The American Ceramic Society (ACerS) has selected Assistant Professor Nishant Garg to receive the 2025 Cements Division Early Career Award. Presented annually, the award honors an outstanding early-career scientist whose research is advancing cement and concrete science. Garg accepted the award at the 15th Advances in Cement-Based Materials (Cements 2025) meeting, June 11-13 in Boulder, Colorado.
Garg is being recognized for pioneering a series of novel testing methods, including his most recent Ultra-Rapid Reactivity (UR2) test that cuts testing times of construction materials from days to minutes. He shares this year’s honor with Dr. Alexander S. Brand, a fellow ACerS member and proud alumnus the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The Grainger College of Engineeing, University of Illinois, now on the faculty at Virginia Tech.
“This award is a testament to the creativity and hard work of Illinois students,” Garg said. “We are excited to see our lab’s discoveries and inventions translate into real impact worldwide.”
Garg joined the department of civil and environmental engineering in 2018. He earned his PhD in Nanoscience from Aarhus University, Denmark (2015), and completed postdoctoral research at Princeton University (2016-2018). Garg’s group applies advanced characterization techniques to probe the chemistry of construction materials, and has developed patent-pending ultra-rapid testing methods. His honors include the 2021 Stephen Brunauer Award from the American Ceramic Society and the 2025 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research at Illinois.