News Detail

Antonio Nanni Elected President of American Concrete Institute

4/27/2023

President, vice president, and board members elected

The American Concrete Institute (ACI) announces its 2023-2024 president, vice president, and four board members.

Antonio Nanni has been elected to serve as president of the Institute for 2023-2024, and Maria Juenger has been elected ACI vice president for a two-year term. Additionally, four members have been elected to serve on the ACI Board of Direction, each for three-year terms: Oscar R. Antommattei, Peter Barlow, Arturo Gaytan Covarrubias, and Carol Hayek.

President

Antonio Nanni, FACI, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA. He has been an active member of many ACI committees, including 318, Structural Concrete Building Code; 440, Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Reinforcement; 549, Thin Reinforced Cementitious Products and Ferrocement; the International Advisory Committee; and the Committee on Codes and Standards Advocacy and Outreach. Nanni also serves as a Trustee for the ACI Foundation. His past service to ACI includes membership on the Board of Direction, Technical Activities Committee, Educational Activities Committee, and Financial Advisory Committee. He has been recognized by ACI for his many contributions with the 2021 Arthur J. Boase Award, 2018 Joe W. Kelly Award, 2006 Chapter Activities Award, and 1999 Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award.

Nanni’s research interests are in construction materials and their structural performance and field application, including monitoring and renewal with a focus on sustainability. He is currently Site Director of the National Science Foundation’s Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for the Integration of Composites into Infrastructure (CICI). He is a licensed professional engineer in Italy and the states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Oklahoma.

During the past 35-plus years, Nanni has studied concrete and advanced composite-based systems as the principal investigator on several research projects sponsored by federal and state agencies and private industry. He has also contributed to field projects that have received awards from organizations such as the Florida Engineering Society (FES) and the International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI). His research in materials and structures has impacted the development of guides, specifications, and codes in the United States and abroad. Nanni is the Editor-in-Chief of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering (JMCE) and serves on the Editorial Board of other technical journals. He has advised 80-plus graduate students pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees and has published extensively (280-plus papers in refereed journals, 410-plus papers in conference proceedings, and co-author of two books).

Nanni has received numerous awards, including the 2019 Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy from the President of Italy; 2018 John B. Scalzi Research Award from The Masonry Society; 2017 ASCE Richard R. Torrens Award for outstanding performance as editor of JMCE; 2017 Outstanding Service Award, Florida Engineering Society; and 2016 Foreign Member, Accademia delle Scienze dell’Istituto di Bologna, Italy.

Vice President

Maria Juenger is the L.B. (Preach) Meaders Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA. Juenger’s teaching and research focus on materials used in civil engineering applications. She primarily examines chemical issues in cement-based materials, including phase formation in cement clinkering, hydration chemistry of cements and supplementary cementitious materials, and chemical deterioration processes in concrete. Her current research efforts emphasize the interaction of cement-based materials and the environment. This work encompasses the development and characterization of cementitious systems with lower carbon dioxide and energy footprints, as well as the capacity of cementitious materials to produce or remove airborne and waterborne pollutants.

Juenger is a Fellow of ACI and the American Ceramic Society (ACerS). She is a member of numerous ACI committees and has received several awards from ACI for her research, teaching, and service, including the 2009 Walter P. Moore, Jr. Faculty Achievement Award, 2010 ACI Young Member Award for Professional Achievement, 2011 Wason Medal for Materials Research, 2018 Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award, and 2020 ACI Concrete Sustainability Award. She has also received a Faculty Early CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. She is on the Editorial Boards of both Cement and Concrete Research and Cement and Concrete Composites.

Juenger received her BS in chemistry from Duke University, Durham, NC, USA, and her PhD in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. After completing her PhD, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher in civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA, before coming to The University of Texas at Austin.

Directors

Oscar R. Antommattei, FACI, is the Chief Concrete Engineer and Materials Engineering Manager with Kiewit Corporation, Lone Tree, CO, USA. He leads Kiewit’s engineering technical services for concrete—from design to production and construction. Prior to joining Kiewit in 2012, Antommattei worked for a world-recognized concrete producer, a general contractor, and a leading engineering firm managing projects in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.

Antommattei is a member of the ACI Technical Activities Committee, Fellows Nominating Committee, the ACI Foundation Concrete Innovation Council, and is serving his last year as Chair of the Construction Liaison Committee. He is a member of ACI Committees 134, Concrete Constructability; 201, Durability of Concrete; 207, Mass and Thermally Controlled Concrete; 231, Properties of Concrete at Early Ages; 305, Hot Weather Concreting; 308, Curing Concrete; 321, Concrete Durability Code; and 323; Low-Carbon Concrete Code; and ACI Subcommittee 301-H, Mass Concrete – Section 8. He has served as Director of the ACI Central Texas Chapter and is currently a member of the ACI Rocky Mountain Chapter. Antommattei also serves on other industry technical committees of ASTM International, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Canadian Standards Association (CSA), American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC), and Transportation Research Board (TRB).

During his 22 years of industry experience, he has facilitated over 100 technical presentations across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Australia. Antommattei’s publications have focused on concrete maturity, durability, hot weather, constructability, mass concrete, and architectural green concrete. In 2009, the ASCE Texas Section recognized his work on architectural green concrete. In 2019, Concrete Construction magazine recognized him as a “consensus builder” when he was selected as one of the “Most Influential People in Concrete Construction.” Antommattei received his BS in civil engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, in 2002 and his MS in civil engineering from Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA, in 2005. He is a licensed professional engineer in multiple states.

Peter Barlow, FACI, is currently a concrete repair and restoration consultant with Barlow Consulting and has been in the construction industry for over 50 years. He was the Founder of Contech Services, Inc., of Seattle, WA, USA, a specialty contractor performing concrete strengthening, repair, and waterproofing projects on the West Coast since 1993. He has been in the concrete repair industry for over 45 years working in manufacturing, product and system development, and contracting. His material focus was polymer materials and later cementitious materials, and he was an early proponent and applicator of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) applications in buildings and civil structures in the Pacific Northwest. He became a member of the Structural Engineers Association of Washington (SEAW) in 1976, ACI in 1978, and the International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI) in 1987.

As a Fellow of ACI, he is active both on the local and national levels. Barlow was recently appointed to the ACI Board of Direction; is the immediate past Chair of ACI Committee 546, Repair of Concrete; Chair of ACI Innovative Task Group (ITG), Statistical Techniques for Assessment of Existing Concrete Structures; and Chair of ACI 364/546 Steering Committee. He is also a member of the ACI TAC Repair and Rehabilitation Committee, and ACI Committees 224, Cracking, and 364, Rehabilitation. He has previously been a judge for several ACI Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards and often reviews journals and other industry documents.

In addition, Barlow serves on the Board of the Structural Engineers Foundation of Washington (SEFW) as well as the Central Washington University Foundation Board.

Arturo Gaytan Covarrubias, FACI, is the Innovation and Sustainability Manager at CEMEX México, Mexico City, Mexico. He has spent more than 19 years at CEMEX, where he has served in various positions. Gaytan Covarrubias is certified as a LEED Green Associate and Sustainability Professional ENVISION from the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure.

He was President of the ACI Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) Student Chapter and Founder of the UNAM Concrete Canoes Team in 2001. Gaytan Covarrubias was President of the ACI Central and Southern Mexico Chapter (2013-2014). In addition, he was Founder of the ACI Northwest and Southeast Mexico Chapters. He is currently President of the Mexican Institute of Sustainable Concrete (IMCS), as well as the Founder. He also serves as the Treasurer of the Mexican Ready-Mix Concrete Industry Association (AMIC).

Gaytan Covarrubias received the 2012 ACI Young Member Award for Professional Achievement. In 2018, he became a Fellow of ACI and received the Chapter Activities Award for his activities throughout Mexico. He also received the 2021 ACI Henry C. Turner Medal for his activities in Latin America.

In addition, he was recognized by the IEC International Electrotechnic Commission as a Young Professional in Australia.
He is a member of the Reviewing Group of Concrete Structures in Mexico City’s Building Code. Gaytan Covarrubias is also a member of the Civil Engineering School Board at Universidad La Salle. Together with other colleagues, he created the Concreto en Latin-American movement in 2020.

Gaytan Covarrubias received his civil engineering degree from the Faculty of Engineering of UNAM, and his master’s degree in engineering with a specialty in quality and productivity from the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Nuevo León.

Carol Hayek is the Chief Technical Officer for CCL International, Jessup, MD, USA, and teaches prestressed concrete design at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. Throughout her career, she has been involved in the post-tensioning field and other structural areas with a focus on research and development, structural design, repair and strengthening, process setup, and training programs. She has worked on projects in the United States and worldwide covering American building codes as well as European and other international codes.

A member of ACI, Hayek is Chair of Joint ACI-PTI Committee 320, Post-Tensioned Structural Concrete Code; and a member of ACI Committee 318, Structural Concrete Building Code; Joint ACI-ASCE Committee 423, Prestressed Concrete; and ACI Subcommittee 318-T, Post-Tensioned Concrete. She is also a member of ACI Committee S803, Faculty Network.

She is a Fellow of the Post-Tensioning Institute (PTI), a past member of the PTI Technical Advisory Board, and past Chair of the PTI Building Design Committee DC-20. Hayek is a member of fib (International Federation for Structural Concrete) Commission 5 on Reinforcements. She has written several publications and received various awards, including the PTI Most Active Technical Committee Chair Award, the PTI Most Meritorious Technical Paper Award, and the FM Global/RMS Innovation Award.

Hayek received her MSE and PhD in civil engineering from Johns Hopkins University. She is a member of the University’s Engineering Alumni Leadership Committee as well as the Co-Chair of the Student and Faculty Engagement Subcommittee. She also received her MBA from the ESA Business School in Lebanon, in partnership with the ESCP Business School in Paris, France.

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