[Image above] Cements 2025 attendees at the University of Colorado Boulder. Credit: ACerS
The American Ceramic Society’s Cements Division hosted the 15th Advances in Cement-Based Materials meeting from June 11–13, 2025, at the University of Colorado Boulder. The meeting welcomed almost 170 attendees.
Before the conference officially started on Wednesday, the organizers held a diversity, equity, and inclusion event on Tuesday afternoon at the Museum of Boulder. The event started with guided tours through the museum’s current exhibition, Proclaiming Colorado’s Black History, which was organized by prominent Black leaders in the community. Following the museum tour, attendees were invited to a Welcome Event at Avanti F&B for socializing and hor d’oeuvres.
Wednesday’s program opened with a presentation by the first keynote speaker, Lori Tunstall, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Colorado School of Mines, titled “Toward carbon-negative concrete: Bridging scientific innovation, field deployment, and entrepreneurial thinking.”
Following the first keynote lecture, Division Chair Prannoy Suraneni presided over the Division’s business meeting. The updates included Division membership, meeting statistics, and newly inducted ACerS Fellows from the Cements Division.
Suraneni also announced the 2025 Brunauer Best Paper Award, which recognizes the best cements paper published during the previous calendar year in the Bulletin or Journal of the American Ceramic Society. This year’s winning paper was “From selective dissolution to crystal chemistry of brownmillerite in sulfate resisting cement” by Alexis Mériot et al., published in JACerS. Additionally, the Division’s Early Career Award was presented to Alexander S. Brand of Virginia Tech and Nishant Garg of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Cements Division Chair Prannoy Suraneni (right) presents the Brunauer Award to Alexis Mériot (left). Credit: ACerS
Cements Division Chair Prannoy Suraneni (second from left) presents the 2025 Early Career Award to Nishant Garg (left). Cements Division Past Chair Wil V. Srubar III (second from right) presents the 2025 Early Career Award to Alexander S. Brand (right). Credit: ACerS
Breakout sessions began after the business meeting, with topics including durability, cement chemistry, sustainability, and rheology and additive manufacturing.
Wednesday afternoon, Kimberly E. Kurtis of Georgia Institute of Technology presented the Della Roy Lecture on “Greening our gray world: Sustaining innovation and translating discovery in cement and concrete science.” Kurtis’ lecture was followed by the Della Roy Reception and poster session, sponsored by Elsevier. More than 50 presenters detailed their research.
Kimberly E. Kurtis (center) receives the 2025 Della Roy Lecture Award, surrounded by colleagues and students. Credit: ACerS
Thursday morning began with a presentation by the second keynote speaker, Jesse Benck, vice president of research and development at Sublime Systems, titled “Sublime Systems: Electrochemical production of next-generation, clean cement.”
Friday’s sessions began with a national lab panel discussion, which included Ana Aday of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Denise Silva of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and William Jolin of Savannah River National Laboratory. The final break-out sessions of the conference followed.
Members enjoyed hor d’oeuvres and socializing at Avanti F&B Credit: ACerS
Students present their research during the poster session contest. Credit: ACerS
The closing awards ceremony announced the poster session winners, who are listed below.
- First place: Abdulmaliq Alawode, University of Alabama, “Closing the silica loop in concrete recycling: High performance silica gel synthesized from hardened cement paste”
- Second place: Nishad Ahmed, University of Texas at Arlington, “Rheological and mechanical properties of carbon-negative 3D printed concrete using functionalized biochar”
- Third place: Angus B. Moore, Sandia National Laboratories, “Effect of y-type zeolites on gaseous mineralization in Portland cement”
The ACerS Conference Mentor Program was also held at Cements 2025. The program aims to connect first-time conference attendees with experienced individuals who have frequently attended past ACerS events. There were 44 total participants at Cements 2025, and one participant reported that the program was “an enjoyable experience.”
The meeting concluded with the announcement of the 2026 meeting location, which will be the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.
View more photos from the event on ACerS Flickr page. Check the ACerS website and the Bulletin in early 2026 for details about the 16th Advances in Cement-Based Materials meeting date and abstract submission deadline.
