Nicole Kringos

For as long as people have had a need to move and transport goods, roads have been important to society. Even though the infrastructure area has not undergone the same radical transformation as other areas of technology, rapid changes are now taking place. Building and maintaining society's infrastructure requires large amounts of materials. This means that major environmental gains can be made by focusing on smarter and more sustainable roads. The roads of the future are expected to be an integrated element of society and to offer more services than facilitating movement.

Niki Kringos' research group focuses on smart and sustainable roads from both an integrated structural perspective and a materials perspective. The research group's key issue is how to optimise the long-term performance of roads in line with growing mechanical and environmental impacts, while also reducing the environmental impact of roads. In the light of an emerging society which uses roads for integrated services such as harvesting energy or supporting autonomous and electrical vehicles, modern road technology is no longer a traditional science. Kringos' research group works on a cross-disciplinary basis with the help of multi-scale calculation and laboratory models in the development of the sustainable construction and maintenance of roads and their materials.