Scherer and Valenza receive Brunauer Award
For the third time since 2001, George Scherer, the William L. Knapp '47 Professor of Civil Engineering, has received the Brunauer Award from the Cements Division of the American Ceramic Society. He shares the honor, which is presented annually for the best paper on cements published by the society during the previous year, with Princeton Engineering alumnus John Valenza.
Scherer and Valenza were chosen to receive the award for their feature article on salt scaling, a phenomenon that causes damage to the surface of concrete structures, including sidewalks, in cold climates. Their paper explained the mechanism of the process, in which ice crystals that form in water containing salt are able to exert significant stress on concrete surfaces.
The article was based on Valenza’s thesis research for his Ph.D., which he received from Princeton in 2005. He is currently a post-doctoral research associate at Schlumberger-Doll Research in Cambridge, Mass.
A member of the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, Scherer holds a Ph.D. in materials science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the Princeton faculty in 1996, he engaged in extensive industry research at Corning Glass Works and the DuPont Company. His wide-ranging research interests include the durability of concrete, art conservation and the underground sequestration of carbon dioxide.
The author of two books and more than 200 papers, Scherer was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1997. In addition to his Brunauer awards, he has previously been recognized by the American Ceramic Society with many honors, including the Richard M. Fulrath Award and the Ross Coffin Purdy Award.
Posted July 4, 2007 by Hilary Parker of Princeton University