News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Tennessee Tech professor emeritus Joseph Biernacki gearing up for his upcoming lecture tour at home and abroad.
Biernacki retired from his professorship in chemical engineering at Tennessee Tech this summer. Since then Biernacki was named a distinguished lecturer with Sigma Xi, a scientific research honor society with chapters and research centers worldwide. Biernacki said that being selected by Sigma Xi was a great honor, as is the opportunity to speak in so many locations.
“Oh I’m thrilled, I can’t wait,” Biernacki said. “I’m very, very excited to get the first one and hopefully be able to travel to various places, universities, or other places in the country to give talks like this and help educate people about these important topics.”
Biernacki said he has three different kinds of talk ideas relating to research topics he has been involved with over the years. Biernacki said the ideas relate to developing new technologies to better apply one of the most heavily used products worldwide, Portland cement.
“I know that doesn’t sound very interesting but Portland cement is really the most used material on earth other than water,” Biernacki said. “You can’t go very far without seeing something made out of Portland cement concrete.”
Biernacki said he also has topics relating to how society might utilize cement to address the worldwide housing crisis.
“Might there be technologies out there, for example, additive manufacturing technologies that can in fact drastically reduce the time to construction,” Biernacki said. “Dramatically reduce the waist and drastically reduce the cost of construction of housing for people, not just in the United States but globally.”
Biernacki said one of his talks is about concrete and the impact that it has had on the development of civilization for thousands of years. Biernacki said that he also has a talk addressing what the future of Portland cement is with the development of AI technologies.
