
Gaurav Sant
PROFESSOR
CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Henry Samueli Fellow
Inaugural Pritzker Professor of Sustainability
5731-J Boelter Hall
Email: gsant@ucla.eduPhone: (310) 206-3084
Fax: (310) 206-2222
Websites
RESEARCH AND INTERESTS
Research Interests
Our research efforts are directed towards the development and design of sustainable low-CO2 foot-print materials for infrastructure construction applications. These efforts are three-fold encompassing:
- strategies to utilize natural and waste materials in concrete by inferring optimal chemical combination’s and compatibilities of constituent materials using thermodynamic calculations and experimental evaluations,
- the formulation and-or utilization of application specific organic and inorganic chemicals to improve the properties, durability performance and service-life of concrete structures and
- developing CO2-insensitive concretes for use in carbon sequestration and fixation applications.
- Low-Clinker Factor Cements and Concretes
- Carbon Fixation and Sequestration in Cementitious Materials
- Organic Polymer Additions for Property Modifications
- Blast and Fire Resistant Infrastructure Materials
- Mitigation of Deleterious Phenomena Caused by Salt Crystallization
IN THE NEWS
- Sustainable infrastructure can’t rely on concrete City Monitor | City Monitor, March 2023
- An Arizona Plant Will Pull CO2 from the Air and Trap it in Concrete | Yahoo News, March 2023
- The World’s Largest 3D-Printed Neighborhood Is Here | Bloomberg, March 2023
- Inside the $20 Million Prize That’s Saving the World | Wired, February 2023
- How Seawater Might Soak Up More Carbon | Nautilus, February 2023
- Concrete.ai releases beta version of tool reducing cost and carbon intensity of concrete construction | Architect’s Newspaper, October 2022
- Can We Trick the Ocean into Swallowing More CO2? | Deutsche Welle, September 2022
- Carbon Sucks! | The Week on Earth podcast, September 2022
- It Works Like a Dish Sponge’: a New Way to Capture Carbon from the Oceans | Eco-Business, July 2022
- Concrete.ai Developers Prepare for Software Platform Commercialization | Concrete Products, July 2022
- Climate-friendly Cement? California Takes on a High-carbon Industry | CalMatters, June 2022
- Can a Start-Up Make Sustainable Construction the Next Frontier in Eco-Business? | The New York Times, June 2022
- Carbon-Removal Tech Grabs Elon Musk’s Check: Millions poured into XPrize effort to pull CO2 out of the sky | IEEE Spectrum, May 2022
- How It’s Made: CarbonBuilt’s Climate-Friendly Recipe for Low-Carbon Concrete | Chan Zuckerberg Initative, April 2022
- UCLA research project proposes removal of carbon dioxide from the ocean to help fight climate change | KABC, February 2022
- Carbon removal technology - Eyewitness News at 4:30am - February 25, 2022 | KABC (7) LA (16:50 - 19:50), February 2022
- How to Weaponize Our Dying Oceans Against Climate Change | Daily Beast, February 2022
- Carbon-Removal Tech Grabs Elon Musk’s Check | IEEE Spectrum, October 2021
- Nut shells fuel cement kilns as Calif. imposes climate law | E&E News, October 2021
- CarbonBuilt Raises $10 Million in Series A Funding for Its Eco-Friendly Concrete | Los Angeles Business Journal, October 2021
- Taking a Hard Look at Concrete’s Carbon Footprint | Industry Week, October 2021
- One if by sea, two if by sky: the search for affordable CO2 capture technology | Biofuels Digest, August 2021
- Could Cities of the Future be Made of Carbon? | The Carbonic, August 2021
- Concrete A I(nnovation) | Concrete Products, August 2021
- Concrete makers face heavy lift on climate pledges | Reuters, July 2021
- Artificial intelligence drives mix design performance, CO2 profiles | Concrete Products, June 2021
- Cloud spraying and hurricane slaying: how ocean geoengineering became the frontier of the climate crisis | The Guardian, June 2021
- Petrifying Climate Change | Hakai Magazine, June 2021
- Briefs / Indian, American- and Asian/ Remembering Satyajith Ray/ Book Matters | Khabar, June 2021
- Is This Concrete’s Breakthrough Moment? | New York, May 2021
- Companies Cut Concrete's Heavy Carbon Footprint | VOA News, April 2021
- X-Prize Winners Use CO2 Emissions to Make Concrete | Scientific American, April 2021
- Carbon XPrize winners announced | Gillette News Record, April 2021
- UCLA Engineering Team Wins $7.5M Prize For Developing Eco-Friendly Concrete That Absorbs Carbon Dioxide | CBS Los Angeles, April 2021
- Carbon XPRIZE, An Early Catalyst Of CCUS In Wyoming, Comes To A Close | Wyoming Public Media, April 2021
- A Big Step Towards Decarbonization - The Carbon XPRIZE | Forbes, April 2021
- XPRIZE announces grand prize winners in carbon capture contest | KPVI, April 2021
- Startups Cutting Emissions From Concrete Win $20 Million Xprize | Bloomberg News, April 2021
- They won an XPrize for carbon capture. The real test is next | E&E News, April 2021
- Team Led by UCLA Professor Wins $7.5M Engineering Prize | KFI AM 640, April 2021
- Startup Creates Concrete That Reduces Carbon Emissions | Los Angeles Business Journal, April 2020
- Using Dirt to Clean Up Construction | Eos, September 2020
- UCLA team nabs $2.9M grant to turn CO2 into concrete | Construction Dive, July 2020
- These Companies are Turning CO2 into Concrete.. Could it be the Solution to Construction’s Emissions Problem? | This is Construction, June 2020
- Capture Carbon in Concrete Made With CO2 | IEEE Spectrum, February 2020
- Scientists developing eco-friendly concrete | Tri-Valley Dispatch, February 2020
- Turning carbon into concrete could win UCLA team a climate victory — and $7.5 million | Los Angeles Times, January 2020
- UCLA engineers received $1.5 million grant to make environmentally friendly concrete | UCLA Samueli, August 2019
- Greenhouse gases are wreaking havoc on the planet. What if they could be used for good? | Los Angeles Times, September, 2018
EDUCATION
Ph.D., (2009), Purdue University M.S.C.E, (2007), Purdue University B.S.C.E, (2006), Purdue University
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
- The Bryant Mather ‘Best Paper Award’ (Concrete Materials Section): The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science and Engineering, (2006, 2008)
- The Fred Burggraf Award for ‘Best Paper by a Young Researcher’ – The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science and Engineering, (2007)
- William L. Dolch Graduate Scholarship for Outstanding Research in Materials Science – The School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University, (2007)