Nikhil Rathod

I'm Nikhil Rathod and I come from Nagpur, Maharashtra, India, situated at the country's geographical center. I hold a Bachelor's in Civil Engineering from KDK College of Engineering, Nagpur (2016), and a Master's in Construction Technology and Management from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur (2019). For the last two years, I worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at G H Raisoni Institute of Engineering and Technology, Nagpur.

My research interests have evolved to focus on waste valorization in construction materials, alkali-activated materials, and cement and concrete durability. The University of Oulu's Fibre and Particle Engineering unit is globally renowned for sustainable cement and waste valorization research. In September 2023, I joined the University of Oulu as a Doctoral researcher in the I4WORLD Program, co-funded by the University of Oulu and the European Union's Horizon Europe (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions). My research project, "Stabilization and solidification of sulfidic mine tailings for sustainable cement," aims to develop innovative mine tailings management technology. I'm under the guidance of Dr. Priyadharshini Perumal (FPE), Dr. Rainer Dähn (Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland), and Assoc. Prof. Minna Patanen (NANOMO), with support from our industrial partner, Agnico Eagle Finland.