The Cements Division’s Early Career Award recognizes an outstanding early career scientist who is conducting research in the field of cement and concrete in an academic, industry, or government funded laboratory.
Nomination Process
Criteria and eligibility:
- Nominee must be a member of the ACerS Cements Division, or become a member before the nomination deadline;
- Nominee must have completed their terminal academic degree no more than 10 years previous to July 15, 2025.
- Nominee must be working primarily in the field of cement and concrete science;
- Self-nominations are not permitted.
The selection of the awardee will be based on the nomination and accompanying evidence of scientific contributions, such as a list of publications, selected abstracts, and receipt of other awards or recognitions.
Nomination materials must include:
- Cover page containing name, affiliation, confirmation of ACerS Cements Division membership, and year of terminal academic degree of the nominee, along with the name and affiliation of the nominator;
- Written statement summarizing the scientific contributions and other qualifications of the nominee – not to exceed 500 words;
- A copy of the nominee’s current academic-style CV (i.e. long-form) giving professional background, professional achievements, publications, presentations, etc.
The awardee will be announced at the annual Advances in Cement-Based Materials Meeting.
Contact
The nomination should be submitted electronically to Prannoy Suraneni, Chair of the Cements Division. The subject heading should read “ACerS Early Career Award Nomination.”
All nominators should have received a confirmation email from Prannoy Suraneni. If you did not, please contact Prannoy at suranenip@miami.edu.
Award Winners
Prannoy Suraneni
Prof. Prannoy Suraneni is Associate Professor in the Civil and Architectural Engineering Department at the University of Miami since 2024. He obtained his B.Tech., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from IIT Madras, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and ETH Zurich, respectively. He heads the Advanced Cement Chemistry, Engineering, Sustainability, and Science Lab at the University of Miami. The major research objective of the lab is to make concrete infrastructure sustainable, durable, biocompatible, and resilient, through discovery and manipulation of processing-structure-property relationships in cementitious materials. Dr. Suraneni has published 104 peer-reviewed international journal papers since 2011, and his work has received ≈ 4200 citations. His research has been funded by NSF, NIST, DARPA, NCHRP, University of Miami, and others. The lab has received continuous federal funding since 2019, which is expected to continue until at least 2027. Dr. Suraneni is Editorial Board Member of ASTM Advances in Civil Engineering Materials, and Cement and Concrete Research, and Associate Editor of Materials and Structures and RILEM Technical Letters. In the last five years, he has been selected as ASTM Emerging Professional, ACI Emerging Member, and ACI Ambassador Speaker, and awarded the PCA Fellowship, UM SEEDS You Choose Leadership Award, TRB Concrete Materials Section Best Paper Award, SCA Research Project of the Year, Giatec Best Paper Award, UM College of Engineering David J. Sumanth Early Career Research Award, and the prestigious RILEM Gustavo Colonnetti Medal, among others.