Alumni
Dr. Lucas Michel
Dr. Lucas Michel started his PhD in 2017 and successfully defended his PhD thesis in June 2023. He worked on localized corrosion, and developed an automated localized electrochemical measurement device, implementing a robotic arm and electrochemical measurement instrumentation. He then employed this novel technique to study localized corrosion of steel, such as wire-and-arc additively manufactured steel components in the context of architecture and carbon steel corrosion subjected to mechanical stresses, which is relevant in the civil engineering context. After completion of his PhD thesis, Dr. Michel worked on a number of industry-related projects in the area of corrosion and durability consulting until the end of 2023.
Dr. Meeke van Ede
Dr. Meeke van Ede started her PhD in our group in November 2018 and successfully defended her PhD thesis in December 2023. In her PhD project, Meeke van Ede laid the scientific basis for a new electrochemical non-destructive test (NDT) method to quantify the rate of corrosion of steel in porous media. Beyond this, the new technique, termed “electrochemical tomography, allows obtaining additional information about the kinetics of the corroding system, namely important parameters related to the involved cathodic and anodic partial reactions.
Dr. Guo Bingbing
Dr. Guo Bingbing stayed with us as a visiting postdoc from January 2022 until August 2023. He studied mass transport in cementitious media. He collaborated with Dr. Zhidong Zhang.
Xiaoxian Wang
Xiaoxian Wang stayed with us as a visiting PhD student from January 2022 until July 2023. During this time, she did experimental work on localized corrosion of steel in alkaline electrolytes. She closely collaborated with Dr. Federico Martinelli-Orlando, Dr. Shishir Mundra, and Dr. Zhidong Zhang.
Dr. Carolina Boschmann Kaethler
Dr. Boschmann started her PhD in 2015 at the Institute for Building Materials under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Bernhard Elsener. After the retirement of Prof. Elsener in October 2017, she became part of our research group. Dr. Boschmann successfully defended her thesis on steel corrosion in concrete, where she focused on the role of the steel-concrete interface, in 2019. Subsequently, she remained as part-time scientific assistant (Postdoc) in our research group until March 2022. During this time, she contributed to different projects in the context of steel corrosion in concrete, including service life modeling, life cycle assessments and studying the role of features at the steel-concrete interface.
Dr. Yurena Femenias
Dr. Femenias did her PhD at the Institute for Building Materials under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Bernhard Elsener on electrochemical sensors. She successfully defended her thesis in 2017. Subsequently, she continued working on the sensor and durability monitoring technology as Postdoc in our lab and gradually transitioned into engineering practice. In 2021, she founded the ETH Spinoff external pageDuraMoncall_made, which commercially offers a service to monitor the health and durability of reinforced concrete structures.
Dr. Nicolas Ruffray
After his PhD in the group of Prof. Dr. Robert Flatt at ETH Zurich, Dr. Nicolas Ruffray worked in our lab as a Postdoc from October 2020 to October 2021. During this time, Dr. Ruffray performed measurements utilizing focused ion beam scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM) tomography, available at ETH’s center for optical and electron microscopy (ScopeM) to characterize the microstructure of the steel-concrete interfacial zone. His results are highly valuable to different research projects in our group.
Fangzhou Ren
Fangzhou Ren stayed with us as a visiting PhD student from January 2020 until April 2021. During this time, he did experimental and numerical work on quantifying and modeling moisture transport in cementitious media. He collaborated closely with Dr. Zhidong Zhang.
Dr. Matteo Stefanoni
After his PhD in the group of Prof. Dr. Bernhard Elsener at ETH Zurich, Dr. Matteo Stefanoni worked in our lab as a Postdoc from January 2019 to June 2020. Dr. Stefanoni carried out scientific research in the field of corrosion of steel in porous media, in particular corrosion of steel in carbonated concrete.
Dr. Ana Vallejo Vitaller
Ana Vallejo Vitaller started her PhD under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Bernhard Elsener in August 2014, and, after the retirement of Prof. Elsener in October 2017, became part of our research group. Ana Vallejo Vitaller defended her PhD thesis successfully in February 2020. In her PhD project, Ana Vallejo Vitaller experimentally addressed the issue of corrosion of iron-based alloys in geothermal energy installations. Her work was part of the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research – Supply of Energy (SCCER-SoE).
Dr. Wei Shi
Dr. Shi worked in our lab as a Postdoc from August 2017 to December 2019. During this time, she carried out scientific research in the field of corrosion of steel in various environments, with particular focus on cathodic protection of steel in soil and related measurement technologies.