Wil Srubar
Associate Professor • Associate Chair for Undergraduate Education
Building Systems Engineering • Materials Science & Engineering
wsrubar@colorado.edu
303-492-2621

Office: ECCE 247

Education:

  • PhD, Civil Engineering, Stanford University, 2013
  • MS, Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 2008
  • BS, Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, 2006

Honors and Distinctions:

  • 2023 Top 25 Newsmakers, Engineering News Record
  • 2021 BioEnvironmental Polymer Society (BEPS) Outstanding Young Scientist
  • 2020 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award
  • 2020 Best Paper Award, Journal of the American Ceramics Society (ACerS)
  • 2017 Engineering News Record (ENR) Mountain States Top 20 Under 40
  • 2016 ASCE ExCEEd Teaching Fellowship
  • 2016 Young Researcher Award, CEAE Department, University of Colorado Boulder
  • 2016 AREN Faculty Appreciation Award, CEAE Department, University of Colorado Boulder

Professional Affiliations:

  • American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
  • Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI)
  • American Concrete Institute (ACI)
  • American Ceramics Society (ACerS)

Professional Interests:

  • Biomimetic and Living Materials Science and Engineering
  • Alternative Cement and Concrete Materials
  • Embodied Carbon of Materials and Structures

Latest Publications:

  • Beatty, DN, SL Williams, WV Srubar III. (2022). “Biomineralized Materials for Sustainable and Durable Construction,” Annual Review of Materials Research, 52: 411-439.
  • Arehart, JH, F Pomponi, B D’Amico, WV Srubar III. (2022). “Structural Material Demand and Associated Embodied Carbon Emissions of the United States Building Stock: 2020-2100,” Resources, Conservation, and Recycling, 186, 106583.
  • Frazier, SD, AJ Lobo, WV Srubar III. (2022). “Biomimetic Ice Recrystallization Inhibition-Active Poly(vinyl alcohol) Enhances the Freeze-thaw Resistance of Cement Paste,” Cement and Concrete Research, 160, 106905.
  • Jones, RJ, WV Srubar III. (2022). “Biomineralization of SCOBY Cellulose Aerogels,” Advanced Engineering Materials, 2200681.
  • Chen, X, MG Matar, DN Beatty*, WV Srubar III. (2021). “Retardation Mechanisms of Algae on Cement Hydration,” ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 9(41): 13726-13734.
  • Srubar III, WV. (2021). "Engineered Living Materials: Taxonomies and Emerging Trends,” Trends in Biotechnology, 39(6), 574-583.
  • Heveran, CM, SL Williams, J Qiu, J Artier, MH Hubler, SM Cook, JC Cameron, WV Srubar III. (2020). “Biomineralization and Successive Regeneration of Engineered Living Building Materials,” Matter, 2(2), 481-494.
  • Frazier, SD, MG Matar, AN Aday, J Osio-Norgaard, EA Delesky, WV Srubar III. (2020). “Inhibiting Freeze-Thaw Damage in Cement Paste and Concrete by Mimicking Nature’s Antifreeze,” Cell Reports Physical Science, 1, 100060.
  • Osio-Norgaard, J, AN Aday, SL Williams, X Chen, JP Gevaudan, WV Srubar III. (2021). "Silica-Modifying Chemical Admixtures for Directed Zeolitization of Metakaolin-based Alkali-Activated Materials," Cement and Concrete Research, 142, 106348.
  • DeRousseau, MA, JH. Arehart, JR Kasprzyk, WV Srubar III. (2020). "Statistical Variation in the Embodied Carbon of Concrete Mixtures." Journal of Cleaner Production, 275, 123088.

 

In the news

Wil V. Srubar being interviewed by CU Boulder for a video about him.
Engineering News-Record names Wil V. Srubar III "Top 25 Newsmaker"

Feb. 3, 2023

Associate Professor Wil V. Srubar was named a "Top 25 Newsmaker" by editors at the Engineering News-Record for his passion about creating "living" building materials, beginning with a greener masonry block.

Wil Srubar receives $2 million award from DOE

Dec. 5, 2022

Wil Srubar , associate professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, received a three-year award for $2 million from the Department of Energy (ARPA-E program) for “A Photosynthetic Route to Carbon-Negative Portland Limestone Cement Production.” This project is a collaboration with Catharina Alves de Souza from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.

Wil Srubar holding a block of concrete
Srubar's work recognized with Breakthrough Energy Foundation grant

Oct. 20, 2022

Research by Wil Srubar was recognized with a $500,000 Explorer Grant from Breakthrough Energy Foundation, a part of Bill Gates’ philanthropic venture capital organization that funds climate tech ventures.

Pouring concrete from a cement mixer.
Tiny algae could help fix concrete industry’s dirty little climate secret

Sept. 7, 2022

Concrete is strong, durable, affordable and accessible. But the global concrete industry is responsible for more than 8% of greenhouse gas emissions—more than three times the emissions associated with aviation—and demand is rising. CU engineering expert Wil Srubar shares on The Conversation: four innovative ways to clean up this notoriously...

Wil Srubar looking at a block of his algae-derived concrete.
This Carbon-Neutral Cement Is the Future of Infrastructure

Aug. 16, 2022

Popular Mechanics is profiling work by Professor Wil Srubar on a new kind of carbon-neutral cement derived from algae. Srubar, an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, is working at the forefront of biomimetic and living materials science and engineering. Concrete accounts for over seven...