Professor Maria Mavroulidou

I am a Professor of Geotechnics at LSBU with previous research employments at NTU-Athens, the University of Surrey and Imperial College, London. I hold a PhD in unsaturated soils and subsurface flow (Surrey), a D.E.A. in geomechanics (INSA Lyon-ECL), a Dipl-Eng in transport engineering (NTU-Athens) and five university degrees (one undergraduate and four postgraduate) in languages and literature.
My main specialisms are expansive, unsaturated and cemented soils in the context of (electro-)chemical and (electro-)biochemical soil stabilisation and waste materials for concrete & soil stabilisation including alkali-activated materials. Previous research focused on traffic-induced air pollutant dispersion & numerical modelling of subsurface flow.

I have obtained HORIZON2020 and EPSRC/UKRI funding as Principal Investigator and worked as Co-Investigator in a number of Knowledge Transfer Partnership projects and funded studentships with prominent engineering companies. I have also obtained industry funding for chemical and biochemical soil stabilisation research (biocementation projects). I have supervised numerous PhD and post-doctoral researchers and have acted as EPSRC and RAEng grant reviewer.
I am currently active in biocement research mostly for soils but also for building/construction materials (bio-brick, bioconcrete) and electrokinetic soil stabilisation projects; these include industry-commissioned and funded research and recently funded projects by the EU/UKRI, namely NOBILIS (EU Grant 101025184) https://nobilis.org.uk/, with Research Fellow Dr Wilson Mwandira on CO2 absorbing biocements for ground improvement, COSMIC (EP/Y029607/1) with Research Fellow Dr Hamed Abdeh Keykha on CO2-Sequestering Mineral Carbonates for ground improvement applications and BIOPHILIC (EP/Y029615/1) with Research Fellow Dr Sumit Joshi on novel biocements for bioconcrete and soil stabilisation. I am also working on Network-Rail commissioned research on electrokinetic biocementation of soft soils encountered in the UK railway network.
I am also pursuing research on alkali-activated cements and other low-carbon cements for soil stabilisation and concrete applications.
I am actively investigating possible waste streams as alternative sources for the required chemicals for biocements and alkali-activated materials. I am welcoming research and industry collaborations in these fields and PhD applicants.

Deputee Head of CCibse research centre

Currently, I am teaching Soil Mechanics and Geotechnics at levels 5 and 6, as well as Environmental Engineering at level 6, and supervising undergraduate and postgraduate research projects. At LSBU I also taught Engineering geology at undergraduate level as well as Transportation and Traffic and Research Methods at MSc level. At Surrey, I taught Computing Methods and was involved in Engineering Mechanics and Soil Mechanics teaching, as well as Engineering Geology and Fluid Mechanics Laboratories.