November 24, 2021
Prof. Lyesse Laloui to deliver the prestigious Vienna Terzaghi Lecture
The Vienna Terzaghi Lecture 2022 has been awarded to Professor Lyesse Laloui of EPFL. Since 1997, the combined lecture and award have been given biennially to internationally renowned geotechnical engineers by the Association of Austrian Drilling, Well Construction and Foundation Engineering Companies (VÖBU), the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects (ÖIAV), the Austrian National Committee (ASMGE) of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) and the Institute of Geotechnics, Foundation Engineering, Soil and Rock Mechanics at the University of Vienna. The conference is named in honor of Karl von Terzaghi, who is considered the founding father of soil mechanics, a field of engineering exploring the mechanics of soils, and its application in geotechnical engineering. His radical work...
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November 1, 2021 / Publications
A novel use of hydrogel encapsulation of bacteria for on-demand release of MICP in soils
Interested in knowing how can we control the location and timing of the Microbially-Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP) reaction, and the structure and properties of the resulting carbonate minerals? Our new paper “Controlling the calcium carbonate microstructure of engineering living building materials”, published in the Royal Society of Chemistry Journal of Materials Chemistry A introduces a novel use of hydrogel encapsulation of bacteria for on-demand release of MICP in soils. The methods developed bring together multidisciplinary expertise in soil mechanics, material science and biological processes from three different laboratories of EPFL: the Laboratory of Soil Mechanics (LMS) (Dr Alexandra Clarà Saracho, Lorenzo Lucherini, Dr Dimitrios Terzis and Prof. Lyesse Laloui), the Soft Matter Laboratory (Matteo Hirsch and Prof. Esther Amstad) and the Stream...
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November 17, 2020 / Job positions
JOIN US at LMS, EPFL
We are looking for a PhD candidate in geomechanics. Would you like to influence the success of our high profile project BIOGEOS and gain a sense of contribution in building the next generation of sustainable geotechnics? If so, this is what you will do by joining our highlymotivated team at the the laboratory for Soil Mechanics (LMS) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL). BIOGEOS (BIO-mediated GEO-material Strengthening) is supported by an Advanced Grant of the European Research Council, awarded to Prof. Lyesse Laloui in 2018. We target the establishment of innovative, sustainable processes within mainstream geo-technical practices. Among the techniques developed at LMS is that of biocemented geo-materials. The significant impact of bio-cementation ranges from the protection...
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