Gaurav Sant

Gaurav Sant is the Pritzker Professor of Sustainability at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering, with faculty appointments in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. He serves as director of the Institute for Carbon Management and is a member of the California NanoSystems Institute, leading cross-disciplinary teams since 2018 to develop carbon removal technologies.

His educational background spans Purdue University:

• Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (2009)
• M.S. in Civil Engineering (2007)
• B.S. in Civil Engineering (2006)

Sant's research centers on sustainable construction materials, focusing on cementitious chemistry-microstructure-engineering relationships to reduce carbon footprints. His work develops CO₂-negative concretes, low-clinker cements, and waste-material utilization strategies, aiming to transform infrastructure sustainability through fundamental material science.

His awards highlight leadership in sustainable engineering:

• 2022 Pritzker Professor of Sustainability
• 2021 ASCE Outstanding Civil Engineer Award
• 2021 Carbon XPRIZE Grand Winner
• Transportation Research Board Best Paper Awards (2006-2008)

Sant's research is funded by federal/state agencies and Fortune 500 corporations. As principal investigator of the Laboratory for the Chemistry of Construction Materials, he drives commercialization of technologies like SeaChange and EPOCH through startups CarbonBuilt, Concrete-AI, and SeaChange, with recent projects scaling to $100M ocean-removal plants in Singapore.