Christopher Parr

Chris Parr is Senior Vice President, Innovation, Sustainable Development and Technology of Kerneos SA, Paris, France. He received a BSc honours degree in Chemistry from York University, England in 1981.

He then had the good fortune to discover the refractory industry and was employed, during a 13 year period, holding a different positions within the technical and marketing functions with refractory producers in both South Africa and England. The periods spent as Technical Manager for Cullinan refractories in South Africa and Trent Refractories in England concentrated upon monolithic refractories and more specifically refractory castables and the development of these products as alternatives to bricks. He joined Lafarge Aluminates (now Kerneos), producer of speciality aluminate binders, in 1994 as the marketing manager in the central marketing team based in Paris, France. Thereafter, he took responsibility for the technical function with the refractory market application segment and was appointed to his current position in 2012.         

Parr has authored over 110 technical and scientific papers as well as numerous patents in the field of hydraulic binders based on calcium aluminates technologies and their applications in refractories. He has received the Wakabayashi award from the Technical Association of Refractories Japan on two occasions. 

Parr is a member of the Refractory Ceramics Division and has contributed many papers to RCD events over the past 20 years. He is also the current Chairman of the F.I.R.E Research federation uniting more than 25 academic institutions and industrial partners with a common goal to promote higher education in refractory materials engineering, fulfilling the cultural, educational and research needs of the refractories industry.