Dr. Kim Kurtis, FACI, FACerS is Jones Chair and Professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, with a courtesy appointment in Materials Science and Engineering. Her group's innovative research on the multi-scale structure and performance of cement-based materials is motivated by the broad societal need to address the global challenge of equitably providing infrastructure for all people in the most sustainable and economical ways possible. Known for combining advanced characterization methods, novel synthesis and manufacturing approaches, and data science techniques, her research has generated new understanding that improves the design, utilization and performance of cement-based materials. With more than $20M in research support, her research has resulted in more than 200 technical publications and four US patents and has informed both Georgia concrete design standards and national concrete durability guidance.
Dr. Kurtis is a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and the American Ceramics Society (ACerS). She has been honored with awards recognizing her contributions in research, education and service. These include ACI’s Walter P. Moore, Jr. Faculty Achievement Award (2005), ACI’s Del Bloem Award for Service (2013), Outstanding Senior Undergraduate Research Mentor Award at Georgia Institute of Technology (2013), the ACI James Instruments Award for Research on NDE of Concrete (2008), Award for Outstanding Article in ASTM’s Journal of Testing and Evaluation (2010), ASCE’s Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize (2013), ACI’s Anderson Medal "for outstanding contributions to the advancement of knowledge of concrete as a construction material" (2019), and a 2020 Le Chatelier Distinguished paper award from Cement and Concrete Research for “Dissolution kinetics of trapped air in a spherical void: Modeling the long-term saturation of cementitious materials”. She was elected to the University of California at Berkeley’s CEE Academy of Distinguished Alumni in 2021.
She has held four leadership positions – Chairman of ACI Committee 236: Materials Science of Concrete (2006-2012), Chair of American Ceramic Society’s Cements Division (2008-2009), US representative on the Steering Committee for International Congress on the Chemistry of Cement (2019-present), and North American Editor Cement and Concrete Research (2019-present) – central to advancing science-based research on cement-based materials.
Multi-scale structure, properties, and durability of cement-based materials, Sustainable infrastructure materials, Development of novel methods for multiscale characterization of infrastructure materials, Fiber-cement composites, Applications of nondestructive evaluation methods to cement-based materials, Upscaling of emerging concrete technology
PhD (1998) Civil Engineering, University of California at Berkeley
MS (1995) Civil Engineering, University of California at Berkeley
BSE summa cum laude (1994) Civil & Environmental Engineering, Tulane University (minor: Art History)
This year, 14 women occupy critical leadership roles guiding the College of Engineering and its eight schools and departments. Their positions span research, entrepreneurship, faculty development, and more.
