Prof. Dr. Pietro Lura is the Head of the Concrete and Asphalt Laboratory at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, since 2008 and Professor for Concrete Technology at ETH Zurich since 2011. After his PhD in Civil Engineering at TU Delft (1998-2003) and before joining Empa, he was Assistant Professor at the Technical University of Denmark from 2003 to 2006 and Patent Examiner at the European Patent Office in Munich from 2006 to 2008.

The Concrete and Asphalt Laboratory is about 40 people strong and performs fundamental research, application-oriented research and production development within the field of cementitious and bituminous materials, with the aim of improving their sustainability and extending their field of application.

Prof. Pietro Lura’s personal main research interests include hydration and early-age properties of concrete, in particular microstructure development, shrinkage, setting, early-age cracking and internal curing. For his work on early-age concrete he has won the RILEM L'Hermite Medal and the ACI Wason Medal for Materials Research (twice).