Professor Joseph Davidovits
is famous for his pioneering work on geopolymers.
He is an internationally renowned French Materials
Scientist and Archeologist, who was honored by
French President Jacques Chirac with one of France’s
two highest awards, the “Chevalier de l’Ordre National
du Mérite”, in November 1998. Davidovits has a
French Degree in Chemical Engineering and a German
Doctorate Degree (PhD) in Chemistry, is professor
and founder of the Institute for Applied Archaeological
Sciences in Barry University, Miami, Florida (19831989), Visiting Professor in Penn State University,
Pennsylvania (1989-1991) and Profess or and Director
of the Geopolymer Institute, Saint-Quentin, France
(1979-present). He is a world expert in modern and
ancient cements, as well as in geosynthesis and manmade rocks, and the inventor of geopolymers and the
chemistry of geopolymerization. He has authored/
co-authored more than 130 scientific papers and conference reports, holds more than 50 patents and has
written the first reference book on geopolymer science,
“Geopolymer Chemistry and Applications”.
What is a Geopolymer?
A geopolymer is a sustainable alternative to conventional Portland cement, having lower carbon dioxide
emissions during manufacture, greater chemical and
thermal resistance, and better mechanical properties
both at ambient and extreme conditions. Metakaolin
is commonly used as a starting material for the laboratory synthesis of geopolymers and is generated by
thermal activation of kaolinite clay. Geopolymers can
also be made from other sources of pozzolanic materials, such as volcanic ash, fly ash, slag, pumicite etc.
Geopolymerization is a multi-step process and the final
product is an inorganic polymer network of highly-coordinated three-dimensional aluminosilicate gel.
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