Since 1992, IA-FraMCoS has been the global hub for fracture mechanics research applied to concrete and quasibrittle materials. We connect researchers, engineers, and practitioners working to understand how concrete cracks, ages, and fails—knowledge essential for building safer, more durable infrastructure.
Concrete is humanity’s most-used building material, yet predicting its fracture behavior remains one of structural engineering’s greatest challenges. We exist to advance this science and translate it into real-world applications.
We tackle the unique challenges of quasibrittle materials—where behavior transitions between distributed damage at small scales and classical fracture mechanics at larger scales. This transitional behavior demands specialized theoretical, experimental, and computational approaches.
Our triennial conferences bring together the world’s leading minds in concrete fracture mechanics. From Breckenridge in 1992 to Vienna in 2025, we’ve built a community spanning continents and generations of researchers.
We promote fracture-based approaches where they matter most: infrastructure durability, environmental protection, nuclear vessel integrity, and the design of next-generation materials.
Beyond conferences, we advance the field through seminar series for industry professionals, and endorsements of high-quality scientific research. Our proceedings archive contains decades of peer-reviewed work freely available to the community.
PRESIDENT
Dr. Jia-Liang Le is the James L. Record Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He received his Bachelor of Engineering (First Class Honors) and Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering from the National University of Singapore, and a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering and Mechanics from Northwestern University. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Minnesota. He is a Fellow of the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute, the President of the International Association of Fracture Mechanics of Concrete Structures, and the member of the Board of Governors of the Society of Engineering Science. His research interests include fracture mechanics, probabilistic mechanics, scaling, computational mechanics, structural stability, and structural reliability. His research has been recognized by several prestigious research awards including the Young Investigator award from the Army Research Office, the EMI Leonardo da Vinci Award from ASCE, the Society of Engineering Science Young Investigator Medal, and the Early Achievement Research Award from the International Association for Structural Safety and Reliability (IASSAR).
Treasurer
Mija H. Hubler is an associate professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She received her B.S. in structural engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, her M.S. from Cornell University, and her Ph.D. from Northwestern University. Her research interests include the aging and degradation of construction materials, concrete infrastructure design and construction methods, and the design of alternative construction materials from biological elements and engineered waste materials. Her research has been recognized with the Leonardo Da Vinci Award from the Experimental Mechanics Institute, the Gustavo Colonnetti Medal from RILEM, and an NSF Early Career Award.
Board Member
Gilles Pijaudier-Cabot graduated from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan in 1985 and obtained a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1987. He joined CNRS in 1988 and later on the faculty of civil engineering of Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan (ENSC) in 1992 as a full professor. At ENSC, he developed computational tools for evaluating the integrity of concrete structures. Gilles Pijaudier-Cabot research activities turned toward durability mechanics and chemo-mechanical issues in 1999 when he joined Ecole Centrale de Nantes. With the help of Electricité de France, VM Matériaux and Lafarge, he founded the Failure and Durability group, jointly operated with industry. In 2007, Gilles Pijaudier-Cabot moved to Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (UPPA) and the joint laboratory with CNRS and TOTAL. He created in 2008 a group dedicated to hydromechanics of porous materials, including lattice approaches for failure, analytical models for estimating multi-phase fluid flow properties in rocks and coupled adsorption and swelling phenomena in micro-porous materials. At UPPA he has been directing the excellence initiative of the university since 2017, serving today as a vice-rector.
Gilles Pijaudier-Cabot received the bronze medal from CNRS in 1991 and the Jean Mandel prize of the French association of mechanics in 1992. He has been elected at Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) as a junior member (1996), and then as a senior member (2012). He obtained an ERC advanced grant in 2008 and he received the Dolomieu Grand Prix from the French Academy of Sciences in 2019.
Board Member
Dr. Jishen Qiu is an tenured Associate Professor in construction materials at Hong
Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Hong Kong, China. He received
his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from Nanyang Technological University (NTU),
Singapore in 2016.Before he joined HKUST as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in
2019, he worked as Postdoctoral Research Fellow at NTU (2016-2018) and as
Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Colorado Boulder (2018-2019)
respectively. Dr. Qiu is a member of RILEM technical committee-311 MBC “Magnesia-
based binders in concrete”, and an observer of Hong Kong Institute of Engineers (HKIE)
Materials Division. He is the only recipient of “Young Research Best Paper Award” at
the 10 th conference of International Association of Fracture Mechanics of Concrete and
Concrete Structures (IA-FraMCoS-X).
Dr. Qiu’s research tries to reveal and predict the nano- and micro-scale physio-
mechanical behaviors of cement matrix and cement-adjacent interfaces, to develop
innovative functionalities (e.g., self-healing, self-sensing, and CO 2 sequestration) and
enhanced mechanical properties (e.g., ultrahigh fatigue resistance, ultrahigh stiffness-
ductility) in cement-based construction materials, especially fiber-reinforced ones like
SHCC. He is the PI of multiple research project sponsored by National Natural Science
Foundation of China (NSFC), Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong,
Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) of Hong Kong.
Board Member
Branko Šavija is an associate professor at TU Delft specializing in advanced
cementitious materials and smart concrete. His work spans self-healing concrete,thermal-regulating composites, multi-scale mechanics, and 3D-printed cementitious materials.
His research excellence has been recognized with a Gustavo Colonnetti Medal (2020) and a prestigious ERC Starting Grant (2021) for the ACC-3D project on auxetic 3D-
printed cementitious composites. Earlier, his PhD on chloride ingress in cracked
concrete was awarded best STW-funded thesis, and he was named a Simon Stevin Gezel (2015). He actively contributes to international research through multiple RILEM committees and serves as editor of Construction and Building Materials and Materials and structures
Whether you’re a researcher advancing the fundamental science, an engineer applying fracture mechanics in practice, or a student entering the field—there’s a place for you here. Connect with peers, access our research archive, and help shape the future of concrete fracture mechanics.