Rate My Professor Mohamed Saafi

Professor Mohamed Saafi is a Full Professor and Chair in the School of Engineering at Lancaster University, where he leads the Zero-Carbon Built Environment with Integrated Sustainable Energy Technologies (BEST) research group. BEST is dedicated to pioneering innovative solutions for a renewable and zero-carbon future. Professor Saafi's research spans multidisciplinary areas including materials science, computing, energy harvesting and storage, artificial intelligence, and structural health monitoring, with a focus on sustainable, resilient, and smart built environments. In materials science, his work involves designing novel zero-carbon cementitious and polymer composites using advanced manufacturing technologies, developing carbon-negative infrastructure materials derived from CO2 and waste, upcycling plastic waste for structural materials, and exploring multifunctional sea-water, sea-sand, and sea-aggregate concrete. In computing, he utilizes Molecular Dynamics and Density Functional Theory for bottom-up design, topology optimization, and characterization of resilient composites, and advances the Internet of Infrastructure Materials (I2M) through 3D printing of smart structural materials featuring cloud communication, data transfer, self-powering, local computing, human interaction, and AI-guided discovery for self-sensing and self-healing infrastructure materials.

Professor Saafi's energy research seeks to transform built environments into green energy sources, batteries, and power lines using inherently interactive materials that produce and store electricity locally. His group also develops wireless and powerless sensors for real-time monitoring of structural integrity in the built environment and energy infrastructure. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal papers, including 'Carbonation behavior and mechanical performance of low-carbon recycled concrete under different CO2 pressures' (2026, Construction and Building Materials), 'Effect of pore water saturation on the supercritical carbonation of cementitious materials' (2025, Materials and Structures), 'Experimental study and numerical modeling of supercritical carbonation of steel fiber reinforced concrete' (2025, Construction and Building Materials), 'Realization of the physical to virtual connection for digital twin of construction crane' (2025, Journal of Industrial Information Integration), and '3D printed lightweight concrete containing surface pretreated coal gangue' (2024, Case Studies in Construction Materials). His research has been featured by major international news outlets and he has been named among the world's top 2% of scientists by Stanford University, with nominations by Elsevier in the top 2% for three consecutive years up to 2023. As principal investigator, he leads projects such as 'Towards low-carbon heating and cooling of buildings using smart concrete' (The Royal Society, 2020–2026) and 'Expansion Joint Energy Recovery' (National Highways, 2024–2025).