Prof. Thirumalini Selvaraj has recently been invited as visiting academic at the University of Malta, where she participated and led various workshops and seminars on low carbon mortars and concrete, through the CARBONWASTE Project, funded through the Networking Progamme of XJENZA Malta.
She was hosted by at the . Prof. Selvaraj is Prof. at the School of Civil Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology in India (VIT). VIT is a leading academic Institution in Asia and among the top 10 Universities in India. She is an international expert in historic and modern mortars and concrete and the use of natural ingredients towards lower environmental impacts and higher performance of construction materials.
During her visit in Malta, she delivered workshops in historic mortars, durability of mortars and concrete, and restoration of mortar and concrete in heritage structures for students and researchers in Civil Engineering and Construction Materials. She participated in technical visits and meetings with Industrial partners.
During a meeting with , Pro Rector for International Development and Quality Assurance of the University and , Director of the , she had the opportunity to share insights on the research conducted over the past years through the collaborative agreement set up between the respective research groups in construction engineering materials, at VIT and at the University of Malta. The discussion further addressed academic and teaching collaboration between the University of Malta and the Vellore Institute of Technology. She had the opportunity to meet various academics including the Dean of the Faculty for the Built Environment and local researches and professionals in material and structural engineering.
For the past years Prof. Selvaraj has been collaborating with Prof. Ruben Paul Borg at the Faculty for the Built Environment in research on the development of low carbon composite materials and biomaterials for construction.
The Construction Materials and Structural Monitoring research group at the Faculty for the Built Environment, is active in research on high performance materials, and biomaterials in cement based and composite materials, including for example plant fibres and extracts together with bacteria-based self-healing of concrete with the Department of Biology and keratin feather fibres and biochar from agriculture waste in cement bound materials in collaboration with the .
For further information on low-Carbon construction materials and bio-technology in construction you can contact Prof. Ruben Paul Borg at the University of Malta.
