Marie Joshua Tapas

Dr Marie Joshua Tapas is a Visiting Fellow at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where she also serves as a Research Associate in the UTS-Boral Centre. With over 10 years of combined experience in industry and academia, she specializes in materials engineering with particular expertise in cement and cementitious materials, alkali-silica reaction (ASR), and concrete durability.

She earned her PhD in Engineering from UTS, focusing on alkali-silica reaction - a major durability issue in Australia. During her PhD, she spent nearly a year as an exchange researcher at the Laboratory of Construction Materials at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. She holds a Master of Materials Science Engineering and a Bachelor of Materials Engineering from the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Her research interests encompass materials characterization, cement and cementitious materials, alkali-silica reaction (ASR), concrete durability, supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), and sustainable construction materials. She has particular expertise in developing and commercializing new generation low-carbon cements and leads all concrete durability work for the UTS-Boral Centre.

Her research outputs demonstrate a strong focus on ASR mitigation strategies using supplementary cementitious materials, with extensive work on fly ash, slag, and alternative materials. She has investigated novel testing methods including pore solution immersion techniques and has conducted comprehensive studies on the long-term efficacy of SCMs in mitigating ASR. Her work also extends to environmental remediation, particularly in developing electrokinetic processes for PFAS removal from contaminated soils.

Scientific Awards and Recognition:

• RILEM Youth Council, Pacific Representative
• Professional Materials Engineer certification from Engineers Australia

Research Leadership and Supervision:

Dr Tapas currently leads concrete durability research at the UTS-Boral Centre, supervising multiple PhD projects focused on sustainable cement technologies and ASR mitigation. She manages laboratory operations and delivers critical investigations to analyze root causes of concrete failure, demonstrating strong leadership in both research and practical applications.

Research Funding and Projects:

• Ultra-sustainable concrete with high SCM content (2020-2022) - Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre
• CCAA - Balanced alkali limit in cement for alkali-silica reaction risk-free concrete (2017-2021) - ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hubs