UCT scientists win top honours

Paper over the cracks: Prof Mark Alexander, Mike Otieno and Dr Hans Beushausen show off their winnings for an article they published on corrosion-assessment methods for application on cracked concrete.

A team of UCT researchers have scooped the prestigious Wason Medal for Materials Research for 2012 from the American Concrete Institute (ACI).

Academics Professor Mark Alexander and Dr Hans Beushausen and PhD student Mike Otieno of the Department of Civil Engineering received the honour for their paper, Suitability of Various Measurement Techniques for Assessing Corrosion in Cracked Concrete, which appeared in the ACI Materials Journal in 2010.

The bronze medal, which the ACI can but does not necessarily award annually, was founded in 1917 by Leonard Wason, past president of the ACI. It's presented to a paper that presents either original research work on concrete materials and their uses, or a discovery that advances the state of knowledge of materials used in the construction industry.

The winning UCT paper covered an evaluation of three corrosion-assessment methods used in an experimental study to investigate the influence of cracks on the rate of chloride-induced corrosion. The objective was to determine the suitability and reliability of the corrosion-assessment methods for use on cracked concrete.