Dr Hisham Hafez
Lecturer in Civil Engineering Materials at the University of Leeds
Engineering · Earth and environmental sciences
Concrete is widely accepted as the most used human-made material on Earth, making up the structures that form what Hisham Hafez fondly calls our "human habitat". Through his research, he is exploring how we could use less of these materials that shape our homes, workplaces and cities and, when needed, how to make them lower carbon, more circular and better suited to a sustainable future.
Beyond inventing new building materials, Hisham is particularly interested in asking difficult questions about them: Is it long lasting? Does it reduce emissions? Does it work in the real world? Describing himself as a “sustainability officer”, his focus is on testing whether new green materials live up to their claims. For Hisham, sustainability is a combination of durability, adaptability and conscious use of resources.
This perspective encourages Hisham to look at buildings in a different way. Rather than seeing them as finished products with a fixed lifespan, he views them as evolving material systems that can be adapted, repurposed and reused over time. In this context, keeping a building standing is often far more sustainable than demolishing it and recycling the materials it contains.
Grounded in the belief that the best material is the one that is right for a specific purpose, Hisham challenges conventional ideas about construction and sustainability. His research explores how the buildings that make up our human habitat can be adapted, repurposed and maintained for longer, shifting the focus from constant replacement to making better use of the resources we already have.