Webinar Description
Hosted by: ACerS Cements Division
Monday, October 20, 2025; 1:00–2:00 p.m. Eastern US time
Sponsored by the ACerS Cements Division, the October webinar will feature one speaker: Resource Utilization on Earth and Beyond: Valorization of Mining Waste and In-Situ Resource Utilization.
Description
Resource Utilization on Earth and Beyond: Valorization of Mining Waste and In-Situ Resource Utilization
Mining and construction industries generate vast quantities of waste that remain underutilized, while future space exploration demands new strategies to build with local resources. In this talk, I will present our latest research on transforming mining waste into high-value supplementary cementitious materials and construction products, advancing circular economy principles on Earth. I will also highlight our efforts to extend these approaches beyond Earth through in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), where regolith can be harnessed for additive construction in extraterrestrial environments. More specifically, I will discuss recent advances in mineralogical characterization, thermochemical processing, and data-driven modeling that enable sustainable, resource-efficient construction both on our planet and in future space habitats.
Biography
Hee-Jeong Kim, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Mechanics, University of Arizona
Hee-Jeong Kim is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Arizona. She received a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering, all from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and did her postdoctoral research at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT.
Dr. Kim’s research focuses on the multi-scale chemo-mechanical characterization of advanced materials in civil engineering. By combining AI-driven modeling with experiments, she develops sustainable construction materials that improve infrastructure resilience. A central theme of her work is the valorization of mining waste, particularly mine tailings, to advance a circular economy in construction materials. She also explores digital fabrication, including large-scale 3D printing, to enable innovative and efficient building methods. Extending this vision to space exploration, she investigates the use of in-situ resources such as lunar regolith alongside valorized earth materials, to design resilient infrastructure for extraterrestrial habitats. This interdisciplinary approach bridges sustainable construction on Earth with the challenges of building in extreme space environments.
Registration
- ACerS member: no cost
- ACerS GGRN and Material Advantage student member: no cost
- Non-member: no cost
- Non-member student: no cost
If you have any questions, please contact Vicki Evans.
This webinar is brought to you by the ACerS Cements Division. To view past ACerS webinars, click here.
