Karen Scrivener

Karen Scrivener began her career as an academic at Imperial College in London. After 15 years, she moved into industry in Lafarge, France to discover what the real world was like. After six years, she returned to academia at EPFL in Switzerland. She created the research consortium Nanocem to develop a link between academic research and industrial needs. By understanding the chemical processes behind the setting and hardening of cement, she realized that a combination of conventional Portland cement with calcined clay and limestone could lead to substantial CO2 reductions. For the past seven years, with the support of the Swiss government, she has been working with the industry to bring this product into practice.