Prof. Dr. Robert J. Flatt

Prof. Dr.  Robert J. Flatt

Prof. Dr. Robert J. Flatt

Deputy head of Institute for Building Materials

ETH Zürich

Institut für Baustoffe (IfB)

HIF E 91.1

Laura-Hezner-Weg 7

8093 Zürich

Switzerland

Additional information

Research area

Robert Flatt's main research interests: physical chemistry of building materials with a focus on chemical admixtures, material science of built cultural heritage, applied colloid and interface science, rheology of particulate systems, and cement hydration in the presence of admixtures.

Robert Flatt has been a professor of building materials in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatics Engineering since 2010.

He was born in Winterthur in 1969 and is a Swiss and British citizen.

He studied chemical engineering at EPFL (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne), where he obtained a Master’s in 1994 and completed a PhD at the Materials Science Department in 1999.

From 1999 to 2002 he was a post-doctoral researcher at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.

Before joining ETH Zurich, Robert Flatt was the principal scientist head of inorganic materials in corporate research at Sika Technology AG, a Swiss-based company internationally active in the areas of materials used for sealing, bonding, damping, reinforcing and protecting load-bearing structures in construction and industry.

Honours

Year Distinction
2019 Stephen Brunauer Award from the American Ceramic Society, for the best paper published by the Cement Division in 2017
2019 Swedish Concrete Award (for extraordinary achievements within the fields of architecture and digital fabrication)
2017 Concrete Innovation Conference Award for “Mesh Mould”
2016 Sandmeyer award for industrial and applied chemistry from the Swiss Chemical Society
2016 Swiss Technology Award 2016 in the category «Inventors» for Mesh Mould
2014 Concrete Innovation Conference Awards both for “Smart dynamic casting” and “Climbing robot for corrosion inspection and monitoring”
2014 Elected Fellow of the American Ceramic Society
2012 Stephen Brunauer Award from the American Ceramic Society, for the best paper published by the Cement Division in 2010
2007 Ross C. Purdy award from the American Ceramic Society for the most valuable contribution to ceramic technical literature during the prior year
2003 RILEM Robert L Hermite Medal for contributions to the understanding of admixtures in cement and concrete

Additional information

Professor Flatt holds three patents.

Course Catalogue

Spring Semester 2024

Number Unit
101-0603-01L Chemistry for Civil Engineers
101-0658-00L Concrete Material Science
101-6615-10L Materials in Civil Engineering II

Robert J. Flatt became Professor of Physical Chemistry of Building Materials at Institute of Building Materials, ETH Zürich in September 2010. While in this position, he also holds the following roles:

Before joining ETH, Robert was Principal Scientist Head of Inorganic Materials in Corporate Research at Sika Technology AG. This is the R&D branch of external pageSika AG, a Swiss based company internationally active in the areas of materials used for sealing, bonding, damping, reinforcing and protecting load-bearing structures in construction and industry.

Prior to this, Robert spent two and a half years as postdoctoral researcher at the external pagePrinceton University in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering with the materials group of external pageProf. G.W. Scherer.

He studied at the external pageSwiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), where he obtained his masters in Chemical Engineering (1994) and a PhD from the Materials Science Department (1999). In 1995 he worked in the Stone Conservation Laboratory (EPFL) on a project dealing with the in situ conservation of the Roman mosaics near the town of Orbe in Switzerland.
 

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