Prof. em. Dr. Bernhard Elsener
Prof. em. Dr. Bernhard Elsener
Retired Adjunct Professor at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
Additional information
Bernhard Elsener was awarded the title of Professor (Titularprofessor) at ETH Zurich in 2007.
Short curriculum
Born at 23. October 1952 he studied Materials Science at the Department of Chemistry at ETH Zurich. After the diploma in 1976 he also studied pedagogic and didactic for chemistry. His Ph.D. thesis was dedicated to the passivation of stainless steels in non-aqueous media (1983). He was lecturer and senior researcher at ETH Zurich. Since 1988 he was head of the research group "durability of RC structures" at the former Institute of Materials and Corrosion. In 1998 Bernhard Elsener was elected in a public competition professor for Materials Science at the Faculty of Engineering at University of Cagliari, Italy, where he teaches environmental and civil engineering students.
Research and Education
Bernhard Elsener is responsible for lectures at ETH Zürich on the bachelor and master level for corrosion, durability and non-destructive testing of reinforced and pre-stressed concrete structures. In his research projects as well in bachelor and master thesis he combines basic science (electrochemical methods and mechanisms) with application for civil engineering practice. Examples are improvement of durability of RC structures using new manganese containing stainless steel reinforcement, the development of new methods for testing and quality control of electrically isolated tendons or non-destructive electrochemical repair techniques. He authored books, numerous research reports and more then 100 scientific publications.
Technical committees
Bernhard Elsener was active as secretary in the RILEM committee TC-154 EMC "Electrochemical techniques for measuring corrosion of steel in concrete" (President Carmen Andrade). This TC published three RILEM recommandations.
International collaboration
Bernhard Elsener participated actively in the international collaboration projects COST 509 (Corrosion of Steel in Concrete), COST 521 (Corrosion ) and COST 534 (New Materials and Systems for Prestressed Concrete Structures) as working group leader, member of the management committee, vice-chair and Swiss representative.