Soils are vital for several sectors of the economy: transportation, energy, water, food security, historical heritage. Soils deteriorate over time, in response to cyclic processes (seasonal effects) and extreme events (from heatwaves to heavy rainfall). Mitigation is frequently based on intrusive and heavy engineering solutions. In this Tech Talk, Dr. Sérgio Lourenço will focus on how soil properties can be controlled or tuned as needed. Recent advances which borrow on ideas from allied fields, will be presented, from bioengineering to surfaces and interfaces. The potential of adaptable, sensing and self-healing soils as the way forward, will be discussed.
Dr. Sérgio Lourenço is an Associate Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong having joined in 2014 from the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University (UK). Prior to that he worked at Geotechnical Observations Ltd in London, a spinoff from the Imperial College London. Sérgio’s first, second and third degrees are from the New University of Lisbon (Portugal), Kyoto University (Japan) and Durham University (UK). Sérgio is currently developing functional granular materials for climate-adaptable infrastructure. Funding, as PI, is from the HK Research Grants Council, with past grants from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and the Royal Society (UK). Sérgio is the current recipient of the 2022 British Geotechnical Association Medal jointly with Yao Ting (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Béatrice Baudet (University College London).
Clean water and clean air are vital for public health. This project focuses on developing high-efficiency and environmentally sustainable filters for removing harmful air/water pollutants. The team has developed novel architectures and functionalities for the filters to achieve high permeance, high removal efficiency, and excellent reusability.
