John Provis is the Group Leader for Cement Systems, in the Laboratory for Waste Management (LES), at PSI. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and was from 2012-2023 the Professor of Cement Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Sheffield, UK.
His main research interests are in the chemistry and materials science of all types of cements, particularly less-conventional cements, for applications in sustainable construction and in the storage and disposal of nuclear wastes. He is particularly active in standardisation, beamline-based analysis of cements, and testing and modelling of processes related to cement durability.
John has held senior editorial roles for journals including Cement and Concrete Research, Materials and Structures, and Frontiers in Materials, has published approximately 300 journal articles, received research funding from various agencies including an ERC Starting Grant, and is a Fellow of RILEM, IoM3, the Institute of Concrete Technology, and the American Ceramic Society. He has been awarded the RILEM Robert L'Hermite Medal, and the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa, Faculty of Engineering Technology, Universiteit Hasselt, Belgium, among other awards. He has supervised more than 100 PhD/Postdoc/Visiting researchers, who collectively deserve enormous credit for their role in enabling John to have done the list of things that are mentioned in this paragraph.
Publications
For a full list of my publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1mwmcwYAAAAJ&hl=en
To find full text versions of my publications at PSI, please see our repository DORA
Older papers can largely be found in the UK-based repository WRRO - or by sending an email asking for them, I'm happy to share!
Professorships
Visiting Professor, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Sheffield, UK
Visiting Professor, Building Materials, Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden
Miscellaneous
External Examiner for Theses - 35 doctoral degrees in 14 countries. Fields/departments in which these theses have been submitted: Materials Science & Engineering, Civil Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Environmental Science
External Assessor for Grant Proposals - government funding agencies in more than 25 countries, including EU (ERC and COST); panel chair for commissions in Spain and Portugal.
Committee member, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Review of the Continued Analysis of Supplemental Treatment of Low-Activity Waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, 2021-3 (https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/review-of-the-continued-analysis-of-supplemental-treatment-of-low-activity-waste-at-the-hanford-nuclear-reservation#sectionCommittee)
Technical author, British Standards Institute, Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 8820:2016, Construction materials - Alkali-activated cementitious material and concrete – Specification
Ongoing provision of consulting services to national, international and multinational companies in cementitious materials, construction technology, minerals processing, waste treatment (hazardous and nuclear), and ceramics.
Some media things
Why is cement interesting? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg7AjhCmtVM
Webinar on cements and sustainable construction (56 mins) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S56_MLIroU4
BBC World Service, “Can we recycle concrete” (interview, 26 mins) - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct1prb
Future of Structures podcast “Future of Concrete” (interview, 43 mins) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-vEslcsBNg
SciBlogger interview (32 mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knFDeicYqVs&t=1371s