Dr. Norman Blank was a Rudolf Diesel Industry Fellow from 2014 to 2015 and is the former research officer at Sika AG, Switzerland.
Dr. Tsuyoshi Hirata is an Alumnus Rudolf Diesel Industry Fellow. Dr. Hirata works for Nippon Shokubai Co., Ltd., Japan, and is a Nippon Shokubai Fellow and General Manager of a Project group in the Research Division.
Together with his host Prof. Johann Plank (Chair of Construction Chemicals), Hirata focused on clarifying the working mechanisms of the water-reducing polymers’ molecules, which are a main ingredients of superplasticizer, against cement particles: the molecular conformation changes of such polymers in the cement paste solution; the influence of such polymer conformations on the water-reducing performance and flow retentive ability.
The group´s goal was to build the novel evaluation methods for polymer, based on their nano-science, to find out some of the most suitable polymer structures for superplasticizer.
TUM-IAS funded doctoral candidate:
Alex Lange (PhD in 2018), Construction Chemicals
Publications by the Focus Group
