Delara Etezad is a project assistant and Ph.D. candidate focusing on basalt-fibre reinforced clay-based concretes as sustainable alternative to conventional reinforced concrete. She has a strong background as a Materials engineer with a Bachelor and Master degree in Materials Science and Engineering from The Iran University of Science and Technology. Here she gained a broad understanding on materials, their properties, and applications.

“Doing research on materials from their composition to application with environmental and industrial aspects, is what makes me feel satisfied in career and personal life. It took me a lot of effort to get to this point in Austria, and after researching geopolymers and concretes in the past, I am satisfied to finally got landed my dream job at TU Wien”.

Dandan Wang is currently working towards her Ph.D. degree in structural engineering at the School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China. She has been awarded a scholarship under the State Scholarship Fund to pursue her studies in TU Wien as a visiting PhD student. She has a lot of research experience already and worked on several projects funded by the Graduate Research and Innovation Foundation of Chongqing (No. CYB21030) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51778512 and 52278145). My research involves the mechanical characterisation of reinforced ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) structures under serviceability limit stages. The use of UHPFRC in structural design can effectively lower the need for steel reinforcement, reduce the cross-sectional size of members and thus the structural self-weight while simultaneously improving the load-bearing capacity and durability of structures.

My research involves the mechanical characterisation of reinforced ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) structures under serviceability limit stages. The use of UHPFRC in structural design can effectively lower the need for steel reinforcement, reduce the cross-sectional size of members and thus the structural self-weight while simultaneously improving the load-bearing capacity and durability of structures.