Dr. Hisham Hafez
- Position: Lecturer in Civil Engineering Materials
- Areas of expertise: Life cycle assessment; Materials circularity; Low-carbon cement; Concrete durability; Sustainable building materials.
- Email: H.Hafez@leeds.ac.uk
- Website: LinkedIn | Googlescholar | Researchgate
Profile
My first degree was in Construction Engineering from the American University in Cairo in 2012, where I stayed on to complete a Master’s degree in the same subject in 2016. I moved to the UK for a second Master’s in Civil Engineering at the University of Bath in 2017, followed by a PhD at Northumbria University in 2021. I then spent 2021–2022 as a post-doctoral researcher at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, and 2022–2023 at EPFL in Lausanne.
I joined the University of Leeds in March 2023 as a Research Fellow, leading first the cement technical working group for the £5 M UKRI grant (TransFIRe) for transforming the UK’s foundation industries to achieve the circular economy and net-zero targets by 2050 and then the concrete work package for the £2 M grant (EUREKA) for the use of UK clays in low-carbon cementitious systems. I was appointed as a Lecturer in Civil Engineering Materials in 2026.
My work at Leeds is anchored in the Materials and Structures research group and contributes to the Centre for Infrastructure Materials. I have provided consultancy to Innovate UK on low-carbon concrete accounting methodologies and act as an expert assessor for European Innovation Council (EIC) assessments. I was selected for the Royal Society See Stuff Differently 2027–2030 cohort on materials circularity.
Research interests
I explore two sides of the materials-decarbonisation problem: the engineering properties on one side, and the material flow analysis and performance-based life cycle assessment on the other. My research combines laboratory characterisation and durability testing with data-driven modelling across cementitious materials, steel, earth construction and timber.
As principal investigator I received two EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account awards: one on carbon-neutral mineralised-waste construction blocks with Wienerberger (£110k, 2024), and one on the energy-consumption gap in low-carbon concrete production with Laing O’Rourke (£140k, 2025). As co-investigator I received a Henry Royce grant (£120k, 2026) for an Industry Collaboration Program with MPA on low-clinker repair products, and an Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Money Bros (£240k, 2026) on valorising filter cake from wash plants into low-carbon cementitious products.
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://eps.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>Primary investigator (PI)
Qualifications
- BSc AUC, Egypt 2012
- MSc AUC, Egypt 2016
- MSc Bath, UK 2017
- PhD Northumbria, UK 2021
Student education
I currently co-teach CIVE1465 Materials, Water and Soils and CIVE2301 Structural Design and Materials 1 at the University of Leeds campus as well as the Southwest Jiaotong University–Leeds Joint School campus in Chengdu, China. I have supervised one completed PhD project (Madeline Rihner -University of Sheffield) and currently supervising Yunus Zeybekoglu (expected 2027) at the University of Leeds. I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD candidates working on subjects aligned with my research interests.
Research groups and institutes
- Materials and Structures