy, and the optimization of manufacturing processes for clinker and supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). At CEE, Professor Zunino leads the Science of Cementitious Materials (SCiM) Laboratory.
Professor Zunino’s research has received widespread international recognition. He is a recipient of the 2026 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, which follows a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Starting Grant in 2024 and an SNSF Ambizione grant in 2022. His honors also include the 2023 RILEM Colonnetti Medal, the 2022 American Concrete Institute (ACI) Wason Medal for Most Meritorious Paper, and the global Nanocem 2020 Prize for the best doctoral thesis in cement and concrete science.
Active in professional leadership and standardization, he chairs the ACI 240.0A subcommittee on calcined clays and Workgroup 5 within the ASTM C09.24 subcommittee on reactivity, and serves as secretary for the ACI 231 committee on early-age properties of concrete. He is a member of the RILEM Educational Activities Committee (EAC) and serves on the editorial board of Construction and Building Materials, as well as an Associate Editor for RILEM Technical Letters and the ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering.
At the Science of Cementitious Materials (SCiM) laboratory, our research bridges fundamental materials science with scalable, real-world engineering solutions. Rather than tackling decarbonization through isolated, short-term projects, our work is organized around four core, interlinked research thrusts. These thrusts address the entire lifecycle of sustainable infrastructure materials, from raw material extraction and chemical activation to fluid-state placement and multi-decade durability. Crucially, this framework captures our laboratory’s multiscale scientific approach, seamlessly bridging the micro, meso, and macro scales from atomistic simulations and cement hydration kinetics to microstructural development and structural engineering properties.
Research Thrusts
At the Science of Cementitious Materials (SCiM) laboratory, our research bridges fundamental materials science with scalable, real-world engineering solutions. Rather than tackling decarbonization through isolated, short-term projects, our work is organized around four core, interlinked research thrusts. These thrusts address the entire lifecycle of sustainable infrastructure materials, from raw material extraction and chemical activation to fluid-state placement and multi-decade durability. Crucially, this framework captures our laboratory’s multiscale scientific approach, seamlessly bridging the micro, meso, and macro scales from atomistic simulations and cement hydration kinetics to microstructural development and structural engineering properties.
Cement chemistry and structure of hydration products
To achieve clinker factors below the 50% threshold without compromising performance, we dive deep into the micro- and nano-level reactions of multi-component blended binders. Our recent research focuses on tracking the complex thermodynamic phase assemblages of low-carbon systems, establishing the atomistic structure of amorphous aluminosilicates and hydration products, and evaluating the stability of critical carboaluminate phases.
We detail how the fundamental reactions between metakaolin and limestone drive superior porosity reduction at early ages. By mastering these coupled clinker-SCM interactions, we establish the scientific boundaries required to design highly reliable and resilient ultra-low-carbon cements.
Alternative SCMs, properties, reactivity and processing
The global scalability of low-carbon cement relies heavily on the availability and reactivity of alternative, emerging SCMs.Our lab maps various families of mineral resources, including clays, natural pozzolans, zeolites, mine tailings, and other industrial residues, and develops rigorous scientific criteria for their characterization and activation.
Our group has developed novel approaches based on the isotopic labeling of complex mineral phases to access the fundamental pozzolanic reaction in situ. We utilize advanced solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to detail these structural transformations. By exploring the effects of thermal and mechanical processing across alternative clays, we establish robust protocols that eliminate overcalcination risks and maintain critical structural properties.
Mixture design, rheology and chemical admixtures
A sustainable binder is only viable if it can be efficiently mixed, transported, and placed. Low-clinker systems and many emerging SCMs introduce distinct rheological challenges, such as accelerated flow loss and complex structural buildup at rest. Reducing the paste volume in concrete makes the challenge even bigger.
Thus, the use and optimization of chemical admixture formulations is a cornerstone and foundational piece within the low carbon cement and concrete discussion. Our research tackles these problems by mapping organic admixture-cement-SCM interactions. Utilizing novel techniques, we resolve superplasticizer distribution in blended cements. We also design synergistic chemical pathways, such as pairing alkanolamines with limestone-slag or LC3 systems, and employ advanced particle packing approaches to optimize workability and early-age strength development at low water-to-solid ratios.
Concrete engineering properties and durability
Decarbonization cannot come at the expense of infrastructure longevity. We evaluate how eco-friendly binders evolve over multi-year horizons, investigating 3+ year long-term microstructural hydration kinetics and product structure.
Our research fundamentally characterizes how novel cement formulations can influence transport properties through structural changes and porosity development kinetics over time. Our durability program subjects these alternative materials to harsh environments, analyzing their resistance to chloride ingress, sulfate attack, alkali-silica reactions (ASR), and carbonation. By understanding these degradation mechanisms, we ensure that the sustainable structures built today will remain resilient for generations.
2026. CAREER Award, granted by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the project "CAREER: Revealing the initial chemical reactions in blended cements to strengthen domestic cement supply chains".
2024. SNSF Starting Grant awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for the project "Shaping the fate of low-carbon cement hydration”.
2023. RILEM Colonnetti Medal for outstanding contributions to the field of construction materials and structures.
2022. SNSF Ambizione Fellowship awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for the project "Ultra-green concrete: the pathway to save 800 Mt of CO2 per year”.
2022. American Concrete Institute (ACI) Wason Medal awarded to the most meritorious paper published in 2021 in ACI journals for the paper “Limestone Calcined Clay Cements (LC3)”.
2021. Nanocem PhD Award for the best PhD thesis (submitted in 2020) in cement and concrete science worldwide, selected by a committee of experts from the Nanocem consortium.
CE 60 - Structure and properties of civil engineering materials (every Spring)
CE 140 / 240 - Materials science and characterization of cement and concrete (every odd Fall)
CE 241 - Low carbon concrete technology (every even Fall)