Dr Riccardo Maddalena
Lecturer
- maddalenar@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 22512384
- Room W/1.32, Queen's Buildings - West Building, 5 The Parade, Newport Road, Cardiff, CF24 3AA
- Available for postgraduate supervision
#myself
I am a Lecturer in Civil Engineering at Cardiff University. I am a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and a Chartered Scientist (CSci) with a focus on multidisciplinary applied research. I gained experience in automotive industry, civil engineering counsultancy firms and academia. I am currently the Project Manager of the UKRI-EPSRC Resilient Materials 4 Life (RM4L) Programme Grant: an exciting and challenging opportunity to study and develop high-specs self-healing materials in construction industry.
#myinterests
My main research activity is associated with the Materials 4 Life Research Group.
My interests are on characterisation and durability of building materials, cement and concrete science, chemistry and engineering applications. I have experience in bench-scale and pilot scale experiment design. I use analytical techniques for bulk-scale and nano-scale characterisation studies (XRD, SEM, TGA/DSC, Raman and NMR spectroscopy, calorimetry, laser light scattering technique for PSD, MIP). I am also interested in carbon offsets and life cycle assessment of innnovative infrastructure materials and engineering solutions.
#myresearch
Past and ongoing research activities and interests:
- self-healing and bio-mimetic infrastructure materials
- recycled and recyclable building materials
- radionuclide immobilisation into cement minerals
- life cycle assessment and carbon footprint analysis
- novel low-carbon (geo)materials
- in-situ concrete repair solutions
- in-situ and ex-situ thermal treatments of polluted soils and sediments.
#yourpapers
We are currently accepting contributions to a Special Issue on: Biomimetic Infrastructure Materials: Towards a greener Future. More information on here. Deadline for Submission is 30/11/2021
Education Qualification
- 2018: PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
- 2018: PGCert in Researcher Professional Development, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
- 2013: Laurea Magistrale (MEng equivalent) in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
- 2011: Laurea in Civil and Environmental Engineering (BEng equivalent), University of Catania, Catania, Italy
Qualification
- 2019: Chartered Engineer (CEng), UK Engineering Council
- 2019: Chartered Scientist (CSci), UK Science Council
- 2019: Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)
- 2018: Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), awarded by the Project Management Institute (PMI)
- 2013: Ingegnere Civile ed Ambientale (Chartered Civil Engineer equivalent, Italian Engineering Council)
- 2011: Ingegnere Junior Civile ed Ambientale (Encorporated Engineer equivalent, Italian Engineering Council)
Career overview
- 2020 - present: Lecturer in Civil Engineering at Cardiff University
- 2019 - 2019: JSPS Postdoctoral fellow at Tohoku University, Japan
- 2017 - 2020: Research Associate and RM4L Project Manager, School of Engineering, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
- 2017 - 2018: Visiting Researcher, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
- 2017: Research Assistant, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
- 2017: Visiting Researcher, Tsinghua University, Beijing, PR China
- 2011-2012: Civil Engineer, Technoside Srl, Italy
- 2009-2010: Materials Engineer (intern), Akebono Brake Co. Ltd, Hanuy, Japan
Honours and awards
- 2019: JSPS Fellowship at Tohoku University, Japan
- 2018: Travel Grant - 2nd SARCOS (Self-healing As prevention Repair of COncrete Structures)-RILEM Training School, Skopje, FYR of Macedonia
- 2018: Travel Grant - 1st SARCOS (Self-healing As prevention Repair of COncrete Structures) Training School, Lisbon, Portugal
- 2017: Travel Grant - European Commission via the Marie Curie IRSES project GREAT– (Geotechnical and geological Responses to climate change: Exchanging Approaches and Technologies on a world-wide scale), Beijing, China
- 2017: Research fund - Tsinghua University, Beijing, UK
- 2016: Beam time (user) at UK National synchrotron facility DIAMOND Light Source Ltd, Oxfordshire, UK
- 2016: Travel Grant - University of Strathclyde, Faculty of Engineering, Glasgow, UK
- 2014: Remediation Technologies (REMTECH) Thesis Award, Ferrara, Italy
- 2014: PhD Scholarship - EPSRC - DISTINCTIVE Consortium, Decommissioning, Immobilisation and Storage
soluTIons for NuClear wasTe InVEntories - 2009: Vulcanus in Japan Internship, EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation.
Professional memberships
- Member (MIMMM) of the Institute of Mineral, Materials and Mining (IOM3) since 2016
- Member (MIET) of the Intitution of Engineering and Technology (IET) since 2016
- Graduate Member (GMICE) of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) since 2015
- RILEM Member since 2020
Academic positions
- 2017 - 2020: Research Associate and Project Manager at Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
- 2019 - 2019: JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
- 2017 - 2018: Visiting Researcher, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
- 2017 - 2017: Research Assistant, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
- 2017 - 2017: Visiting Researcher, Tsinghua University, Beijing, PR China
- 2014 - 2017: Laboratory Demonstrator, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Speaking engagements
- 2019: Seminar at the JSPS London Office, London, UK
- 2019: 39th Cement and Concrete Science Conference (CCS), Bath, UK
- 2019: Special Lecture at Tohoku University, Japan
- 2019: ICSHM Conference, Yokohama, Japan
- 2018: RAMS Conference, Cardiff, UK
- 2018: National Construction EXPO, MIlton Keynes, London, UK
- 2017: Seminar, School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK
- 2017: Seminar, Research Meeting of the Institute of Building Materials, Tsinghua University, Beijing, PR China.
- 2016: DISTINCTIVE Consortium, Theme 4 Meeting, Penrith, UK
- 2016: 10th Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions (SAHC) Conference, Leuven, Belgium
- 2016: 36th Cement and Concrete Science (CCS) Conference, Cardiff, UK
- 2015: DISTINCTIVE Consortium, Theme 4 Meeting, Glasgow, UK
- 2015: DISTINCTIVE Consortium, Conference, Sheffield, UK
- 2015: 35th Cement and Concrete Science (CCS) Conference, Aberdeen, UK
- 2014: DISTINCTIVE Consortium, Theme 4 Meeting, Glasgow, UK
Committees and reviewing
- 2020: Editor of 3 special issues for: ICE publishing, MDPI Sustainability and ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
- 2019: Member of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) Committee of School of ENGIN, Cardiff University, UK.
- 2019: Member of Scientific Committee of the 39th International Cement and Concrete Science Conference, Bath - UK.
- 2018: Chair of the Organising Committee of the RM4L2020 International Conference in Sep 2021 in Cambridge, UK.
- 2014 - 2017: PhD Students' Representative for Health & Safety in the laboratories (Chemistry, Microbiology, Geotechnical and ConcreteLabs), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow - UK.
- 2014 - 2017: PhD Students' Representative at the Department Postgraduate Studies Committee, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow - UK.
- 2014 - present: Journal Reviewer for:
- Journal of Cleaner Production (Elsevier)
- European Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Taylor & Francis)
- Journal of Soils and Sediments (Springer)
- Separation and Purification Technology (Elsevier)
- Science of the Total Environment (Elsevier)
- Structures and Buildings (ICE)
- Construction and Building Materials (Elsevier)
- Thermochimica Acta (Elsevier)
- Journal of Building Engineering (Elsevier)
- Materials Today (Elsevier)
2019
- Maddalena, R.et al. 2019. Direct synthesis of a solid calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H). Construction and Building Materials 223, pp. 554-565. (10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.06.024)
- Maddalena, R. 2019. Effect of silica particle size on the formation of calcium silicate hydrate using thermal analysis. Thermochimica Acta 672, pp. 142-149. (10.1016/j.tca.2018.09.003)
- Maddalena, R. 2019. The healing touch. Construction and Civil Engineering Magazine(167), pp. -.
- Maddalena, R., Taha, H. and Gardner, D. 2019. Enhanced self-healing using conventional supplementary cementitious materials. Presented at: 39th Cement and Concrete Science Conference 2019, Bath, England, 9-10 September 201939th Cement and Concrete Science Conference 2019. University of Bath pp. 43-46.
2018
- Maddalena, R., Roberts, J. J. and Hamilton, A. 2018. Can Portland cement be replaced by low-carbon alternative materials? A study on the thermal properties and carbon emissions of innovative cements. Journal of Cleaner Production 186, pp. 933-942. (10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.02.138)
2017
- Falciglia, P. P.et al. 2017. Remediation of Hg-contaminated marine sediments by simultaneous application of enhancing agents and microwave heating (MWH). Chemical Engineering Journal 321, pp. 1-10. (10.1016/j.cej.2017.03.097)
- Maddalena, R. and Hamilton, A. 2017. Low-pressure silica injection for porosity reduction in cementitious materials. Construction and Building Materials 134, pp. 610-616. (10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.11.016)
2016
- Maddalena, R., Mali, A. and Hamilton, A. 2016. Low-pressure nano-silica injection on cement for crack-healing and water transport. Presented at: 10th International Conference on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions (SAHC 2016), Leuven, Belgium, 13-15 September 2016 Presented at Van Balen, K. and Verstynge, E. eds.Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions: Anamnesis, Diagnosis, Therapy, Controls Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions. London: CRC Press, (10.1201/9781315616995)
- Falciglia, P. P.et al. 2016. Lab-scale investigation on remediation of diesel-contaminated aquifer using microwave energy. Journal of Environmental Management 167, pp. 196-205. (10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.11.046)
My interests are on characterisation and durability of building materials, cement and concrete science, chemistry and engineering applications. I have experience in bench-scale and pilot scale experiment design. I use analytical techniques for bulk-scale and nano-scale characterisation studies (XRD, SEM, TGA/DSC, Raman and NMR spectroscopy, calorimetry, laser light scattering technique for PSD, MIP).
I am also interested in carbon offsets and life cycle assessment of innnovative infrastructure materials and engineering solutions.
Past and ongoing research activities and interests:
- self-healing and bio-mimetic infrastructure materials
- recycled and recyclable building materials
- radionuclide immobilisation into cement minerals
- life cycle assessment and carbon footprint analysis
- novel low-carbon (geo)materials
- in-situ concrete repair solutions
- in-situ and ex-situ thermal treatments of polluted soils and sediments.
I am available to supervise project students, interns and visiting students on the following topics:
- Self-healing concrete
- Re-use of waste into concrete and mechanical behaviour
- Thermal analysis and thermal imaging of self-healing concrete
- Chemistry of cement mortar and concrete
- Water transport in concrete
I am also open to other topics. Get in touch with me and let's talk about your ideas.