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People

Franz-Josef Ulm

Franz-Josef Ulm
  • Title Class of 1958 Professor
  • Email ulm@mit.edu
  • Faculties Sustainable Materials & Infrastructure
  • Address Room 1-263
  • Telephone 617.253.3544
  • Research Website https://cshub.mit.edu/
  • Assistant Jeanette Marchocki / jmmarch@mit.edu

Education

  • Diplom Ingenieur (M.Sc.) 1990, TU Munich
  • Docteur-Ingenieur (Ph.D.) 1994, ENPC, Paris
  • Habilitation 1998, ENS de Cachan

Research Interests

Professor Ulm is the Faculty Director of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub). His research interests are in the mechanics and structures of materials. His research group is looking at the nano- and micro mechanics of porous materials, such as concrete, rocks and bones; in the durability mechanics of engineering materials and structures; in computational mechanics; and in the bio-chemo-poromechanics of high-performance composite materials.

Teaching Interests

  • 1.050: Engineering Mechanics I
  • 1.033/1.57: Continuum Mechanics, Mechanics of Material Systems
  • 1.570: Durability Mechanics, Micromechanics, Poromechanics, Chemomechanics

Awards and Honors

  • 2002 Robert L’Hermite Medaille, RILEM
  • 2005 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize
  • 2010 Maurice A. Biot lecture at Columbia University
  • 2011 Stephen Brunauer Award, American Ceramic Society
  • 2012 Theodore von Karman Medal, American Society of Civil Engineers
  • 2013 Best paper award 2012: Acta Geotechnica
  • 2013 Engineering Mechanics Institute Fellow
  • 2013 Engineering News Record Award of Excellence
  • 2014 Elected Member of European Academy of Sciences and Arts
  • 2022 Elected Member of National Academy of Engineering
  • 2024 Paul Gray Public Service Award

Selected Publications

  1. Constantinides, G., and Ulm, F.-J. (2007). `The nanogranular nature of C-S-H.’ Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 55 (1), 64–90.
  2. DeJong, M.J. and Ulm, F.-J. (2007). `The nanogranular behavior of C-S-H at elevated temperatures (up to 700C)’, Cem. Concr. Res., 37 (1), 1–12.
  3. Ulm, F.-J. and Abousleiman, Y. (2006). `The nanogranular nature of shales.’ Acta Geotechnica, 1 (3), 77–88.
  4. Tai, K., Ulm, F.-J., Ortiz, C. (2006). `Nanogranular origins of the strength of bone.’ Nanoletters 6 (11), 2520–2525.